Mrs. Fenton
Group
16 January 2014
Imagine a noose tightening around your neck. You can hear voices calling you a witch and a traitor. This is what it must have been like to live in seventeenth century Massachusetts. In 1692, mass hysteria swept over Salem village. Hundreds of people were accused of being witches. Many innocent people were killed because of the accusations pinned against them. Many historians researched the Salem witch trials and The Crucible and found that politics played a big role in the trials. The politics of Salem village were a major cause of the Salem witch trials. First, politics play an important role in The Crucible and therefore, in the cause of the Salem witch trials. In the Puritan society …show more content…
The article, “Political Aspects”, is specifically about how politics played a role in the trials. The article talks all about how the residents of Salem Village were a major cause of the trials. For example the article states that “The residents of Salem were divided into two main groups…the residents that wanted to separate consisted mainly of Farmers”. Salem was separated into two different groups, the people who wanted to stay and the people who wanted to leave. The farmers, like John Proctor, disliked Parris and wanted to leave. They thought that the economy was too individualistic and went against Puritan law. The Puritans were only caring about themselves even though the Bible says to put others before yourself. The political situation led to many strained relationships. “Political Aspects” also says, “This complicated political situation had quite an impact on the Salem Witch Trials. The strained relationship between the two groups is what led to the hiring and eventual removal of Rev. Parris”. This proves that even though the two groups disagreed about almost everything, they did not like Parris. They both did not see him as a good leader. He did not have the qualities to keep a society in distress afloat. The whole conflict in Salem was very immature. The two groups were fighting and were accusing each other of witchcraft. “When the accusations began, the members of one group tended to accuse members of their opposing group of witchcraft.” The article blatantly states that both groups were accusing each other. Eventually the situation gets so bad that the two groups crumble and everyone starts accusing each other and no one could be