THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
Chapters
:Strange behavior in
salem
:Innocent people are
being accused
:Guilty or innocent
:Authors opinion
:Did you know facts
Strange
behavior in Salem
In salem
people are being accused,people are being hanged is this true or is it just a
big lie?
It was an
ordinary day in salem when two girls named Betty and Abigail started to act
weird. In the late 1600’s, there were a lot of puritans in the Massachusetts
Bay colony. The puritans had a very strong belief in God, so when
something went wrong they all suspected the devil. Betty and Abigail were the
first girls who started to have fits.
When their parents tried to call a doctor- the doctor said that,” the devil himself was controlling
the two girls”.
Later two
more girls named Ann Putnam, and Elizabeth Hubbard ,they also started to have
strange fits. They claimed that three women named Sarah Good,Sarah Osborne, and
Tituba and their spirits were pinching and pricking them. But no one could see
the spirits except them, but everyone still believed them. By the end of
February two more girls started to have strange fits ,and news spread quickly.
People
started to have full faith in the girls when they said more and more people
have been hurting them, and even though they seemed pretty close to all the
families they took no chances and they believed the girl’s even though they had
the most surreal answers.
Innocent people are being accused
On March
1st, the three women named by the girls were questioned one by one. The whole
town came to the hearings. The girls broke down into more fits when they saw
Tituba, fearing for her life, Tituba lied to the judges and told them that
Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne told her to kill Ann Putnam. When she thought that
she was safe and that Sarah Osborne would go to jail, she was wrong.
Tituba’s corporation did not free her,
and that only gave the judge more of a reason to believe the girls.The judges
sent all three women to wait for there turn to get hanged.
When the
judge sent the three accused witches to jail the girls fits got worse.
Villagers were shocked when they heard that the girls have accused a respected
member of the church and her name was Martha Corey. She had claimed that she
was a gospel women and she had never had anything to do with witchcraft since
she was a child. But
the
judges didn't take her honesty into account, so they counted her as
guilty and she was sent to jail with all the other accused witches.
When the
girls started to accuse more and more people, the other townspeople
started to get suspicious and they started to question there judgement. Soon
they started to accuse the governor's wife and since she is of higher
standards, the towns people started to think the girls were lying. So
they did not even bother to run a trial. Now they want to confront the girls,
but when they did, the girls insisted
that they were right about the ACCUSED witches. Now fewer people started to
believe there lies.
Guilty or innocent
Even though all the accused witches were sent
to jail, the girls “ fits” got worse and
soon no
one believe the girls. Then the girls started to find, really any woman or man
that was not nice to them. Since they thought they got on the good side of the
judges, they thought that they could accuse almost anyone and they started spreading rumors about a gospel
church women- saying that she was
planning on killing the other children.
Ann
Putnam started the rumor. The next day she told the judges and she was
sent to court to have a trial. She
believed that if she told the truth, she would be set free. But she was dead
wrong. Because by now the judges were just following the judgment and of the
girls and since they said she was “guilty” they sent her to jail with the
others to be hanged the next day.
When word
got out to the governor, he himself went to the court and jail to free the
accused witches. Also, made a claim that any accused witches would be
thoroughly checked and listened to and if the court finds them guilty,
then they will be sent to jail. Soon after that, Ann Putnam and the other
girls confessed to everyone and fourteen years later, that they were
lying and they apologized.
Conclusion
In
conclusion more and more people were being accused and this went on for a long
period of time. However, the girls did apologize a couple years later,
but could not apologize for all of the death and the suffering.
In
my opinion, the Salem witch trial was a very tragic event. I also think that it
taught a lesson. Like not to lie or that could cause you in more trouble.
Because, Like Ann Putnam, she blamed lot of people. So the other townspeople
believed her. When she said something so simple, for e.g- “Oh! that lady, she
scolded me”. Then all the people believed that innocent lady was a witch.
Because those people have been fed too many lies. And, I think that those
misfortunes could have ruined the town of Salem .
DID YOU
KNOW?
Did you
know that the salem witch trials started in colonial Massachusetts between the
times 1692 and 1693 ? More than 200 people were accused of practicing
witchcraft, which was known as the devils magic. Twenty people were executed.
Eventually, the colony admitted that the trials were a mistake. The story
continues to attract the curious minds of people more than 300 years later.
Several
hundred years ago, many christians and people of other faiths believed in the
devil. They thought that the devil could give certain people- known as
witches, the power to harm others. A
witchcraft craze rippled through Europe from the 1300’s to the end of the
1600’s.
- Number
of accusers: 19
- Number
of people arrested as witches: ABOUT 150
- Number
of arrested people convicted: 28
- Number
of convicted hanged people: 19
- Other
deaths: 4 died in jail,1 man pressed to death (LITERALLY PRESSED)
Laurie
Winn Carlson, a historian believed that a disease called encephalitis caused
the girls’ fits. The disease spread by mosquitoes, can cause fever, confusion
and seizures.
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