“Except for the obvious fact that, as with witchcraft elsewhere, New England’s accused were mostly women, the Salem cases are not easily explained. Two of the men executed in 1692 were suspected wife-beaters. Some of the accused women were viragos, others visible saints. A few were noticeably eccentric, but so were some of the afflicted. Some practiced folk magic, yet so did some of the accusers. The whole was briared in confusion.” (Roach, xvii) So mostly women were accused, which really makes sense, seeing that most of the accusers were women, maybe a sense of jealously amongst the town is what erupted the whole problem.

Accusations of witchcraft were not uncommon in 17th century New England. Puritans believed that an individual might make a compact with the devil, but during the first decades of settlement, authorities executed only about fifteen alle

After reading both primary source documents, and finding all the background knowledge that I could from the secondary sources, I have concluded that most historians are accurate when they state that the Salem Witch episode in history was a true example of complete madness. I must say after I read “The Crucible”, and read these first person accounts of the time, I was shocked and horrified, on how our justice system could even be where it is now a days, from what it was during the time of Salem. There was no justice; there was simply hearsay, and false accusations to base someone’s life on.

Some topics in this essay:
Salem Village, Salem Witch, Massachusetts Bay”, Witch Trials, John Proctor, , Neck Heels, England Puritans, Sarah Cloyce, Trials Boston, salem village, john proctor, salem witch, accused women, witch trials, salem witch trials, sarah cloyce, elizabeth proctor, cloyce salem village, salem aprill, “the crucible”, innocent bloods, peter cloyce salem, salem village elizabeth, wife peter cloyce,