In the late 16th century in the Massachusetts colony there was a town called Salem, this settlement was a puritan community. Salem is known for the great tragedy known as the Salem witch trials, where in mass hysteria n paranoia took the lives of many innocent people. Religion, war, and land in this region of America took and ruined the life’s of many settlers not only in Salem but in many parts of the New England area. These events are studied even to this day, they show us how hysteria can take hold of people and make them act irrational.
16Th Century New England.Bridget Bishop, Rev. George Burrought, Sarah good and Ann Pudeator are only some of the names of settlers living in Salem accused of witchcraft. 20 individuals …show more content…
Many settlers fled England in search for religious freedoms and tolerance, even though the puritan religion in its self was very strict and not very tolerant. Life in Salem was a hard life, Individualism was stomped out and people were expected to work hard with little to no emotions. Any individual that seem out of place or acted strangely where often more times than not the ones accused of witchcraft. In the puritan religion witchcraft was considered one of the most heinous offences towards god. Puritans believe that the devil along with god is real, and that every day was a constant battle between good and evil. They believed that any sin from sleeping in church to witchcraft deserved punishment. Their belief was so strong that when anyone in the villages would fall ill or have any misfortune is was believe to be the work of god and the other settlers wouldn’t not lend any assistance. When one person would accuse another of witchcraft for any reason the fear of dark magic and the devil caused mass hysteria and lead people to kill innocents. Many people refer to today’s puritans as “ 'the Christian Right”(Finley, Gavin 2003), though many decades have passes since Salem, puritans are said to still retain their strong religious beliefs. Thought the religion is not nearly as vast as in the 16th century, it believe puritans are still part of today government and political parties and still following there beliefs in …show more content…
The settlers of Salem had the best of intentions and believed they were doing what was right by god in trying these people. It has been said that the past to hell is paved with good intentions, being the religion had such a tremendous influence on this entire event this saying is a good summarization of what happen in this town. Fear often makes people do strange, violent, unnatural things. The fear of the supernatural or the greater fear that if witchcraft was not real then how could there spirit world heaven/hell real, took these settlers to a dark place. And in this dark place they made many tragic mistakes, mistakes that took lives, mistakes that ruined family’s.. All the events that led up to the trials, the people that where involved, the hysteria that arouse where all due to the influences of this time period, religion, and the environment of Salem