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The Salem Witch Trail.
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The Salem Witch Trial.
In the seventeenth century, New Englanders engaged in extensive witchcraft activity. The young ladies in Salem did not “fake” their illnesses; instead, they had mental illnesses. Restrained responses to the excitement were given by members of the clergy, and some of them even attempted to put an end to the witch trials. The public’s genuine fear of witchcraft led to the witch trials. Salem was not alone in its witch hunts; hundreds of individuals were persecuted and put to death as a result of witch hunts that took place across Europe and the colonies. Twenty men and women were killed as a result of the famed witch trials at Salem, Massachusetts, during the months of June and September of 1692.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials, which began in 1692, resulted in 150 accusations of witchcraft and 19 executions. In colonial New England, this was the largest panic surrounding witches. Three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam, who had been caught practicing impermissible fortune reading, started having hysterical fits, convulsions, and horrific visions, which led to the start of the trials.
Young girls were the first to experience the hysteria, and they erupted into weird conduct that had no apparent natural explanation. The young girls could have convulsions, blasphemous yelling, and other abnormally dramatic actions. The community was encouraged to believe that witches had invaded Salem because the physical source could not be found. In this context, the word ““witch”” should be used with caution. This is essential to comprehend in order to fully appreciate the Salem witch trials. In the 17th century, it was thought that a witch was someone who had entered into a contract with the devil in exchange for the ability to perform wicked magic to punish people.
Bibliography.
Blumberg Jane. “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials” Smithsonian.com. October 24, 2007. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief-salem.html.
Carlson, Laurie M. A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trial. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.
Erikson, Kai. “Witchcraft at Salem: Were some of those witches real?” The New York Times, natl. ed., 6 July 1969, Sec. 7, 5]
Ray Benjamin. “Salem Witch Trials” Organization of American Historians. July 01, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/17.4.32