At the start of 1692, two adolescent girls from Salem village started to ail from mysterious fits. Seventeen months afterwards, after lawful action was taken on 144 individuals, with 20 of them being sentenced to death, the humiliating Salem witchcraft court proceedings ended at long last. (Norton, 2003 pg. 3 -4) During those times, the magistrates who headed court cases paid no attention to women as well as girls who were aged below twenty five years old but in that witch case, things took a different turn as women were the prevalent accusers and the magistrate gave them opportunity to air their views (Norton, 2003 p.7). Norton's supposition regarding the 1692 hunt for witches at Salem village support a clash of traditions thesis and some
Witch Hunting 10.May.2014 Psychoanalysis and Art/Society Witchcraft in Central Europe Between the years of 1470-1750, a panic emerged form European societies regarding the alleged witches amongst their midst. Consequentially, large scale witch hunts, especially in Central Europe gained prominence and resulted in the trial, torture and execution of tens of thousands of victims. While there were, unarguably, male victims accused of witch craft, the vast majority of victims where female. Since then, scholars have linked these horrific events with the gender correlated persecution of women. Ties between femininity and witches have also been viewed from psychoanalytic perspectives to provide commentary on the attitudes toward women that
Lastly, it can be concluded that women may have been responsible for the witch accusations because of the low class that the men of the village put the women into. In 1951, in a small village in the south France, about 50 people became insane because of a contamination in the flour that they were using to make everyday items such as bread and pastries. While reading about this incident, a woman named Linda Caporael made a connection that helped researchers to investigate the cause of the Salem witch trials. After further research it was discovered that the same harmful drug was found in a lot of the flour that was eaten by the women who were alive and active during the time of the Salem witch trials. Toxicologist concur that ingesting the contaminated flour could cause symptoms such as
The European Witch Craze started roughly during conclusion of the 15th century and peaked during the first half of the seventeenth century. When it came down to it women were accused as being witches in Salem more than men and a lot of women confessed. Maybe women were being accused because of the Puritans attitudes towards women, sin, and the devil. There could be many reasons why women were accused of being witches than men. It could have been their appearance, the time, or the gender roles.
Yarely Covarrubias Pd. 3 What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 are a turning point in history, and is an event that continues to mystify our nation, as well as others. Between the months of june and September of 1692, 19 women and men were accused of witchcraft and hanged because of it. Local magistrates took the initiative when young girls claimed that women in the village were inflicting pain on them, which resulted in all the hangings and overall hype of the Salem Witch Trials.
Starkey points out that none of these women attend church. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne claim to be innocent of any witchcraft all the way up until when they were hanged. When Tituba is on trial she explains that the devil made her do it, and that Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and the three others where involved. Two others are accused of being witches; Martha and her husband Giles. When the trials began, many accused others of witchcraft and this lead to them accusing even more.
As colonial Massachusetts began to recuperate from the recent King Philip's War, which ravaged though the majority of New England, another event was just around the corner. In the year of 1692 village minister Samuel Parris's daughter Betty and niece Abigail had contracted some sort of odd illness that numerous doctors could not categorize as a specific illness or disease. As many doctors came through the town of Salem to take a look at the girls, one doctor boldly made the assumption the some type of witchcraft was responsible for these girls' current state. It was due to this assumption that the witch hunt had begun, and 178 Massachusetts citizens were accused of using witchcraft or being a witch (Davidson & Lytle 42). Of these over 178 citizens three out of four were female, which made this witch hunt a gender issue (Davidson & Lytle 42).
Connor Owens October 27, 2009 American Lit. “It’s The Space Between” An analysis of John Proctor’s dissent over his confession in Miller’s, The Crucible Throughout history, the conflicts between the judicial system and civilians have caused great feuds between the two groups. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the two collide once more in a setting based on the historical Salem Witch Trials, in which the theocratic judges of Salem ruled the court. During these trials, as many civilians were put to death by the court for witchcraft, very few people had the courage to step up to the judicial system and pose as some sort of opposition. When John
From the late 1400’s to the 1700’s, a witch craze spread throughout Europe, resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 ‘witches’. Though witches were persecuted all throughout Europe, trials were most popular in Western Europe; torture was a common practice during these trials. These persecutions were mostly popular in Europe but, they spread to America and later to parts of Africa. Through the evidence provided by testimonies of witnesses and statistics, the three major reasons for the persecution of witches were social prejudices, economic greed and religious beliefs. Though the accused witches were not strictly female, the accused were predominantly women and more specifically older women, older women were seen as more fragile and impressionable so the devil could convince them to do his dirty work quiet easily.POV Two Dominican monks, Kramer and Sprenger, wrote a handbook used to identify witches by the Inquisition.
The belief in witches existed for centuries before the trials at Salem. Over time, a considerable body of folklore developed about how to identify witches. A contemporary writer explains the most popular methods. Perhaps the reason witch-hunting has gotten a bad name is that some practitioners used rather crude methods to separate the guilty from the innocent. The notorious judges of the Holy Roman Empire, for example, simply applied thumbscrews until the unfortunate suspects confessed.