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Austin Harmon
Mr. Taylor
English III
14 September 2014

Salem Witch trials

The Salem witch trials occurred in the spring of 1692, in the town of Salem Village,
Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials was a time in colonial history where 19 people were
hanged for being convicted of being a witch. A group of young girls in Salem Village,
Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of
witchcraft (Salem Witch Trials). A group of young girls, the whole town believed young girls of
accusations for older women being witches. The Society`s religion was of the Puritan faith. The
Puritan Faith can be disclosed as a primarily closed knit religion. With the lack of Education and
the closed religious society. It can be inferred that this was the cause of the Salem Witch Trials.
We can now surmise that the cause of the Salem Witch trials was lack of
education. Based on the understanding of the colony of Salem Village, Massachusetts, it all
started with some little girls playing a game. The hysteria first began in January of 1692 when
a group of young girls, who later came to be known as the afflicted girls, fell ill after playing a
fortune-telling game and began behaving strangely(The Salem Witch Trials). The villages
people came to the indictment that children hysterically contorting on the ground and screaming
was the cause of witches. Many modern theories suggest the girls were suffering from epilepsy,
boredom, child abuse, mental illness or even a disease brought on by eating rye infected with
fungus (The Salem Witch Trials). Converging back to the lack of knowledge on their part. It is
very justifiable that any medicinal knowledge at all would have helped them understand the
circumstances that the children were facing. In the present day evolved country, we have more

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understanding on one person than past day Salem Village, Massachusetts whole community. That
just goes to show how elementary the village was as a whole.
The Salem Village was a very moral society in which they followed the code of the bible.
In the Crucible by Arthur miller it states if you are a witch you will not be able to recite the Ten
Commandments. In the actual village of Salem the people abided by the bible, even though the
bible was not meant to be a law book. Also the higher ranking people in the society, the people
that had more money had more conviction power than the lesser known people. All of the girls
that first started the convictions were all children of people in the village that were of higher
ranking. Historians have noted that many of the accused were wealthy and held different
religious beliefs than their accusers.(The Salem Witch Trials) Understandably the Salem Witch
trials were not about witches at all. It was about money, land, and power.

Salem Witch Trials." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.
"The Salem Witch Trials." History of Massachusetts. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.