Guilty: The Salem Witch Trials

1174 Words5 Pages
Introduction: The Salem Witch Trials were “unfair” throughout countless eyes of villagers that lived in Salem village during this ghastly era. These trials were conducted on people that were either “seen” conducting strange activity or exhibiting strange behavior. The villagers called these people who were accused of showing abnormal behavior, witches. These witches were tried in court and the judges would determine whether that whitch would be announced innocent or would be given a punishment, which all depended on the witch’s testimony that was given to the judges. Often these testimonies that were given by these witches were usually admitting to witchcraft but accusing someone else or not admitting to witchcraft and then apprehended. Even…show more content…
Our class played this “game” and there judges, aflicted and accused. There was also the executation area and punsihment area. Throughout the Salem Witch Trials, people accused others and others were executed. Everyone who was accusing someone else or giving a testimony had some sort of power but their power was all lost when it came time to the judges to decide who was innocent and who was guilty. It was obvious to some, that not only some testimonies and accusation affected certain people but also affected the whole town. My personal actions did not have a huge affect on the town nor anyone who was accused but towards the end dicovered what it felt like to be accused and be limited and powerless against the…show more content…
Instead of being accused right away and having to state my testimony, or being sent to the afflicted area and having to try and stay alive from either punishment or execution, I was an observer of these witch trials. I was not accused of any type of witchcraft or sightings of any witchcraft activity. Not until the very end was I eventually accused but more over the fact that I was not yet accused, not over the fact that I did acted some strange way or over the fact that I had control over someone due to witchcraft. It is hard to find anyone in The Crucible that was just an observer and was not accused. However, there was one character that was an observer and help accuse people of witchcraft. I would parallel myself to Reverend Hale for several reasons. My experience during the Salem Witch Trials was similar to Reverend Hale. Reverend was usually observing the villagers to try to catch someone giving any signs of abnormal behavior. Even though he accused people of having signs of witchcraft,which I did not do, he still was an observer and payed close attention to the trials. I did not cure anyone of witchcraft or accuse anyone of participating in witchcraft, I observed everyone’s movements and expressions, and their testimonies and how each testimony seemed to lead back to a main focal point, which was either accusing the same villager or stating they say a certain figure in the woods or
Open Document