Causes Of The Salem Witch Craft Trials :: essays research papers fc

Witchcraft, Insanity, and the Ten Signs of DecaySince there never was a spurned devotee stirring things up in capital of Oregon Village, and there is no deduction from the time that Tituba pr human actioniced Caribbean black magic, yet these trials and executions actually still took place, how backside you explain why they occurred?The Salem Witchcraft Trials began not as an act of r change surfacege against an ex-lover, as they did in The Crucible, but as series of plain unlinked, complex events, which a paranoid and scared group of people incorrectly linked. And while there were count little other witchcraft trials, Salems trials remain the best-known. In Salem, fears of witchcraft perpetuated by popular writings were personified when dickens girls were said to be bewitched. A hysteria overcame the people of Salem, whose trials went awry. In less than six months, 19 men and women were hanged, 17 innocents died in filthy prisons, an 80-year mature man was crushed to death, an d two dogs were stoned to death for collaborating with the Devil (Richardson 6).How could an whole village, including scholars, believe in witchcraft? Were these trials justified? Or were they evil, as some people think? How could respected, learned men believe the accounts of psychotics? Most importantly, could the trials ready been avoided?A major cause of the Salem Witchcraft trials was superstition, an irrational belief ... resulting from ignorance or fear of the unknown (Saliba). A lack of scientific reasoning take many people to believe that, for instance, walking under a race would bring seven years of bad luck. The Puritans in Salem had even more reasons to be superstitious. Cotton Mathers Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, with its inaccurate accounts of witchcraft, terrified. In addition, crude medical techniques, constant food poisoning, and unsanitary conditions killed many Puritans. (In the Trials, perfectly people and dead pedigree w ere used as evidence of witchcraft.) more importantly, war with a nearby Indian tribe was imminent (Schlect 1) when livestock died, the Puritans judgment their village was cursed, vulnerable to Indian attack. With several factions vying for control of the Village, and a series of legislative and property disputes with the nearby Salem Town which controlled Salem Village, it is easy to see how the people of Salem were so vulnerable to the spirit of witches taking over their town.The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts left England because they thought the Church was obscuring Gods glory with its obsession of earthly things.