To understand the reasons behind the hysteria, you have to know a little about the people who settled in the area of Salem Village. Mainly Puritans inhabited Salem Village. There were very few other religions at that time. The Puritans left England to escape religious persecution. Puritans wanted to purify the national church by eliminated what they saw as, Catholic influence. They believed in the total sovereignty of God and the absolute sinfulness of man. Puritans believed they were entering into a sacred compact with God in the founding of the Massachusetts colony. They thought that when someone communicated with Satan, it invited God’s wrath and exposed the entire community to a threat of great retribution. Individual sin was considered an act of treason.

The people of Salem Village believed in

In 1688, Samuel Parris was invited to Salem Village to preach to the Village church. After negotiations he accepted the job. He came with his wife, daughter (Elizabeth), niece (Abigail), and his two slaves, Tituba and John Indian. In 1692, the two girls began experiencing odd behavior. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them, so it was determined that “the hand of Satan was in them”. And that began started up all of the accusations.

Early autumn was the beginning of the end for the witch-hunts. Many people began to develop doubts as to how so many people could be guilty. During the trials a lot of ghostly evidence had been used to convict people. Ghostly evidence allowed hallucinations, dreams, and simple notions to be admitted to the court as factual proof of the behavior of the accused. This began efforts to end the witch-hunting.

On February 29, 1692 the girls accused three women at the constant pressure from the adults to give them a name. By early spring the jails were filling up with accused witches. Anyone who was known to sympathize with an accused witch was automatically suspected. The governor, Sir William Phips, had to take quick action. Phips established a special court to hear the cases, the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Seven judges were appointed to the Court. Only one of these was from Salem. The judges were generally without legal training and looked to the ministers for advice. It was determined that the judges could conducted “touching tests” (defendants were asked to touch the afflicted persons to see if it would stop the contortions) and examined the bodies of the accused for evidence of “witches’ marks”. The court was dismissed on October 29, 1692 due to the tremendous reactio

Some topics in this essay:
Salem Village, Court Salem, John Indian, Giles Corey, Bay Colony, Governor Phips, Witch Trials, John Hale, Samuel Sewall, Massachusetts Court, salem village, winter 1692, accused witches, accused witch, witch trials, 29 1692, 1692 girls, ghostly evidence, women brothers, believed witches,