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Salem Witch Trials - Explanations of The Possessed

The Salem Witch Trials : Explanations of the Possessed

Introduction

It has been four centuries since the Salem Witch Trials in Salem Massachusetts had occurred . This phenomenon , however , continues to serve as a poignant reflection of what the prevailing social , political and psychological ills can do to a society . It is a well-known fact that the Salem Witch Trials , primarily motivated by a strong tendency to attribute bizarre events to superstition and witchcraft , led to the demise and execution of hundreds of people believed to be witches but could have otherwise been

proven innocent had the evidences been largely based on hard facts and scientific knowledge alone and not on hearsay and inadequate witness accounts from the accusers . In particular reports of demonic possessions in women and children basically fueled the beginnings of the Salem Witch Trials . This inquiry is concerned with verifying the truth behind these supposed possessions by the devil . How valid were the accounts of the accusers about the evil possession that had befallen them

This attempts to emphasize through a literature review that the afflictions of the primary accusers in the Salem Witch Trials were not of demonic possession in nature as the villagers were wont to believe Rather , the symptoms that these accusers exhibited were by-products of social , psychological and moral disturbances that were affecting them during that time . The begins with a brief overview of the background of the Salem Witch Trials followed by a historical account of several of the accusers focusing on the deviant behavior they manifested which rendered the Salem community to blame their behavior to witchcraft . Objections and alternative explanations on the accusers deviant behaviors follow . The concludes by emphasizing the significant factors that played the role in the Salem Witchcraft trials particularly those which directly or indirectly caused the bizarre behaviors of the primary accusers

Background

Many historical accounts describing the beginnings of the witch hunt in Salem point to Tituba and her husband John . Both were black slaves in the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris located at Salem Village . In his work , Salem Witchcraft , Charles Upham (1867 ) tells of the bizarre superstitious beliefs and practices which were tribal in nature and that Tituba and her husband had supposedly introduced to the Parris household . This stirred the curiosity and imagination of a small group of girls who were motivated to meet regularly in the Parris household to learn more about the fascinating voodoo practices and superstitions that had been unheard of until the slaves came . From Upham 's speculations about Tituba and her involvement in witchcraft-like practices came a series of other accounts permanently making Tituba as one of the origins of the Salem Witch Trials (Rosenthal , 11 . Erikson (as cited in Rosenthal , 11 ) explained how Tituba could have triggered the hysteria over witchcraft

In early 1692 , several girls from the neighborhood began to spend their afternoons in the Parris kitchen with a slave named Tituba , and it was not long before a mysterious sorority of...

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