The trial began March 1, 1692, all but Tituba pleaded innocent. Tituba confessed and claimed there were other witches within the community. This cascaded a series of accusations, people like Martha Corey, Sarah Good's 4-year-old daughter, and eventually, Bridget Bishop. Bishop was known for her gossip and promiscuity and despite her pleas of innocence, she was found guilty and on June 10th, was the first person hanged on Gallows Hill (oach, 2004). Several more people were hanged or executed after Bishop. The rate of executions caught the attention of minister Cotton Mather who wrote a letter to the court asking the court not to accept spectral evidence. Spectral evidence was testimony about dreams. Even Mather's father, Increase Mather, also spoke against spectral evidence. Governor Phipps, responding to Mather's request and his own wife's inquisition, ceased further arrests and released the accused witches. On January 14, 1697 a day of…...

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References

Godbeer, R. (2011). The Salem witch hunt: a brief history with documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Roach, M.K. (2004). The Salem witch trials: a day-by-day chronicle of a community under siege. Lanham, Md.: Taylor Trade Pub..

Roach, M.K. (2013). Six women of Salem: the untold story of the accused and their accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. Boston: Da Capo Press.

In this sense, the only category of convicts which were burned to death was that of the so-called "satanic Blacks" as this was considered to be the only way of destroying their 'evilness.' In uritan New England ideology, Blacks were associated with Satan. This belief was the remnant of an old European image of Satan as a black man which dated back to long before the contact between Africans and Europeans in the New World. However, one must note here that Satan was never seen as a Native American. Whites only feared Native Americans because of the constant warfare between them. "In fact there has been speculation that witchcraft outbreaks occurred when there was a great deal of anxiety among Whites resulting from intense raids by Native Americans."
Evilness' vs. Illness

With Calvinism being the dominant religious ideology in both England and most of its colonies, witchcraft trials were not an…...

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Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, (Massachusetts, 1974); quoted in Robert Detweiler, "Shifting Perspectives on the Salem Witches," the History

Teacher, 8.4 (August 1975): 609.

Frederick C. Drake, "Witchcraft in the American Colonies, 1647-62," American Quarterly 20.4. (Winter 1968): 696.

Salem Witch Trials
The event of Salem witch trials happened in the year 1692 in the Suffolk and Middlesex counties of Massachusetts. The case was highlighted due to property disagreements, hysteria and jealousy. All because of personal vendettas, a dozen or more people were hanged even though there was no evidence but only stories and assumptions by the town's women and girls. The case was stretched for more than a year after which the Governor Phips William pardoned the other accused witches because the case had become "too boring." The trial was a result of a few girls starting from Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, who were observed to have hysterical fits being and were somehow capable of screaming and contorting their bodies. No medical explanations could be derived for the mysterious illness and neither could the other girls who were getting affected by the same problems could explain their behavior.…...

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References

Frances Hill. (2000). "The Salem Witch Trials Reader." Da Capo Press

The children described, each one of them separately, seeing Sarah and the other women flying as specters through the night. The children, despite the threats they must have received from the women, they were brave and told the truth about what had happened. Other townspeople came forward with evidence I hadn't even heard of -- milk and cheese going rotten after a visit from one of the witches; animals tended by the women had deformed offspring;
As the trial went on, I was more and more convinced that poor Sarah had, in her desperation, turned to dark powers bigger than us all. It would have been easier if she would have confessed and plead on the mercy of Mr. Parris and his friends. I had seen what those poor young girls had suffered at these women's doing -- convulsions, fits, babbling, seeing into the evil spirit world -- and I…...

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REFERENCES

"The Examination of Sarah Good, March 1, 1692." Salem Trials. Web.   Retrieved on March 18, 2010http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_GOOX.HTM .

"Sarah Good." Salem Trials. Web.   Retrieved on March 17, 2010.http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BGOO.HTM .

And their could be other, more personal reasons for the accusations. For instance, John Westgate's testimony includes a tale of how Mary Parker came to a tavern and chastised her husband for drinking. When John Westgate called her unseemly for coming to the tavern, as he himself testified, "she came up to me and called me rogue and bid me mind my owne busines…." Late 17th century men were not accustomed to being spoken to in this manner, especially by a woman. A public scolding from a woman could have embarrassed John Westgate to the point of holding a grudge; and later when he was frightened by a wild hog, fell and injured himself, it was easy for him to blame the woman he hated.

Mary Parker seems to be an extremely opinionated and outspoken woman, two traits that are greatly admired and valuable in the modern world. Unfortunately, Mary Parker…...

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References

The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Volume 2: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents

of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692. Edited by Paul Boyer, and Stephen

Nissenbaum. / Revised, Corrected, and Augmented by Benjamin C. Ray and Tara

S. Wood." Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Web. 26 Sept.

As the Puritan leadership took the stand that their decisions were made directly from the scripture (indeed there was an absolute marriage of Church and State within these communities) any challenge to their processes (such as a newcomer objecting to the financial controls placed upon them) could be then perceived as evidence of a person who is not in alignment with God. Newcomers were more likely to propose challenges to the status quo, thus risking the leadership's stature within the community. As everyone within the community was expected to produce and demonstrate their purity through labor and production, this level of economic control had the benefit of insuring that individuals would contribute to the overall prosperity of the community. People who did not work, who took up occupations considered to be in alignment with evil. Women who took up occupations more commonly associated with men (such as Bridget Bishop…...

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References

Ehrenreich, Barbara. For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women. Anchor, 1989.

Hall, David. Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England: A Documentary History 1638-1693, Second Edition. Duke University Press, 2005.

Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Da Capo Press, 2002.

Institute for the Advanced Study of the Humanities. Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. Online. Internet. Avail:

Salem Witch Trials
In the months of June to September 1692, nineteen men and women were hung near Salem Village, Massachusetts, for the crime of witchcraft. One man, Giles Corey, close to eighty years of age at the time of the accusations, was crushed to death under heavy stones for refusing to be tried. Hundreds of other people also faced accusations of witchcraft, and a large proportion of the accused spent many months in jail without the benefit of trial.

They hysteria that led to the Salem witchcraft trials has its roots in the strict Puritan religion of the colony of Massachusetts. However, economic conditions, personal jealousies, discontent within a congregation, and teenage boredom all played an important role in the events that swept Salem that summer.

Salem's hysteria over witchcraft sparked with the strange illness of Betty Parris, the daughter of the Salem minister. She exhibited a strange variety of symptoms,…...

Salem itchcraft Trials
The witch trials of Salem Massachusetts represent one of the most fascinating events in American history. Although the witch-hunt hysteria only lasted approximately one year, the ramifications and lessons learned are still alive today. Questions still abound over the sudden fear of witches in 1691-2. This paper will examine the circumstances which led to the trials including the Puritan lifestyle, conflicts that arise within communities (and how they affect the community), the hysteria related to so-called witches, the power of fear that can grow out of control, and the voice of reason that finally triumphs in the end.

According to Mary Norton, author of In the Devil's Snare, the "witchcraft crisis" began in the middle of January 1661, which resulted in legal action against 144 people. (Norton 3) Of that number, nine women were executed for being witches. Norton states that to understand the situation clearly, one must…...

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Works Cited

Fremon, David. The Salem Witchcraft Trials in American Society. New Jersey: Enslow Publishers. 1999.

Hoffer, Peter. The Salem Witchcraft Trials. Lawrence: University of Press Kansas. 1997.

Kallen, Stuart. The Salem Witch Trials. San Diego: Lucent Books, Inc. 1999.

Norton, Mary. In the Devil's Snare. New York: Alfred Knopf. 2002.

law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM)." Tibuta immediately became suspect as being a witch and making the young girls become witches.
Arrest warrants for her and two other village women were soon issued as the illness spread among more young girls. And the Salem Witch Trial hysteria was underway.

CAUSES

The of the trials was based in hysteria. People did not understand what was wrong with the young girls who initially became ill and they became fearful as it spread that if it were not stopped everyone was doomed. This fear spurned a hysteria in which anyone who acted remotely different or non-sociable by society standards was accused of being a witch. At that time society had a fear of the devil and the devil's abilities that could overtaken common sense and did.

The trials and accusations were fueled by fear that the devil was behind the witch activity and he could wreak tragedy on the village if everything…...

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References

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS RELATING TO THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASAL_CH.htm

An Account of Events in Salem http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.htm

Causes for the Outbreak of Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salemcauses.html

Salem itch Trials were an atrocity in a period of American history. Several young girls, who had heard tales of the supernatural from a est Indian slave, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused three women of witchcraft. Put in that position, the three women, in turn, named others in false confessions (Merriam-ebster 1416).
This caused hysteria much like Joseph McCarthy caused in 1950 in his hunt for Communists. Unlike the McCarthy era, the penalty for "witches" was death. Anyone that behaved in a way that people couldn't understand was subjected to scrutiny.

There are many theories that have been made of the behavior of the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts in May to October 1692. The behavior that caused nineteen "witches" to be executed and one hundred-fifty others to be imprisoned (Merriam-ebster 1416). hat caused the people in that town to turn against their own? Did the Salem witch…...

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Works Cited

Carlson, Laurie Winn. A Fever in Salem. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.

Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft At Salem. New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1969.

Hill, Frances. A Delusion Of Satan. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

Lazoff, Marjorie, MD. "Encephalitis." Emedicine. 9 Sep. 2002. 17 pag. Online. Internet. 27 Oct. 2002. Available  http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic163.htm .

Salem Witch Trials
Why and How Did the Salem Witch Trials Happen?

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in the colonial Massachusetts between the years of sixteen ninety-two and sixteen ninety-three. It was during this time that more than two hundred individuals were accused of practicing witchcraft, (that is the devil's magic) and at least twenty people were executed. However, the colony eventually admitted that the trials were held mistakenly and families of those persons who were convicted. Since that time, the story of these trials became synonymous with injustices and a lot of paranoia. It has also continued to be beguiling the common imagination for the issue that happens more than three hundred years ago

. This study provides some of the events that led to the trials of the witches in Salem and how the entire process was executed.

In a number of centuries, ago many practicing Christians, and people from other religions…...

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Reference List

Aronson, Marc. Witch-hunt: mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003.

Burgan, Michael. The Salem Witch Trials. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books, 2005.

Goss, K. David. The Salem Witch Trials a reference guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2008.

Hemphill, Stephanie. Wicked girls: a novel of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Balzer + Bray, 2010.

itchcraft
The Salem witch trials of the late 1600's have become legendary through the centuries and have been the subject of much research. Accounts of various testimonies, along with scholarly studies, seem to indicate that the phenomenon of the trials can linked to both cultural and historical context.

In 1692, a witch panic that escalated to epidemic proportions swept through the county of Essex, Massachusetts, resulting in formal charges of witchcraft being brought against some one hundred and fifty-six people from twenty-four different towns and villages in that year alone (Rape pp). By the time governor illiam Phips brought a halt to the trials, "nineteen people had been hanged, one man had died under interrogation, and over one hundred suspects were languishing in jail" (Rape pp). More than half the accusations originated in the two communities of Salem Village and Andover (Rape pp).

The panic began when several girls in Salem Village began…...

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Work Cited

"Rape of a Whole Colony."

Kamensky, Jane. "Outspoken Women and Witchcraft Accusations."

Demos, John Putnam. "The Poor and Powerless Witch."

Karlsen, Carol F. "The Potentially Powerful Witch."

America and the seventeenth century in general, as a 'century of saints'. Some also refer to the seventeenth century as the 'golden age of demoniac." Towards the end of such a holy and demonic century the 1692 Salem Witch hunt showed just how much religion and religious belief permeated society. Several were accused and executed for witchcraft in Salem. While many of the accused were just victims of an overzealous society, the Salem Witch Trials remain as part of an unforgettable part of American history. Richard Godbeer's Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, take another look at the events of 1692 Salem, but from a different, refreshing perspective.
The book notes of the dramatic change in early New England's legal system because of the witch trials. The people's faith-based beliefs came in direct conflict with a legal system that at its base was reason and logic. But because of…...

After three women were incarcerated for witchcraft, the perceived effects of their spells continued, as more and more people began to disengage from social norms. Similar events took place in other communities and by incarcerating suspects the community returned to normality. Yet, the Salem Village witchcraft did not stop and took a more dramatic turn. As the number of cases of "infected people" continued to rise, more and more women and even men, began to be arrested, trialed and executed. One of the factors that the authors discovered to be substantial in assessing the socio-economic causes of the trials lies in the geographic and social pattern of the accused. Most of the individuals accused and executed not only were not unknown to the accusers, but lived at opposite sides of the Village, and beyond. What the authors have gathered extensive records of the events that prove that accusations were not…...

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Bibliography

Boyer, Paul and Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Harvard University Press, 1974

supernatural phenomena were associated with everyday life emerged in 15th century Europe and spread to the New World with the influx of European colonists (Bonomi, 2003). Seventeenth century colonists in the New World had been using charms to foster the growth of crops, control the weather, etc. As these beliefs served to provide a sense of control over otherwise uncontrollable conditions for them (Bonomi, 2003). However, the notion of dark magic was also prevalent during this time and the notion that demons and evil spirits could possess people were common superstitions in the New World during this period (Bonomi, 2003). The Salem witchcraft trials did not represent the first time people were executed for witchcraft in the world; however, these particular incidents have endured over time to represent the mindset of individuals during the time period as well as serving as a type of metaphor for types of accusations…...

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References

Bonomi, P.U. (2003). Under the scope of heaven: Religion, society, and politics in Colonial

America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Doty, K., & Hiltunen, R. (2002). "I will tell, I will tell": Confessional patterns in the Salem

witchcraft trials, 1692. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 3(2), 299-335.

To write a good thesis about this, you have to first put together what you know about early America and its approach to religion.  Obviously, the American colonies were initially established, in part, as a way for people to freely practice certain religions.  That said, they were extremely restrictive, with punishments for people who did not adhere to societal norms.  Many undesirable behaviors were not just considered undesirable, but labeled as sin.  The most dramatic example of this could be found in the witch hysteria that overtook some of the colonies and the executions and general destruction that happened surrounding....

While people often lump the American colonies together, there were significant differences between the New England colonies, Middle colonies, and Southern colonies. These differences were not only geographical, but also based in who had the grants for the colonies, their favor in the British government, and who eventually settled in the lands. These differences initially impacted how successful the American colonies were and how prosperous they would become. They eventually impacted industrialization and, in many ways, could be cited as one of the root causes of the eventual American Civil War and even some of....

The Crucible: A Literary Exploration of Power, Hysteria, and the Perils of Accusation

Introduction

Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" is a timeless masterpiece that examines the destructive consequences of fear, paranoia, and mass hysteria. Set during the Salem witch trials of the 17th century, the play offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power and the ease with which individuals can be manipulated into becoming both victims and perpetrators of injustice. This essay will explore various topics pertaining to "The Crucible," delving into the complex themes of power, hysteria, and the perils of accusation that are at the heart of the....

Certainly! Here are some potential essay topics related to American Colonies:

1. Compare and contrast the motivations for colonization between the Spanish, French, and English settlers in the Americas.
2. Analyze the impact of European diseases on Native American populations during the colonial period.
3. Discuss the role of religion in shaping the development of the American colonies.
4. Explore the economic systems of the American colonies and their impact on the growth of the colonies.
5. Evaluate the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on the development and economy of the American colonies.
6. Examine the relationship between Native American tribes and European colonizers in....