Salem Witch Trials Dbq Essay

659 Words3 Pages
An infamous episode in American History, the Salem witch trials of 1692 resulted in the execution by hanging of fourteen women and five men accused of being witches. The trouble in Salem began when two young girls, Betty Parris, age nine, and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams, asked a West Indian slave woman named Tituba to help them know their fortunes and over the next few months the girls began to show strange behavior. Throughout the spring, the number of accusers grew, and the jails continued to fill up. Later, on June 10, Bridget Bishop from the Salem Village was hanged and on July 19, five more witches met their death. This continued on until September 22 and a mass hanging ended the executions with the accusation of the mayor's wife helping end the killings. What were the causes of the witch trial hysteria in 1692, hysteria meaning exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion, especially among a group of people? The answer to this question that many people for hundreds of years were wondering, is bias, town division, and some convincing acting.…show more content…
In document A it was shown that there was a bias against women where 13 women and only 7 men were killed. Also, in document B, it was shown that 110 women were accused while only 24 men were accused of witchcraft. Lastly, in document B, Samuel Parris’ daughter was also claimed to be afflicted. The accounts are claimed as biased as during the time period of the accusations men had more power over women so more women were accused/killed. The last biased article is that Samuel Parris had a strong bias against witches as he was a man and he soon found out that his daughter was afflicted and he became more biased than he previously was. With the information accounted there is a strong sign that the accusations and killings were done out of
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