Salem witch trials

To fully understand the Salem Witch Trials you must know the culture and traditions of the Puritans. The Puritans lived in a theocracy in Massachusetts. A theocracy is a government where the church is the ruling body in the government. The Puritans had rigid rules for everything they did and the church established all rules. This strict societal structure led the youth of the Puritan families to want to rebel as many teenagers do today. This can

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D) in the trials they are people that the wealthy or influential could have needed out of their way. (Doc G) The warrant stated witchcraft as a crime and a terrible one at that. Matteson entitled Examination of a Witch you see a so-called expert at identifying witches pointing to an abnormality on a woman’s back. A fierce paranoia swept throughout the Massachusetts countryside like a raging wild fire. Because of this the trials would not view the accusers testimony as speculative because they truly believed that there was something supernatural going on, making the trials not nearly as logical because everyone, even the judge, thought the person was guilty. ) and considered witchcraft, the town was thrown into fear.

Courts in Salem were thrown into a maelstrom of speculative cases led by a group of young girls and many others whom joined in the accusing of witches. Many people believe that the girls who originally started the chaos may have had one or many mental disorders. A group of teenage girls wanted to find out about their future husbands as any such girl would. In physical examinations such as that of Bishop, Nurse and Proctor the courts used information such as warts and abnormalities in the person’s body as proof of them being a witch. Therefore the trials were conducted in a corrupt and faulty manor with little or no logic behind them at all. Written records from the church help and our own knowledge of illnesses and the Puritans can help us draw conclusions. Many of the theories can be intertwined to form a general idea of what could have been the cause but all the evidence is just logical guessing. However, there may be clues to why the trials happened.

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Approximate Word count = 1677
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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