The Salem Witchcraft Trials In American History

605 Words3 Pages
“The Puritans, many of whom settled in Salem, Massachusetts, believed that every human being was predestined to enter either heaven or hell”(The Salem witch trials: a primary source of history of the witchcraft trials in American history, page 4). Let’s go back in time to the year 1690. Just because of behaving differently two dozen people had been accused of witchcraft. Some people took an advantage of this era to their own success and accused other people who were standing in their way. Nowadays, some people believed that they were accused just because of a different religion (in fact, around Massachusetts were a lot of Puritans), but that is not true. In fact, many of arrested shared the same religion. In 1692 many girls in Salem were interested in stories told by enslaved woman called Tituba. Nobody knew what the girls were experiencing. Because of the fact, they were stricken with seizures. To testify against them, they used arguments like they sent powers to kill their children, destroy their lands etc. By the way, this is a good example of how is education important in our lives. If…show more content…
“As she was led into the room, the afflicted girls, sitting together at the front, cried out in “extreme agony” ; when she wrung her hands, they screamed that they were being pinched ; when she bit her lips, they declared that they could feel teeth biting their own flesh (Salem possessed : the social origins of witchcraft, page 5). This indicates that the afflicted ones were forcing themselves to feel what they actually didn’t feel at all. Imagine the situation, you’re sitting there, everyone is staring at you and whatever you do is against you. Even your looks, your mimics, your movements. These people could say anything but it was never something helpful for the accusated ones. Simply – If they wanted to hang you, they could have any reason. They had power of a word and they had
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