Invisible Salem Research Paper

Salem Village was one of many non-urban inhabitants. They were looked upon as country folk because of their interests and beliefs in the church and growing tobacco to survive in this new land. There was not much for children to do except go to church, work on the fields, or go to school. You can imagine how bored these children can get. In such a secluded lifestyle as this, you would be a crazy person if you were at all different, and this episode would be so different that it would be traumatic to the people of this small village. Traumatic as it was, I believe the people just did not know how to react in such a situation.

I think The Girls,The Minister,Tituba, and The Townspeople are most to blame for The Salem Witch Crisis of 1692.

What really happened during Salem 1692? Many questions still haunt many Americans in the beginning of the twenty-first century. During 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear about satanic afflictions, like the same way everyone else feels about terrorism around the world today. Everything about witchcraft outbreak during that year was strange. Many responses to the information were never answered during the late seventeenth-century when the witchcraft crisis occurred. During this time there were horrifyingly Indian attacks that mainly scared northern frontier of settlers, refugees, and also the main accusers of witches these groups all fled to communities like Salem. But on the other side colony’s leaders were very defensive about

The Salem Witch Hunt began on March 1, 1692. Three women were questioned on this day about if they were witches or not. Hundreds of people in and around Salem, Massachusetts for the next 15 months, 20 of them were executed. There was an English Christian sect that came to the U.S. for their religious freedom. They were the Puritans, like most Christian groups, they believed that an evil force called the devil tries to influence human behaviors. These groups considered witches to be the devils helpers on Earth. January 1692, 9-year-old Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin, Abigail Williams were beginning to act strangely. Shortly after, other girls started to act strange as well. One would flap their arms like a bird. One would bark like

The Salem Witch Trails are known worldwide. The trials are said to be “a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft” (Wikipedia). Everyone has heard the stories about the women, men, and children accused, trialed, and killed over the rumors of witch craft. Did all these people really believe in powers given to them from the Devil? I believe, with the research I’ve conducted, that there was more than just the Devil and his powers involved; delusions, tall tales from slaves, the spiritual beliefs of the puritans, and the head strong women are a big part in why the people of Salem believed in witch craft four centuries ago.

The Salem witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts and began around spring of 1692 (History). They started when a group of young Puritan girls believed that they were possessed by the devil, and they accused many innocent people of witchcraft. This lead to trials being held, and almost always would the witch be deemed guilty. During this time period, they would use various forms of evidence to prove someone guilty that are not seen today, and a good example of this is in The Wonders of the Invisible World written by Cotton Mather. In their trials they would strange methods of evidence to prove a person guilty, and obviously there is no way that this is seen in our modern society today.

The Truth: The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and were named as so because they were a series of cases accusing people of Witchcraft occurring in Salem, Massachusetts. These trials were brought on due to the strange behavior of many of the young girls of Salem. During this time period it was not rare for people to be concerned about the Devil trying to destroy Christian towns and people, and the community of Salem was a highly religious town. After playing a fortune-telling game, many teenage girls became ill. They all suffered from similar symptoms including "fits," fever, contorting in pain, and hiding under furniture. In February of 1692, Salem's Reverend Samuel Parris arranged for the afflicted girls to be examined by a doctor, and the

Running Head: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS The Beginnings of The Salem Witch Trials Cameron Fritts Kankakee Valley High School The Beginnings of the Salem Witch Trials Cameron Fritts Kankakee Valley High School Introduction The Salem Witch Trials were portrayed in The Crucible as being sparked by the sickness of Betty Parris and the accusations of many girls dancing in the woods with Tituba but, what really sparked the trials? Betty along with other girls of Salem had uncontrollable outbursts of screaming and violent contortions. These symptoms were diagnosed as bewitchment.

Looking back to the time of the Salem Witch Hunts, any reasonable person would conclude that those people had gone completely insane. So many citizens were slaughtered merely for the accusation of being a witch. What we may not realize now, is that witch hunts are still very prevalent in our society. Even in this day and age hundreds of thousands of people are persecuted unjustly. The prime example of a witch hunt that has gone on for hundreds of years and is still incredibly prevalent today is the witch hunt, or persecution against Christianity. There are those that believe the persecution of Christians is at an all time high and there are those who feel Christians aren’t necessarily targeted anymore today than they have been throughout history;

While Puritan religious beliefs did contribute to the Salem Witch Trials, it was only to a minor extent as, rather than being the true source of the witchcraft fear, they were used by New England authorities to manipulate and control the public. In the 1600s, religion was the cornerstone of Puritan society, a denomination that originated in England and was established in America with the migration of approximately 9,000 colonists between 1630 and 1645. Already superstitious, with a Christian Church that preached of a God who protected his servants, and a Devil who preyed on the weak, society’s fears were intensified

The Puritans during the witch hunt believed that women were unholy by nature and felt that women should be “sweet” and responsible, and if you didn’t act as such they would accuse you of being a witch. They lived under harsh rules and brought the same intolerance they had from fleeing England to escape to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Majority of the accusations of being a witch were women but not all. An Indian woman named Tituba that was purchased from the Barbados by Samuel Parris was being a witch. She had very good knowledge of the supernatural and they began to suspect her of being accused for witchcraft or

Throughout the 1600s, Puritan (protestant christians) chiefs lead their English immigrants to New England to practice their religion in a respectful environment. This group of people set high standards for themselves due to the strict rules given from their beliefs, and also strictly referred to the Bible believing every word from the text was the word of God. Although the positive spirits are not the only power they believed in, such as the Devil. The Devil has an intoxicating, dark power, such as taking over a weak body through the mind and recruiting it to become a witch, so throughout the 17th century people were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. There were certain characteristics that presented evidence was admissions, unusual physical

Einstein once said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who do nothing” (Gurteen). The Salem witch trials began in the Spring of 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. A group of young girls, who claimed to be possessed by the devil, began accusing a few women of witchcraft, which caused hysteria among the people in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Approximately 150 people were convicted of practicing witchcraft, 19 were hanged at Gallows Hill, and others died in captivity (“Salem Witch Trials”). These tragic events lead to the convictions of many innocent people in Salem Village and later in Salem Town, Ipswich, Gloucester, and other towns (Brooks). The Salem witch trials are a

Salem Telephone Company, a regulated utility, received permission from the state Public Service Commission to establish Salem Data Services. Salem Data Services would provide data processing services for the telephone company as well as outside companies. Unlike Salem Telephone, Salem Data Services would not be a regulated utility and would be considered a separate entity. While the intention would be that the profit from Salem Data would ease pressures to raise telephone prices, the company had yet to produce a single profitable month. Finally, a meeting took place between Salem Telephone President and the manager of Salem Data Services to discuss the future of Salem Data Services (Bruns & Hertenstein, 2005).

The Visible and Invisible Worlds of Salem by James Davidson elaborates on the effects of the Puritans being so driven by fear that they made obscured accusations which led to the termination of many innocent people. The Puritans were so deep in their faith, they became hysterically obsessed with trying to get rid of witchcraft. While everyone was pointing fingers at who committed their crimes, there was never actual hard evidence. These accusations were becoming rampant and many people were effected from them.