Mosquitoes or Socioeconomic Hardships?
             The episode of the famous witch trials was in the year of 1962, beginning in the cold, harsh, winter of New England in 1961. A group of curious, young girls, with the motivation from the household slave from West Indies, were endeavoring to see into the future by receiving messages from a raw egg in a glass filled with water. These deeds apparently resulted in outrageous behaviors performed by the girls, the authorities, and citizens of the Salem community. Who would have thought that this simple and ingenuous activity would result in such a scandal? At the commencement, of the odd demeanors shown by the young girls, accusations of witchcraft had levitated to the scene, which is what made this scandal of such high gravity. Because of the fact that Salem was governed strictly on the basis and principles of the Bible, witchcraft was obviously an austere offense and was acted upon "appropriately." When these indictments were handled by the arbiters of the society, many citizens were sent to jail and put to trial. Nineteen people of who were arraigned of witchery were tried and hanged and hundreds were sent to prison to wait for their trial, until the court proceedings were ceased, in May of 1963, by the governor of the colony, Sir William Phips, and released those who were in jail.
             For years and years historians have attempted to get to the bottom of the reasoning behind this ridiculous mass hysteria that swept throughout a big portion of New England. The number of explanations for the Salem witch trials is very large, which makes the subject so much more fascinating. Witchcraft accusations and trials were held before and after the ones at Salem, but usually they occurred when economic hardships, political anxiety, and/or social apprehensions were being instituted in the towns. The socioeconomic hold-ups are a part of the main justification that one of the historians uses to debate t...