Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

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Sometimes the simplest questions aren’t easiest to answer, a good example of that has been the endless questions “What caused the Salem witch trials of 1692? I’d like to say the easy explanation was assumption, ignorance and fear. But, for the sake of reliability of my paper I’ll stick to the facts. There were numerous factors, but, primarily it was fueled by religion, family feuds and the imagination and fear of people.
The Salem Village had colorful history prior to the infamous with trials. There were over 600 residents that were divided into two living situations, one side of town wanted to separate from Salem Town and the other didn’t. Simple right? Not, so much. It was conflict of political beliefs and trades. Some residents of Salem who wanted to remain a part
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”The Salem Village community believed that the Salem’s Town’s thriving economy made it too individualistic” (Sutter, 2003). See, two different perspectives in one town. With the individualistic approach they opposed the “communal nature that Puritansim mandated.” Which in turn in their eyes, made the other group out of touch with the other group. Now, the Putnams were leaders of the separatist group because they primarily owned the bulk of farmland in Salem. They hoped to separate from the Salem Town by creating a unique congregation that was different. “In 1689 Rev. Samuel Parris begun worshipping in the Salem Village Meetinghouse” (Ray, 2007, p. xx). Keep, in mind this was a very different congregation since half of the members were Putnams, awkward right?! What this did was strain