The Mystery of the Salem Witch Trials

The Mystery of the Salem Witchcraft Trials

In a plain meeting house in 1692 a woman stands before her judges. She is accused of tormenting innocent girls with an unseen evil. Standing there, the poor woman is ridiculed in front of her whole town. She is surrounded by people accusing her of witchcraft based only on the hallucinations of attention-hungry schoolgirls. It makes us wonder was there no justice? It did not matter; superstition got the best of them. Eventually these superstitions claimed twenty-five lives, shattered the community, and forever shaped the American social conscience. The combination of fear and superstition in Salem in 1692 caused a devastating witch-hunt, leading us to cry out for some old-fashioned justice. There were many causes that could have led to the occurrence of the Salem Witch Trials including: the influence of religion in 1692, the lack of scientific knowledge, and disputes between townspeople. Whatever the causes, the nightmare in Salem happened and has changed the world forever.

Salem, Massachusetts was a society founded and governed on Puritan doctrine. The Puritans were a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries advocated strict religious discipline. The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts left England because they thought the Church was obscuring God's glory with an obsession on earthly things. Upon arriving in Salem the Puritans established a theocracy; which is basically a government ruled under religious authority. Due to this, religion and the power of religious authorities became central to the Salem Witch Trials.