Salem Witch Trials Pandemonium

When looking back at the history of the United States, the Witch Trials are one of the most appalling events that ever occurred.  Many innocent citizens were killed for doing nothing wrong. The three main causes of the Salem Witch Trials were young girls wanting attention, greed, and lack of leadership.  Because of these three things, the Salem Witch Trials will go down in history as one of the most horrific events to occur in the United States.

First, the young girls in the Puritan community caused much of the chaos that occurred during the witch trials.  Young girls were very low in their society and were often ignored because of the Puritan belief of original sin.  In the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Eve led Adam astray. Because of this, Puritans believed that women should have no leadership roles in their community and should be punished for sinning.  So, for more attention, young girls acted out in religious ceremonies which was unheard of.  For example, in the movie Three Sovereigns For Sarah, the young girls acted out in mass, pretending Sarah’s specter was attacking them.  They not only misbehaved in religious ceremonies, but also pretended witches were attacking them, which significantly increased the attention they received from the Puritan people.  Also, the girls could not stop what they were doing, because if they told people they were lying, they would have been severely punished. Lastly, the girls in the Salem village were under the effects of mass hysteria.  Mass hysteria is a condition in which a large group of people exhibit the same state of violent, mental agitation.  An example of this is after Tituba, one of the family slaves, showed a few young girls voodoo.  These girls started acting strange and many more girls followed.  Some people of the town assumed there were witches torturing the girls and gradually more people began to believe this assumption.  This led to the accusation of innocent women being accused of witchcraft.  Therefore, many of the young girls in Salem Village were partially responsible for the occurrence of the witch trials.

Greed was also a main reason many people were being accused of being witches.  As people saw what was going on, they took advantage of the situation by falsely accusing men and women in order to get their land and property.  Also, many family feuds were going on at this time because of the lack of law enforcement.  People realized they would not have to deal with their neighbors by simply accusing them of being witches.  Many people died because of this.  Finally, greedy people encroached on other’s land by moving fences.  This, as well, caused many unnecessary feuds, which in turn caused deaths.  As in Martha Carrier, many people blamed her specter for tormenting them, and she was eventually charged with practicing witchcraft and put to death.  Because of these many greedy people, a great number of innocent lives were taken.