The Salem Witch Trials
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We’ve all done a unit or two on the salem witch trials at some point during history class. It’s one of americas most famous wonders and the controversy of whether or not witchest exist persists to this day. Religion was a significant deal back them, so even acucsations invoolving religion, such as “an evil hand” In which the puritans believd the devilcreated devastation in the earth through witches and tormented children was really powerful and impossible to prove your innocence at that time
Now personally, i’ve always been interested in the salem witch trials and the theories following along with it. Ever since i’ve heard about it in 8th grade history everything changed for me. However based on what i’ve seen and learned, only a few of them have responded to my question on whether or not witches are real. A part of me believes that all the girls were falsely accused but the other believes that they really did have something to do with witchcraft. There really isn’t any evidence if they did witchcraft, but at the same time this was a really long time ago so we would’t know.
As said, this did date back from the 1690’s, so life in Salem was tight and isolated. The people feared of starvation and sickness and there was tension among the villagers. I’m leaning on more of the fact that the girls at that time were falsely accused because since stuff wasn’t really as sanitary back then, sickness was common. since this was from a long time ago, knowledge on diseases and sickness weren’t specialized as much as it is today. This means that there could be a possible reason that the girls that were accused suffered from hallucinations caused by fungus which causes swelling of the brain. Starvation and sickness could make someone act in differerent ways we’ve never imagined they’d do.
The conspiracist side of me believes that they did have something to do with witchcraft, though evidence wasn’t really concrete nobody really knows if they did it or not. This was really a dark time in massachusetts so anything could be possible and the devil could take part in anything. Accusations of devil relations was really powerful back then and it was impossible to prove your innocence so once you have suspicions it was really hard to get out. We don’t realy know if these accusations are true though so the question to this day still reigns on: Do witches exist?
Hey, Megan! I'm intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials as well, so it's cool to hear this perspective. :) That is an interesting theory, that mental illnesses like schizophrenia could have been mistaken for witchcraft or other "unholy" practices. It goes to show how ignorance towards mental health issues can create dangerous false assumptions. Good work!
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