Salem Witch Trials

The mass hysteria that is the Salem witch trials. by

Gasville Gumbs

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 to May 1693. According to National Endowment for the Humanities, many people were accused of being a witch and there were 30 people found guilty. Out of the 30,19 were hanged, five people were jailed, and one was crushed to death. Arrests were made in the numerous towns beyond Salem and the Salem village. The Grand Judges and trials for their capital crimes consisted of the people appointed by the court in 1692 and by a Superior Court of Judicature in 1693 in Salem. This is where the witch hunts were the deadliest. According to National Endowment for the Humanities, there were 14 more women and men hanged in other towns of Massachusetts. Also, during the trial there were three methods that they would use to put the so-called witch in court by using confession testimony. They would need two eye witnesses to testify that the person was a witch. Also, they would use spectral evidence, meaning they made everything up to get the poor victim killed. However, this story has a happy ending. The trials were shut down for not treating the defendant fairly, but some people still feel the effects of the trials today. Due to general rational trauma and the children of the families who survived the trails.

It spans through generations millions to thousands of people affected by it to this day. The Salem Witch Trials were one of the biggest mass hysteria events in all of American history. In the years to come, there were individual and institutional acts of repentance for the erroneous accusations of those in the trails. For example, in January 1697, the court of Massachusetts made a day of fasting to make up for the tragedy that they committed. According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, also, that month, Samuel Se wall , one of the judges explained that he was wrong in the proceedings. In 1702, the General Court declared that the trials were unlawful.

The Salem Witch Trials were unnecessary the elders should have done better research into proving that they were witches. Actions from the past have consequences in the present.