Salem Witch Trials: Superstition In The United States

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The late 1600s and early 1700s in colonial America saw their fair share of corruption and flawed governments as well as the violation of human rights for many slave laborers and Native Americans. During these times it was common for only the wealthy to benefit at others expenses. Superstition also played a great deal in determining the fates of the innocent. The tensions between the colonial gentry and the lower class laborers and flawed justice systems based on superstition ignited the flames for Bacon’s Rebellion, the Pueblo Revolt, the Stono Rebellion, and the infamous Salem Witch Trials. During the 1660s and 1670s the governor of Virginia, William Berkeley, had been creating corrupt alliances with the wealthiest tobacco planters. “He rewarded his followers with land grants and lucrative offices” (Foner 99). Berkeley also put in …show more content…
Two girls began to have fits and nightmares and turned to the only logical explanation… witches. According to Eric Foner, the author of “Give Me Liberty”, on page 106, “Since, the only way to avoid prosecution was to confess and name others, accusation of witchcraft snowballed” and around 150 persons were accused. Out of those 150, 21 men and women were hanged. Seeing that their Salem courts were faulty, the governor and officials of Massachusetts dissolved the Salem court and encouraged more scientific explanations according to page 106 of Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner. It seemed that these rebellions and social disturbances would be the last of their kind, but the war for independence was still to come. However, these conflicts mentioned rocked the late 1600s and early 1700s politically and socially. Bacon’s Rebellion, the Pueblo Revolt, the Stono Rebellion, and the Salem Witch Trials would be an overlooked reminder of the dangers of the social
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