...Hemphill, C. Dallett. "Women in Court: Sex-Role Differentiation in Salem, Massachusetts, 1636 to 1683." The William and Mary Quarterly 39, no. 1 (1982): 164-75. This source pints out the fact that men held power and authority over women since the beginning of Salem and throughout its development. The law was enforced by patriarchal figures and women were subjects who were expected to follow it. While Salem was a patriarchal society, it surprisingly also allowed women to testify in court and were active in their duties outside of the household. Women were aware of the social issues that surrounded them. This source shows the shift that occurred in Salem and caused women to eventually feel “economically helpless”. The experience of abuse between...
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...innocent people in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. There is a great deal of speculation around the actual causes of the Salem witch trials. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, had the theory that “the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity...
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...tremendous role in the Salem witch trials causing chaos and terror. Abigail Williams abuses the witch trials to her advantage by accusing people of witchcraft, thus striking fear into people. When Danforth, the deputy governor of Massachusetts, arrives in Salem, he was given judicial power that affects Salem’s courthouse and as well as Salem’s society. In Salem’s society, Judge Danforth has the ability to make the verdict in court without any question by the people of Salem, and he could also give anyone he believes to be a “witch” a death sentence. Abigail and her friends, a group of other young girls in Salem who want to protect...
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...Between February 1962 and May 1693, a series of executions, known as the Salem Witch Trials, occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. One of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the trials resulted in accusations being brought against around 200 people, 19 of whom were found guilty and executed. The motivations behind these hearings serve as a subject of debate among historians. Puritan beliefs held by the residents of Salem resulted in an extreme fear of witchcraft for nearly every member of the village. However, many of the executed, accused witches had individuals who stood to gain from their deaths. This essay investigates the extent of which the trials were affected by religion compared to politics. By analyzing both primary and secondary...
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...The Crucible In the tragedy play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller there were a lot of characters involved with the Salem witch trials, but there were only three characters who were responsible for it. The Crucible is about the Salem witch trials who several young girls were supposedly afflicted by witchcraft. And so the girls accused innocent people in their town for witchcraft also mostly accusing people who they or their families dislike so they would be hanged. In total 20 people were killed due to the witch trials. The three characters who were responsible for the Salem witch trials are Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, and Betty Parris. Abigail Williams has most part why the witch trials started because she knew this was all a...
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...Without question, every October 31st, the town of Salem Massachusetts comes alive with would be revelers decked in all manner of costumes from the most grotesque to the truly bizarre. These masquerades are often highlighted by an over indulgence of persons assuming the persona of witches. Intriguingly, they may even assume the personas of victims of the Salem Witch Trials such as Giles Corry or Sarah Good. Some will undoubtedly plaster their faces with green makeup while others will bring a broom or perhaps even a black cat to serve as a witches’ familiar. While witnessing this morbid revelry, one cannot help but ponder, where does this fascination with witches come from, and why does Salem Massachusetts seem to serve as the epicenter for this...
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...characters impact the plot of the play significantly. In situations of mass hysteria such as the Salem witch trials every word on the topic is believed to be the truth. Giles Corey says that he is worried because his wife is reading books everyone immediately assumes it is witchcraft. When Mary Warren is being set up to look like a witch and confesses that she works with the devil out of fear of being hanged she provides the judges with false information that Lucifer is in Salem. Tituba confesses that she works with the devil making anyone that is accused of being a witch that doesn’t confess seem guilty. These minor characters’ actions are the reason the Salem witch trials found so many innocent people guilty....
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...The Salem Witch trials, which took place in Massachusetts between the years of 1692 and 1693, have long been viewed as a mystery due to the sudden erratic behaviors and harsh punishments placed on those who were tried as “witches”. During the Salem Witch Trials, over two-hundred people were arrested for showing signs of witchcraft, which included biting, scratching, and screaming. Of the two-hundred who were arrested, nineteen were hanged and one was stoned to death. As Emerson W. Baker – an archaeologist who specializes in the study of the Salem Witch Trials – explained in his book A Storm of Witchcraft, that the witch trials were caused by a “perfect storm” of three big problems. (Baker) The main causes of the Salem Witch Trials were harsh winter weather, political discord, and religion....
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...Purifying Impurities: The Building Block to Evil The events based around witches are very historical and a dynamic series of changes that built upon each other and allowed for the witch hunts and trials in Salem Massachusetts to evolve from eradicating impurities in an apparent pure society, to opportunistic hunting within an impure society, which ultimately built up to its demise in 1693. The citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were predominately Puritan, whom were very strict and abide very closely to the Bible due to their belief of predestination; this behavior, conjuncted with the influence of Britain on the colonies led to the rise of witch hunts in Salem. After the influence came from Britain, the Puritans began many witch hunts due to...
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...Witch-Hunts, Then and Now Witch-Hunts, Then and Now, is the topic I have chosen for my research paper, which will define similarities and differences between the “Salem Witch Trials” and “The Second Red Scare”. The actions that took place during both events played on the fears of citizens to further the personal, political and social agendas of those individuals that conducted the trials. These two events are just two examples of how history repeated itself, where hysteria of the masses has been used as justification to trample on the basic rights that we, as humans, have come to believe as essential to our lives. I chose this research project because the effect of the McCarthy era tactics that infringed on the Constitutional rights of many Americans can be seen today in the policies and actions implemented since September 11, 2001. As an American, I am disturbed to see that we as a people and our government appear not to have learned from our past. During the eras of the Salem Witch Trials and that of McCarthyism, there existed a fear that the values of each society were being threatened from both internal and external entities. During the Court of Oyer and Terminer, influential members of the Salem community used the trials to punish ministers with in the colony who were seen as tolerant to other religions. There was a movement within the colony to relax the strict customs of the Puritans, but the community leaders wanted to maintain a tight control on their spiritual beliefs...
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...Ryan Hasenbeck American Experience Family Feud in Salem In 1692, nineteen people were tried and executed as witches and hundreds more spent months in jail as accused witches. No one knows what exactly caused these Salem Witch Trials, but there are many theories ranging from the most ignored girls of Salem wanting power to actual witchcraft. The most likely theory about these trials however, is that there was a rivalry in Salem politics. Two families, the Putnams and the Porters dominated Salem politics, and there is evidence that the Witch Trials were a method used by one family to attack the other. A power struggle between the two most powerful families in Salem evidently caused the hysteria of the witch trials because the Putnams felt overshadowed by the Porters, the Minister supported by the Putnams was losing power, and there is a relationship in the location of the accusers of witchcraft verses the accused and defenders of the accused. Salem was a very split colony, dominated by two powerful families, the Porters, and the Putnams who lived in their shadow. There is evidence that proves...
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...The Salem witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts from June through September of 1692. During the Salem witch trials nineteen women and men were convicted of witchcraft, hundreds of others were accused, and dozens spent months in jail without a trial. The witch trials were first brought about when a young girl named Betty Parris became ill and showing a lot of strange symptoms. William Griggs, a doctor who came to examine her came up with a diagnosis but could not find anything wrong so he then suggested that it may be a supernatural cause for her illness. There was also an Indian war going on less than 70 miles away and people thought that the devil had been there and was now headed to Salem. Shortly after Tituba, a slave from Barbados, was accused of witchcraft and later confessed, making the witch theories to be more believable. More and more girls were being affected by the witches in Salem. A lot of the evidence pointed towards Tituba because she had been known to tell the girls in Salem about...
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...The Grudge Trials In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Miller shows the reader that rivalries and grudges can drive people to do crazy things. In The Crucible, the puritan community of 1600s Salem received a chance to reap revenge on people they had problems and disputes with by accusing others of witchcraft, which would either leave the accused dead or their name ruined. Everyone from Thomas Putnam, a land owner greedy for land, to Abigail Williams, a teenager involved in adultery, accused others due to personal rivalries and grudges. Abigail Williams is most known for accusing Elizabeth Proctor, a religious woman and wife of the man with whom Abigail had the affair. When Elizabeth hears of the incident, she immediately fires Abigail, which leads Abigail to believe that Elizabeth is cold and callous. Abigail’s jealousy of Elizabeth leads her to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft and she has Mary Warren, a servant to the Proctors, place a poppet, or small doll, made to be Abigail with a needle in her side, into the Proctor’s home. With this happening, Elizabeth believes that Abigail “thinks to take my place” (II.384) as John’s wife by ensuring she is hung. It is Abigail’s personal rivalry with Elizabeth over John’s attention that sets the stage for others to seek vengeance in court. Thomas Putnam is a wealthy land owner in Salem greedy for as much land as he can buy. Putnam and his family accuse Francis Nurse, an amicable man, due to a desire for Nurse’s land. Putnam...
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...truth? The Salem Witch Trials and The Rosewood Massacre are perfect examples of the innocent killings. During the Salem Witch Trials, people were killing others because thoughts of witchcraft were occurring, and during the Rosewood Massacre, innocent people were killed because women said she was raped. On January 1, 1923 the massacre took place in a small town heavily populated by African Americans in central Florida (Goodloe). The massacre was caused by a rumor that Franny Taylor, a white female, was allegedly raped by, the escaped criminal, Jesse Hunter and his accomplices Aaron Carrier and Sam Carter(Goodloe). On January 4th a group of 20-30 Caucasian males arrived at the Carrier...
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...Witchcraft has played an outstanding role in the history of America’s system of justice and has given us a representation that shared experiences and beliefs can lead to disastrous things. While the film, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, depicts the overall history of the Salem Witch Trials, it does have historical inaccuracies within the characters and their relationships that change the way we perceive history. Witchcraft has been present since the Paleolithic period but it began to show up in colonial America in the middle of the 17th century. It became a capital offense as far back as 1642. Shortly after becoming a law, the first execution was made in Connecticut. This case was disturbing because it influenced everyone, in puritan societies, to believe that Satan was close at hand and physically able to act in the real world.. At the time, Salem was a Puritan community in which was built upon those who fled religious execution therefore the religious authority and the government was not separate. Those who would question local authority were blamed for questioning royal authority. Eventually the hysteria spread to Massachusetts in 1692 after two young girls had been acting in alarming and been in physical pain. The physician concluded that the girls were not victims of a physical or mental illness but victims of witchcraft.2. These two girls were Abigail Williams and Betty Parris. Abigail Williams, who was 11 years of age, had a...
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