Environmental Effects on the Salem Witch Trials

The background of the New England colonies during this era is simple and boring. There climate was obviously cold and the winters were very long. There were no large farms, only small ones to grow wheat, barely, and oats. The men were the chairmen of the house and the women did all of the work.

The reason that Massachusetts had been settled was because the Puritans escaped religious persecution from their home land. They had a strict moral code and they lived around their religious beliefs. These Puritans believed that they had a promise with God to try and live there lives strictly by the Bible. Since the Bible was the ultimate authority, life was extremely boring.

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This event caused plenty of panic in Boston because they were a very religious oriented colony.

One of the odd facts about the Salem Witch trials was the number of single, elderly women accused of being a witch. These women were thought of as useless is the community, so they were accused more often because the other members of the community were scared they were going to use their herbs to harm people. For example, Hansen says that when Sarah Good was called upon by the minister to confess, she said, “I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink (126). The northern colonies were not for young people because it was so boring. If any one person acted evil in any way, they were looked upon as evil for the rest of their life, or either killed. ” This sent a chill through the crowd because these devout Christians had never heard anything like this coming from another Christian in their community, which made them think even more that it was the devil.

The Puritans believed strongly that the devil should be removed from the society whenever possible. What makes one wonder if witchcraft was real is that there were much more women accused of being witches than men. So when “witchcraft” started going around, everyone got scared so if there were any sign of it at all, people would freak out and accuse them of being a witch. They were very strict on this and believed that anything evil had to do with the devil. ” What makes her just become a witch over time and admit it willingly, especially when the punishments of being a witch were so terrible? Some of these punishments were whippings, being fined, wearing a sign stating the crime, and death. All of these things seem to blow minds, but with a town so boring, now we know that anything can happen. When sentenced to death, it was a hanging publicly to show the rest of the people what happened when you committed this crime, but it still went on.

Common topics in this essay:
Bible Bible, Bridget Bishop, Witch Trials, Salem Witch, Hansen Sarah, Salem Massachusetts, , witch trials, salem witch trials, Trials Massachusetts, salem witch, women accused, northern colonies, puritans believed, england colonies,

Approximate Word count = 729
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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