Salem Witchcraft Essays -- History Witches Papers

Salem Witchcraft Witchcraft accusations and trials in 1692 rocked the colonisation of Salem Massachusetts. There are some variant views that are offered concerning why neighbors decided to condemn the masses around them as witches and why they did what they did to ane another. Carol Karlsen in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman and Bernard Rosenthal in Salem Story give several factors, ranging from muliebrity hunting to shear malice, that help explain why the Salem trials took clothe and why they reached the magnitude that they did. The theories put fourth by Karlsen of a nightspot that accusations against women as witches explain the trail, and Rosenthals ideas of discourse in the community are support or partially disproved by the documents that are presented by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. The different motivations and reasons for witch accusations are exhibited in the fitting the profile of a witch, the spirit in the accusers and guilt by association , the actions of the Putnam family, and the disagreements and discourse in the community. The trial of Bridget Bishop shows how people who fit the general profile of a witch can be accused. Karlsen points out that Bridget Bishop had been previously accused of witchcraft in the 1680s the decennium before the trials.1 People who where accused of witchcraft where generally distrusted of existence witches before they are brought to trial. Because of her prior accusation the idea that Bridget Bishop could be a witch is in the mind of the community. Because of the prior accusation Bishop is a autochthonic candidate to be accused again and a prime suspect whenever witchcraft is suspected in the community. Bridget Bishop was brought to court on witchcraft charges in Febr... ...issenbaum (Boston northeast University Press, 1972), 204. 18. Rosenthal, 3. 19. Rosenthal, 192. 20. Anti-Parris Petition (1695), in Salem-Village Witchcraft, Paul Boyer, and Stephen Nissenbaum (Boston Northeastern University Press, 1972), 261-263. 21. The first twenty-four hours of October, 1686, in Salem-Village Witchcraft, Paul Boyer, and Stephen Nissenbaum (Boston Northeastern University Press, 1972), 341. 22. The 27th of December, 1681, in Salem-Village Witchcraft, Paul Boyer, and Stephen Nissenbaum (Boston Northeastern University Press, 1972), 321. Works CitedBoyer, Paul, and Nissenbaum, Paul. Salem-Village Witchcraft. Boston Northeastern University Press, 1972. Karlsen, Carol. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1993.