Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witchcraft trials in Massachusetts during 1692 resulted in nineteen innocent men and women being hanged, one man pressed to death, and in the deaths of more than seventeen who died in jail. It all began at the end of 1691 when a few girls in the town began to experiment with magic by gathering around a crystal ball to try to find the answer to questions such as "what trade their sweet harts should be of ". This conjuring took place in the Parris household where a woman named Tituba, an Indian slave, headed the rituals. Soon after they had begun to practice these rituals, girls who had been involved, including the Master Parris' daughter and niece, became sick. They had constant ...
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Parris' neighbor, Mary Sibley recommended that Parris' slaves, Tituba and John Indian, should work a spell to try to find the culprits. Even after trying this solution the girls' condition worsened, and the people responsible still had not been found. The girls began to see hazy shadows and believed that these shadows were of the people who had done this to them. After more and more children became victims of this, the hunting for the witches who were to blame for the girls' sickness began to get more serious. By the end of February 1692, not one, but three witches had been named. These women were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, all residents of Salem Village. Tituba, like Good, was very poor. She worked as a servant in the Parris home and was a Carib Indian born in Barbados in the West Indies. Reverend Parris brought Tituba to New England when he was still a merchant, and after this she married John Indian who also worked as slave for Reverend Parris. Tituba was the person ...
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had seen doing the witchcraft, Tituba says, "Goody Osborn and Sarah Good and I do not know who the other were. Sarah Good and Osborn would have me hurt the children but I would not . . . " So according to Tituba there were still witches out there bewitching innocent children. After Tituba's confession, the entire community of Salem increased their efforts to find the witches who were bringing such horrible events to their village. The children still were not able to come up with names for their perpetrators until a little thirteen-year-old girl, Ann Putnam, cried out the name of Martha Corey. Corey, like Osborne, was not poor at all. While she was being tried, Martha Corey had the audacity ...
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Salem Witch Trials. (2004, January 20). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Salem-Witch-Trials/1740
"Salem Witch Trials." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 20 Jan. 2004. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Salem-Witch-Trials/1740>
"Salem Witch Trials." Essayworld.com. January 20, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Salem-Witch-Trials/1740.
"Salem Witch Trials." Essayworld.com. January 20, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Salem-Witch-Trials/1740.
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