The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria was caused by an eclectic group of little girls who liked to stir up loads of trouble for the people who their parents and close adult friends did not like. It was an east versus west scenario. When you look at the geographic layout of Salem Village, most of the people on one side were fine, while a majority of the families on the other side were accused of witchcraft. Whether these accused citizens were actually witches will remain a mystery, but conclusive evidence is there to clear the names of those convicted. The Salem Witchcraft trials repeat themselves a couple more times in history. The Joseph McCarthy age of communism, and the post September 11^th aftermath are two of the cases where they have similar characteristics to the Salem Witch Trials.

The Puritan rulers were at a time of sincere religious dominance in their culture. They believed that if one possessed any non-godly traits, then he was an outcast or satanic. This puts the perfect picture into place of why the witch trials were to the extent of what they were. The perfect way to get someone into trouble during Puritan times was to claim that they were satanic or a witch. The church, which had a major part in politics, was not going to risk keeping anyone around the village that was accused a witch. A person’s status could be ruined in a matter of hours if they were accused. It was the prime way to seek revenge over decade long property disputes.

The Puritan leaders’ actions were not justified, because they did not take all the evidence into consideration, and based most of their decisions off of the lies of a group of dramatic girls. The girls were highly influenced by the adults, and based their decisions for their next victims off of their parents and peers. Their actions were however justified in the manner that they were trying to protect everyone, and keep their community holy. However, the evidence the leaders used was not sufficient enough to condemn a person for life. The Puritan leaders were going off the evidence of ghost-like portrayals of people harming the little girls. The only evidence in condemning was the girls’ words and actions. This was enough evidence for them to condemn a person’s life or condemn them to a life of torture in one of Salem’s horrid jailhouses. In all, the leaders just wanted to rid Salem of satanic practices and witchcraft, but the way they went about doing it was completely wrong and unfair.