Salem Witch Trials Essay

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The Salem Witch Trials occurred during a time where tensions were high and strong Puritanical beliefs ruled the way of thinking. Salem-Village was a relatively isolate area, being far enough away from any other town that they had to travel to the town of Salem a few miles away through the woods just to be able to go to church. This seclusion led to mass paranoia and a fear that they were in constant danger of the devil’s influence. The fears brought about by these circumstances caused a massive witch hunt incited by the accusations against several inhabitants, mainly by a small group of young girls claiming to have been tortured or bewitched by various villagers. By the end of trials, hundreds of people had been accused and twenty had been…show more content…
Testimonies by Ann Putnam Junior and Elizabeth Hubbard say that Good’s apparition, tortured, by means of pinching and pricking, both Putnam and Hubbard, as well as Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, Sarah Vibber, and a few other villagers. She was also accused of trying to get them all to write their names in the devil’s book. She was said to have done this over the course of a few months as well as during the trial, causing the girls to have fits while in court. An example of this is the testimony given by one of the afflicted girls, Elizabeth Hubbard, who said, “… on the 28 February, 1691/92, I saw the apparition of Sarah Good, who did most grievously afflict me by pinching and pricking me, and so she continued hurting of me till the first day of March, being the day of her examination.” The accusers were all young girls of around seventeen years old who all vehemently believed that Good, as well other accused ‘witches’, such as Sarah Osborne and Tituba, were in league with the Devil and were a danger to the village. During her examination by John Hathorne and Johnathan Curran, she was repeatedly accused of being in league with the devil and it was generally assumed by the questioners and the rest of the village that she was
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