Notes & Notions from the Salem Witch Museum » Blog Archive » What Happened to Abigail Williams? Salem Witchcraft: the Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials. By Tim Sutter © 2000-2003 What caused the Salem witch trials of 1692?
This question has been asked for over 300 years. Although it is a simple question, it does not have an easy answer. The answer is difficult because there are numerous factors and events that helped create and influence the trials. The main factors that started and fueled the trials were politics, religion, family feuds, economics, and the imaginations and fears of the people. Salem Politics Salem Village had a very colorful history before the famous witch trials. Many of the Salem Village farming families believed that Salem Town’s thriving economy made it too individualistic. The Putnams were the leaders of the separatist group primarily because they owned the most farmland in Salem Village. Contracts for ministers during this period often provided them with a modest salary, use of a house, and free firewood. In October of 1691 a new Salem Village Committee was elected that was comprised mostly of Parris’ opponents. Decoding the Salem Witch trials, Part 1.
The witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1692 represent the most famous Puritan moment in American history; it is the one thing most people think of when they think of the New England Puritans.
Usually, it is seen as a shocking and indisputable indictment of the Puritans’ intolerance and ignorance, and even sexism. To get at the truth of what happened in Salem and to understand why it happened, we have to get a little background on Puritan ideas about witchcraft. Then we’ll set the scene for events in Salem, taking into account the political and religious strife occurring in that venerable town in the late 1600s. Finally, we’ll take a look at the trials and the various explanations scholars have offered to explain what really went on during the witch scare. Remember, Salem is actually an anomaly in the history of the New England Puritans.
It generated remarkably little comment in New England at the time. Puritans and Witches The reality is not so clear-cut. Digital History. Salem Witch Trials of 1692: Facts, History & Causes. While the term 'witch-hunt' has become part of our common vocabulary, it has roots in the hysteria that befell Salem Village, Massachusetts, at the close of the seventeenth century.
Develop an understanding of the Salem witch trials and test your knowledge with a short quiz. A Puritan Background Puritans, or religious exiles from the Church of England who moved to the colonies with a hope of returning to England to 'purify' the Church, settled most of the Massachusetts colony. Puritan leaders had hoped their colony would serve as a 'city on a hill' for all those around the world to take note of. They believed it would be a righteous utopia where the citizens held a focus on God, showed deference to church leaders, and attended church. By the end of the seventeenth century, New England towns maintained much of the Puritan vision, while at the same time growing rapidly and developing a shopkeeper middle class.
Salem Massachusetts - What about Witches The Witch Trials. Examination of a Witch, by T.H.
Matteson 1853. Salem Lesson Plan.pdf. A History of Witchcraft Persecutions. Outbreaks of witchcraft hysteria, with subsequent mass executions, began to appear in the early 1500s.
Authorities in Geneva, Switzerland burned 500 acccused witches at the stake in 1515. Nine years later in Como, Italy, a spreading spiral of witchcraft charges led to as many as 1000 executions. The Reformation divided Europe between Protestant regions and those loyal to the Pope, but Protestants took the crime of witchcraft no less seriously--and arguably even more so--than Catholics. Germany, rife with sectarian strife, saw Europe's greatest execution rates of witches--higher than those in the rest of the Continent combined. Witch hysteria swept France in 1571 after Trois-Echelles, a defendant accused of witchcraft from the court of Charles IX, announced to the court that he had over 100,000 fellow witches roaming the country. Over the 160 years from 1500 to 1660, Europe saw between 50,000 and 80,000 suspected witches executed.
Crucible. Mass hysteria. Arthur Miller. McCarthyism History. McC & WitchHs-Today. Video Petition to save a witch.