Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

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The Salem Witch trials was started because a reverends daughter, Elizabeth, and niece, Abigail Williams, were given a diagnosis of bewitchment. They weren’t bewitched at all, but instead had a disease called hysteria or ergot of rye. At first the symptoms were nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, but later escalated into spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness, hallucinations, and psychosis. This diagnosis put a whole movement into play that would result in the death of many innocent people. The people began praying to get rid of the devils influence in the village. They pressured the girls into identifying who had “bewitched” them because they didn’t know that they actually weren’t bewitched. The girls blamed three women for afflicting them, Tituba, the Parris' Caribbean slave, Sarah Good, a homeless beggar, and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman. All three women went to trial for this accusation. . Osborne and Good pleaded innocent, but Tituba confessed to witchcraft. She claimed that the devil came to her and asked her to serve him and sign his…show more content…
They accused a new yet upstanding member of the church, Martha Corey. She denied having anything to do with afflicting the girls and requested time to pray. They denied her request claiming that they did not go there to hear her pray, but to investigate the claims against her. When asked why she afflicted the girls she said she did not. The people realized after Martha was convicted that Satan’s influence had reached the very center of the community. Martha Corey was put into prison the afternoon following her trial. Because of all the people in the jail at that time some were unable to plant or tend to crops, which led to crop failures. Some families were left broke and homeless, because after a family member was convicted they took away the land. Lots of people did not get along after the trials were finished (Ex. The accuser and the accused

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