Essay Example on The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch trials were a series of events leading to 19 deaths of innocent people and children. The accusations made caused a huge outbreak of weird, erratic, and conflictive behavior throughout the Salem community. Both positive and negative outcomes came from the Puritans adapting the new land in 1692. The Puritans believed in predestination, meaning they would manifest outcomes of war and other things, influencing the way they looked at everything, etc. They believed that there was a reason behind everything that would happen to them and others. Accusations spread like wildfire throughout the community, causing conflict between all people. People started acting very strange, causing them to have uncontrollable seizure-like actions. The first people to be accused of being witches were women, during the time witches were generally thought of as women. The idea of the Puritan’s religion, the social issues going on, and the girls acting out for attention all led to the idea of witchcraft, causing the Salem witch trials. 

The Bible and the Puritan religion played a very important role in the Salem Community. The people of Salem were very religious and relied on the Bible for everything. Whatever the Bible said, they did. This ultimately led to the witchcraft accusations, and hangings. Document A, a primary document, is direct evidence of the Puritans view on witchcraft. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This quote is directly from the Puritan Bible, in which during the time they truly believed in witchcraft. The weird and selfish behavior throughout the entire Salem community left 1 possible option, witchcraft. Witchcraft was a huge rejection in the Puritan society, in which case the accused suffered huge consequences. The witch trials became so intense that a Puritan reverend was chosen to investigate the accused. He wants to spread all negative news, and cause the people of Salem to all turn their backs on eachother. In document C, there is a look at his exact words. “There is confined unto the atmosphere of our air a vast power or army of evil spirits under the government of a Prince (Satan) who employs them in a continual opposition to the designs of God...Go tell mankind that there are devils and witches.” This quote directly from document C shows how the reverend believes that all of these things are happening because of the devil. Satan wants them to turn away from God, and do the opposite of him. The Puritan bible was the main priority throughout the entire Salem community, and played huge roles throughout all of the trials. 

All of the chaos going on throughout the community at the time was turning everyone selfish. There was a lot of social tension and land disputes between the people, being part of the reason why these witch trials happened. Back then and during those uncertain times, the more land someone had, the more power they had, resulting in a ton of conflict. People were turning their backs on eachother so fast. This is another reason for what led to the hangings and the entire trials. Friends or even family were starting to accuse each other of practicing witchcraft. The map of the Salem Village in document I represents the conflict very well. It was very divided, with most of the accusers all on the left side, and the defendants on the right. Leading to the conclusion that owning land makes you rich, stated in document J. “By 1681, the richest tenth possessed 62% of all wealth.” This quote from document J is talking about how 2 of the wealthiest families, just so happened to be 2 of the families that were accused. This is because they held so much wealth and land, the other people did not like it. Another document proving this strict tension is document M. “Rebecca was from Topsfield, whose town authorities have for years been harassing the Putnam family by saying that parts of their land was actually in Topsfield rather than the Salem Village” This quote directly from document M proves how the people were never happy with what they had, and were always fighting. The not so wealthy people wanted to take what the wealthy had, and were looking for the perfect opportunity. Whether it just meant they surrendered the land, or had them accused of a witch and killed. All of these things slowly built up and exploded, causing 19 innocent people to be killed. 

Another reason why these unfortunate witch trials happened was because of young girls wanting attention. The icing on the cake for some of these accusers, were these young girls waking up in the middle of the night with seizure-like symptoms and screaming bloody murder. To the people of Salem, there was only 1 possible reason, witchcraft. In document D, there is a detailed drawing of the crowd surrounding the examination of a so-called witch. This girl was one who woke up in the night and acted as if she was possessed by the devil. What they did before they hung her was examine her, and much of the Salem people watched. Another document that supports this claim of the strange hysteria is document H. Document H shows an illustration of a witch lying in bed showing many possessed symptoms. It states, “This drawing of a 19th century hysterical convulsive attack is strikingly similar to the Salem girl's girl fits.” As well as document G, Charles Upham thought of these fits as outrageous and just to “create excitement in the neighborhood”. All 3 of these documents give evidence of how these young girls were all acting very similarly, being part of the cause of the accusations and hangings.

Concluding, all 3 of the main factors; the Puritan’s religion, social tensions, and girls seeking attention, played a role in the very unfortunate deaths. The Puritan religion caused people to be killed because of how against the Bible was toward witches, and whatever the Bible said the Puritans did. The social tensions caused people to always be fighting and have no real connection with each other, so people were always out to get the wealthy. Lastly, the girls who seeked attention were a huge reason since they were quite literally displaying the behavior of a possessed witch. The fact that this really happened to 19 innocent people is awful, but they all shared an equal part in the Salem Witch Trials.