In Schulz book, Margin of Error, the section of Evidence, I became very interested in the first paragraph about the Salem witch trials. The witch trials caught my attention because I didn’t quit understand how it had anything to do with evidence. I realized that back then their way of demonstrating evidence was much more mediocre compared to how we demonstrate evidence today. For example, then someone was able to use a dream they might have had the night before as evidence for a case where as today if someone were to do that we would assume they had a medical illness.
In 1692, a group of girls from a village in Salem, Massachusetts, claimed of being possessed by devil spirits. A man named Samuel Parris had a doctor examine the girls after
In 17th-century Colonial America, contact with the supernatural was considered part of everyday life; many people believed that evil spirits were present and active on Earth. This superstition emerged 15th century Europe and spread with the colonization of North American puritan colonies. Women were believed to be the most susceptible to demonic behavior; females were considered simple targets for Satan due to being viewed as the weaker sex physically, spiritually, and morally. Women who did not conform to the Puritan ideals at the time were usually ostracized, institutionalized, or brutally murdered. In 1692, thirteen women were famously put on trail for accusations of witchcraft; famously known as the Salem Witch Trails. Most of these women were put on trial and later burned to death for erratic and un-Godly behaviors, 78% of the people charged were women who were accused of doing devilish things such as; speaking out against church officials, being a financially wealthy widow, having pre marital sex, or just being too beautiful. According to Michael Coren’s Why Catholics are Right “five million women were killed by the Church as witches… witch hunts began in the sixteenth century in Europe and that between 30,000 and 50,000 men and women were burned to death for
Suddenly people seemed very paranoid and soon residents were placing blame on one another and accusing each other of witchcraft. In a fifteen month period between 1691 and 1692 nearly twelve dozen people were accused of witchcraft in or near Salem (Norton, p8).
In the year of 1692, Salem Village, Massachusetts went through an event known as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This odd occurrence all started whenever 2 young village girls encountered a West Indian Slave woman to learn about thier futures. One of the girls claimed to see a coffin by looking into a glass with egg white in it. In the months following this incident, one of the girls father, Reverend Samuel Parris reported the girls suspicious behavior. He reported that they had been crawling in holes, under chairs and stools, and mumbling ridiculous phrases. Reverend Parris later found out about these girls meeting with the indian woman and professed that the girls were not sick, but rather possessed. This “possession” spread rapidly and the witch hunt began.
In a Puritan community called Salem, in 1692, two girls fell ill. They crumbled instantaneously. After they immediately collapsed, they quaked violently quite a few times. They admitted fearfully that three women did some spellwork on them. The girls also confirmed one woman who performed witchcraft was an Indian slave named Tituba. Her master beat her painfully until she confessed seeing the devil, was taught magic, and claimed that there were witches in the community. Many people got frightened that Satan, or the devil, was among them. All women started blaming each other for practicing magic. Sadly, twenty-four people were put to death for studying and doing wizardry. Although this was a disgrace to the U.S. and a melancholy
In 1692 some teenage girls in salem, Massachusetts, accused a west Indian slave named Tituba and two white of practicing witchcraft.Puritans believed in witchcraft, and witches had been prosecuted in massachusetts several times. Around April the girls began to denounce others as witches, including a former minister.
Witches in Salem Massachusetts! In 1692 10 young girls got sick and no one knew what was going on including doctors. The main individuals involved were the girls that got sick and called witchcraft upon three other girls, The three individuals that were called out were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn, and a Caribbean slave named Tituba. Let’s not forget Sir William Phipps the governor of Massachusetts.
After community members came to their senses, the trials came to an end after the realization of what was taking place occurred. “New Englanders believed in witchcraft both before and after 1692, yet in no other year was there such a severe persecution of witches” (Matossian 355-357.). After the trials were over, some of the people on the court admitted to mistakes being made about those that had been executed (Hoffer n.pag.). Because of this, evidence is a key part when accusing someone of something so that mistakes will not be made. “The result is an impoverished, … distorted, view of a germinal phase in our people’s history: Salem appears as a brief and dark chapter... “ (Demos 3.).
By reading the two primary sources we are given a clear account of the Salem Witch Trials. John Hale describes the officials involved in the trial and those being prosecuted. Hale states, “I observed in the prosecution of these affairs, that there was in the Justices, Judges and others concerned, a conscientious endeavor to do the thing that was right.” he then later states “But what chiefly carried on this matter to such an height, was the increasing of confessors til they amounted to near about fifty.” While Governor phips goes into more detail in reference to the actual court proceedings, “When the Court came to sit at Salem in the County of Essex they convicted more than twenty persons of being guilty of witchcraft, some of the convicted were such as confessed their Guilt, the Court as I understand began their proceedings with the accusations of the afflicted and then went upon other humane evidences to strengthen that.” Only together the sources are able to give the reader the information needed, showing a disadvantage to using primary sources to evaluate history. These accounts illustrate comprehensively the picture of a court concerned with doing the right thing for their people and trying the accused in the way they see fit. They explain the use of accusations to testify against the convicted and
In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts was the setting for an infamous American witchcraft. It was the years when people are plagued with superstitions and monstrous fears that spawned witch-hunts on both sides of the Atlantic. That also maintains a wide witch panic that was a product of a community undergoing severe religious and cultural change. Besides, the Puritans had lost the royal charter that had allowed them to govern their colony free from interference by the mother country. The result was that many leaders and citizens began to see satanic conspiracies at work that eroded the cherished institutions of their already shaky society.
When the girls had fits of hysteria ?seizures, trance-like states, and sacrilegious screaming ?Parris called upon his colleagues to exorcise the demons that possessed the girls. Ministers from nearby communities met in Salem Village 懀o lead a public day of fasting and prayer, and to question the afflicted girls about what had caused their disturbing behavior?(8). Occasionally, the girls went mute or blind, choked, had muscle spasms, and had visions of frightening spirits. They claimed that evil spirits 'ursued them, threatening, biting, pinching, pricking, and performing other bodily injuries?(8). After that, public concern became mass hysteria. Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, were arrested and tried. Only Tituba confessed to signing the Devil book.
In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls
The Salem Witch Trials occurred in seventeenth century Massachusetts. The small Puritan town of Salem was first burdened with the accusations of witchcraft in January of 1692, according to the article “Salem Witch Trials” on “History.com.” The article also states that two local girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, began having violent fits accompanied with bloodcurdling screams (“Salem Witch Trials). When the girls never healed, the town doctor, William Griggs, was called to the girls’ homes says the article “The 1962 Salem Witch Trials.”
In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witnessed a time changing event. When the niece and daughter of Reverend Parris fell ill with tantrums, the doctor could not find anything physically wrong with them and mentioned that they may be possessed. Shortly after this diagnosis two of the girls who were afflicted named three women who were the cause of the girl’s issues. The three women named were Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osburn. These
In 1692, the Salem Witch Trials were held in Salem Village. Local officials interrogated women over their affiliation with witchcraft. Most of
A long time ago, the village Salem became famous. Their neighbors had started to build extreme, exaggerated hysteria when a group of your girls were claimed to be possessed by bad spirits. It is said that when bad spirits come to our lives, it is because we do not have control over ourselves, and in those days, the villagers believed that bad spirits were the real devil. In the spring of 1692, there were a lot of accusations by villagers, claiming girls to be guilty of those suspicions. They believed that the devil could be free and they believed if they killed the accused, they could kill the bad spirit inside of them. Otherwise, many villages were scared because they had never seen those kinds of things before. However, the causes of that kind of thing could be strong belief in the occult, disputes, rivalries and personal differences, and a theory about the cold weather. Even though they have strong beliefs in the bible, there are new theories that explain what had actually happed.