Salem Witch Trials Reader Essay

Salem Witch Trials

The event of Salem witch trials happened in the year 1692 in the Suffolk and Middlesex counties of Massachusetts. The case was highlighted due to property disagreements, hysteria and jealousy. All because of personal vendettas, a dozen or more people were hanged even though there was no evidence but only stories and assumptions by the town's women and girls. The case was stretched for more than a year after which the Governor Phips William pardoned the other accused witches because the case had become "too boring." The trial was a result of a few girls starting from Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, who were observed to have hysterical fits being and were somehow capable of screaming and contorting their bodies. No medical explanations could be derived for the mysterious illness and neither could the other girls who were getting affected by the same problems could explain their behavior. Hence the women and girls of the county blamed their neighbors, servants and presumed enemies for practicing witchcraft on them. These accusations eventually lead to what we refer as the historical event of the Salem Witch Trials.

Several explanations have been provided in the book as to what were the underlying factors which caused such an apprising the two counties. One would be the explosion of various inconsistencies between the prospering mercantile strata and the common people who were still associated with the economy based on land, which was the property of the merchants "were achieved at the expense of the farmers" (Hill.93). The book also accounts for the overpowering number of accusations made by the women and girls of the area based on their suspicion. In general the book argues that the Salem town was far more forward and wealthier than the Salem village. The Puritan religion, which was followed more thoroughly in the Salem village forbade

Any form of entertainment, hence the town was more open to different and new possibilities than the village. For instance, one of the first few who were hanged in suspicion of witchcraft was Bridget Bishop, who owned a cider shop in the village which was not licensed.

In the book we also see that there were personal vendettas in relation to the issues of the ownership of land the inheritance process. The author makes an observation that all those who were accused of witch craft were situated in town of Salem, and all those who accused were more prominently placed in the village side of Salem and hence the meeting house was closer to the village as well. This automatically connects to Rev. Parris in a sense that those who were the accusers connected themselves as the supporters of Rev. Parris and the accused including their relatives formed the….....