Salem Witch Trials

"The Salem Witch Trials were a plague of the mind that affected the hapless colonists that had settled in Salem, Massachusette. This plague consumed the little town as a net would encompass the many swimming cod to be found at the nearest seacoast. This was a plague of fear, an all consuming terror. The real question that needs to be explained is what type of factors would produce this plague of fear and what were its consequences.

The text put great detail into revealing the true mental environment that these people were living in. They were raised in churches to fear any devils or witches that might come to take their soul away from heaven. In their mother country of England they had heard of forty to sixty thousand innocent people die during witch hunts. They would see the afflicted at the trials, accusing others in between violent and dramatic seizures. There was a constant, twittering fright struck into these people that ignighted like a powder keg, leading to many accusations, arrests, and consequently deaths.

Once the witch hunts began in Salem people's fears were tripled. On one hand they now had to fear any accusations that might come from other frightened townsfolk. On the other hand, they also had to fear the judges and magistrates, who were merciless to the pleas of the innocent but lightning-quick to forgive those who have confessed; if, of course, their confession incriminates others. You can see a strange similarity between the practicing of law in early Salem and today. In early Salem a witch, (possibly the worst title you could have then,) would get to live if she confessed under certain parameters. Now, with some strategic chatter with the District Attorney, a vicious murderer can also keep his life.

All this fear; fear of witches, fear of hell, fear of the crooked justice system, was constantly boiling in the unconscious of the townspeople's minds. As things worsened and the prospect of being singled out as a witch became greater and greater so also rose the level of fear. This unrelenting panic could trigger conversion hysteria, causing many of the symptoms seen in the victims of witchcraft. These symptoms include the twitching, convulsing, inability to communicate, unexplainable pains, etc. that were described by so many of the "victims" of Salem's infamous witches.

The worst part about the Salem Witch Trials, and probably the part that