Within 3 months, 19 men and women were tried and convicted of witchcraft in Salem, Ma. They were sentenced to death by hanging. Besides these 19 citizens, dozens were kept in prison without any trial. It seemed as soon as the hysteria began it was over. What could have possibly caused such hysteria that was so gruesome and violent but is now looked upon as a bunch of made up nonsense? The closed minded, strict religious environment of Salem at the time could be to blame. Those who were even slightly not fitted to the "norm" of that time were outcastes, making them prime candidates to be accused of witchcraft. The idea that witchcraft had taken place in Salem began with the strange illness of the Reverends daughter and niece. What seemed to be some sort of spell put on the girls was actually their sheer boredom; causing trouble to entertain themselves.
Those accused of casting spells on the girls were accused because of reasons like ongoing family feuds, one woman because she was homeless, and the other because she was from Barbados. Out of these 3 instances, these people are all out of the "norms" of the society at the time. It is easy to point fingers at those unlike what is considered normal. Everyone was afraid of being accused, so they accused one another, causing hysteria and uproar throughout.
Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteAlthough you gave reasons why they the girls were found guilty, it hardly seems feasible that the judges, or whoever was in charge of examining the evidence at hand, found these girls guilty just because they were outside the "norm."
I'm sure that witchcraft at the time was understood to be a real and dangerous threat. What was considered to be witchcraft at the time? Did the judges have a criteria with which they decided whether these girls were indeed witches?
It's crazy to think all of the Salem witch trials began because teenage girls had nothing better to do with their time. They put many lives at stake and were the reasons for so many deaths. But how they would actually decide who was a witch with so many accusations?
ReplyDelete