Lyle Koehler argues that the Salem Witch Trials began due to witch hysteria caused by the fits of the young women being affected by witchcraft. They were given power to accuse the witches and used their power to attack their oppressing forces‚ such as authority figures. The act of accusing people of being witches was a scapegoat in order gain and retain power in a situation where people felt powerless. They also targeted nontraditional women as they were easier to justify. Many people were accused
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The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 in Salem Village‚ Massachusetts‚ and are believed to have been created by many different theories. No one actually knows why or how the witchcraft started in the early colony. The witches were girls of all ages who were caught having strange behavior. Many people started believing they were actual witches because of the way people claimed to have been hurt or affected by a witch. Some Puritans would act out to make it seem like a witch was harming them or causing
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Mass Hysteria during the 1690s and 1950s. As examples of mass hysteria‚ both the Salem Witch Trials and the Cold War caused turmoil during their respective time period. Although very different time periods‚ the 1690s Salem Witch Trials and the 1950s Cold War were both dramatic examples of mass hysteria (Campbell). The Salem Witch Trials were one of the nation’s most dramatic examples of hysteria as close to 20 people were killed because of pure hype and chaos in the region (Campbell). The cold war
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sickness and questionable actions due to fungus on rye. Even though there are many theories as to why the girls of the Salem witch trials made accusations‚ the two most believable are that there was fungus growing on the rye and the girls suffered from an outbreak of encephalitis because the girls showed signs of sickness and questionable actions. In February 1692‚ the people of Salem were all caught up in a case of mass hysteria: (Saxon). Eight girls ruled the town by accusing their neighbors of
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Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials During the time period of 1691 to 1692 the town of Salem‚ a small thriving community within the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony‚ was struck by widespread hysteria in the form of witch trials. The way these trials and accusations played out are historically unlike any other witch trials found in European and American history. Historians have pointed to a number of economic‚ political‚ and social changes of the then existing institutions throughout the Massachusetts
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Brennyn Mackey 2 May 2011 The Secret War of Salem Exposing the Culprit behind the Mass Hysteria The Salem Witch Trials were a series of infamous events that demand an explanation for their occurrence. The trials that took place in 1692 caused neighbors in the community of Salem Village in the colony of Massachusetts to turn on one another out of paranoia‚ accusing one another of witchcraft. According to Carol Karlsen‚ a longtime author of the subject‚ nineteen people were hanged
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The changing historiography of the Salem Witch Persecutions of 1692. How current/contemporary and historical interpretations of this event reflect the changing nature of historiography. The number of different interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials illustrates that historiography is ever changing. The historians‚ Hale‚ Starkey‚ Upham‚ Boyer and Nissenbaum‚ Caporal‚ Norton and Mattosian have all been fascinated by the trials in one way or another because they have all attempted to prove or
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This quote shows both the dilemma in the Salem Witch Trials‚ which Arthur Miller set his story in‚ and the era of McCarthyism which he kind of writes about; John was going to confess to being a witch but couldn’t because he didn’t want to ruin his name for his family. He was an innocent man but died because he didn’t confess. This is very similar to what was happening during the 50’s when McCarthyism first started. Arthur Miller’s use of the Salem Witch Trials in the Crucible demonstrates
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remembering Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Since Tituba’s claim that there were more witches in Salem‚ the witch hunt officially began and hysteria beset the
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The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 In colonial Massachusetts between February of 1692 and May of 1963 over one hundred and fifty people were arrested and imprisoned for the capital felony of witchcraft. Trials were held in Salem Village‚ Ipswich‚ Andover and Salem Town of Essex County of Massachusetts‚ but accusations of witchcraft occurred in surrounding counties as well. Nineteen of the accused‚ fourteen women and five men‚ were hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem Village. Hysteria had swept through
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