The Salem Witch Trials Essay - 2214 Words

The Salem Witch Trials Introduction Accusations of witchcraft ran rampant in the 17th century colonial settlements in the United States. The individuals accused, mostly women, were put on trial and punished, if found guilty. The most well-known of such cases on public record are the Salem Witch Trials. Between February, 1692 and May, 1693, hearings and prosecutions were set up to deal with those accused of dabbling in the dark arts in the cities of Andover, Salem, and Ipswich, all in Massachusetts Bay. These trials came to commonly be referred to as the Salem Witch Trials because some of the most notorious cases were heard in the Oyer and Terminer courts in Salem. At the time, practicing witchcraft was considered a serious crime, and was†¦show more content†¦The Trials In 1692, the Puritan Community of began reporting strange incidents to which no logical explanations could be found. These incidents were often characterized by people falling ill suddenly or having fits accompanied by hysterical reactions, unprovoked laughter and crying, incoherent babbling, attempts to fly, and in some instances, a hypnotic trance-like state. The first such case was that of Betty Parris, the daughter of a local preacher named Samuel Parris. When her symptoms of her mysterious illness did not subside with cures prescribed by local doctors, many began to postulate that her ailments might be supernatural in origin. When other girls in the town began to exhibit similar symptoms as Betty Parris, it was concluded that Satan was most likely responsible for the wave of mysterious ailments and behavior. In what has often been recorded as an attempt to cure Betty of her ailments, Tituba, a Caribbean woman, who served as a slave in the Parris household, baked a cake to find out the cause of Betty’s illness. Tituba would become a central figure in the Salem Witch Trials, when her attempts to help were misunderstood as a ritual in black magic, and she was branded a witch. Once the possibility of witchcraft being involved was acknowledged by the whole community, all the activities that Tituba and those she kept company with were examined closely. Reports that the victims of witchcraft had been exposed