Dating back to early times, things that were beyond common understanding always had a way of effect the masses in many different ways. More often than not, it takes the form of fear, this fear causes people think irrationally and can allow them to cause significant damage. These trials took place in the Puritan district of Salem, MA Revealed between the s and s, there had been an uprising of Witch accusations in Europe. These trials were started after people had been accused of witchcraft, primarily teenage girls such as year-old Elizabeth Hubbard as well as some who were younger.
When it eventually died down, this hysteria soon made its way into the settlement of Massachusetts Bay. This is where people such as The Mathers and William Stoughton come into floriation.
As the Reverend of Salem, Cotton Mather son of Increase Mather was a socially and politically influential Puritan minister and prolific author. He was seen as a pillar of help and security; his motivations in the start of these trials, which were driven by his Puritanical thinking, held strong beliefs in Biblical law.
Mather was one of the people who teachings caused interventions that let the Salem Witch test transcend into the Salem Witch Trials. His mindset seemed to be warped behind his black and white beliefs without any shades of gray to cloud his judgement. It was these ideals of his interest in witchcraft that gained him the audience of other great figures that were involved in the trials, such as ministers and judges alike all throughout Salem.
In his books, he defended allies in the government as well as the Salem trials with religious terms and biblical references to support their views as puritans to the new world. For example he defends the trials, depicting New England as a battleground where the forces of God and the forces of Satan will clash. Spectral evidence, which is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions, was admitted into court during the Salem witch trials by the appointed chief justice, William Stoughton to convict any and all those who he deemed to be witches.
Those who claimed to be innocent were hung following their trial or for one man tortured. At this point, the presence of a strong governing body could have brought a more peaceful solution and calmed the growing fear of the people.
Instead, the Judges a owe ten tentacles In ten courtroom anon ten solution spun quickly out AT control. This is an example of how mob psychology affected the outcome of these trials. The peoples' fears were compounded by the girls' emotional out bursts, the religious view points being expressed at this time and growing distrust of people seen as different from themselves.
There was no governing body, civil or religious, that was willing or able to control public response. On the contrary, the establishment of Court of Ore and Determiner, in May of , brought a new level of seriousness.
Norton Grand and petty Juries were formed, witnesses were called in and the charades escalated. On December 23, the court appointed new Juries of men who felt the proceedings were too violent and they would use "another method" while conducting future trials. Norton Once these men took control of the trials, order was slowly becoming restored into play and the storm began to calm. Many who were still imprisoned were only there because they could not pay the fees to be released.
Tuba was one of the last remaining to be freed since Samuel Paris refused to pay her cost of imprisonment. Norton When the trials finally came to an end, twenty people had died. This tragic and unfortunate event could have had a much more positive out come had the control of the group been enforced at an earlier time. It is clearly evident that the force of the mob caused the Salem witch trials to become so overwhelming. Increase Matter played a major influential part toward the end of the trials by opposing the manner in which Salem officials handled the allegations.
Norton Luckily for the town of Salem, new laws were put into action as to how to conduct a witch trial properly. They group was under high stress. A group of girls started acting oddly, and blamed their behavior on women they claimed to be witches.
This also counts as a poor decision making procedure, because courts hung hundreds of people based off the testimony of a few teenage girls. The witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people wrongly accused of practicing witchcraft — these resulted in the execution of nineteen men and women, one man being crushed by stones to death and seven others dying in a prison.
Dark times indeed. The events which led to the Salem witch trials began when Parris' daughter, Betty, and her cousin, Abigail Williams, accused Parris' slave Tituba of witchcraft. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February and May Citizens were persecuted for being accused of either of these things.
Innocent people were forced to stand trial, imprisoned, tortured, and even killed. It is estimated that about people were accused in Salem. The people of Salem did not have the knowledge that we have today. For example, the towns lack of medical knowledge. Also a girl named Ruth Putnam could not wake up. With the medical knowledge that we have today there are numerous things that it could have been.
One thing that Ruth or Betty could have had is epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological condition that causes seizures. During a seizure a person could become faint or confused and end up in an unconscious state where they are unresponsive. The unconscious state a person is in when they have an epileptic seizure is similar to how Betty and Ruth were unable to wake up.
When a person eats a food that has the fungus ergot they could start to show numerous symptoms. After two years of quarreling with parishioners, Parris was eventually dismissed sometime around Although he was dismissed from his position, Parris refused to leave the Salem Village parsonage and after nine months the congregation sued him. During the lawsuit, the villagers again accused Parris of lying during the Salem Witch Trials, according to court records:.
And though they did fall at such a time, yet it could not be known that they did it, much less be certain of it; yet he did swear positively against the lives of such as he could not have any knowledge but they might be innocent. Parris responded by counter suing for the back pay the villagers had refused to pay him while he was minister. He eventually won the lawsuit and left Salem village shortly after. English folk magic, which was the use of spells, ointments and potions to cure everyday ailments or solve problems, was often practiced in the Massachusetts Bay Colony even though it was frowned upon by most Puritans.
I knew one of the afflicted persons, who as I was credibly informed did try with an egg and a glass to find her future husbands calling; till there came up a coffin, that is, a spectre in likeness of a coffin. And she was afterward followed with diabolical molestation to her death; and so died a single person. A just warning to others, to take heed of handling the Devils weapons, lest they get a wound nearby.
Another I was called to pray with, being under some fits and vexations of Satan. And upon examination I found she had tried the same charm: and after her confession of it and manifestation of repentance for it, and our prayers to God for her, she was speedily released from those bonds of Satan. Cotton Mather, in his book Wonders of the Invisible World, also blamed folk magic as the cause of the Salem Witch Trials, stating that these practices invited the Devil into Salem:.
The children of New England have secretly done many things that have been pleasing to the Devil. They say that in some towns it has been a usual thing for people to cure hurts with spells, or to use detestable conjurations with sieves, keys, peas, and nails, to learn the things for which they have an impious curiosity.
According to Elaine G. Breslaw in her book Tituba, the Reluctant Witch of Salem, this was a pivotal moment in the trials:. Sources: Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of Cambridge University Press, Nevins, Winfield S. Salem: North Shore Publishing Company, Breslaw, Elaine G. Wiggin and Lunt, Fowler, Samuel P. Salem: William Ives and George W. Pease, Baker, Emerson W.
0コメント