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Our opinion on Upham's views of the Salem Witch Trials (Maggie)

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Our opinion on Upham's views of the Salem Witch Trials (Maggie)

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We believe that Charles Upham was completely right about the Salem Witch Trial hysteria. According to Document D, Charles Upham believes that many of the young girls acted so they would not be accused. We believe that he was right about this. He also believed that many of the citizens were fooled by the acting. This argument is completely valid because at that time, people were very ignorant and gullible. In conclusion, this is why we agree with Charles Upham's opinion on the Salem Witch Trial hysteria.

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What started the Salem Witch Trials(Madison)

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What started the Salem Witch Trials(Madison)

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The Salem Witch Trials were started in 1692  when Bridget Bishop was accused of witchcraft. Bridget Bishop was the first to be hanged for being a witch. After that, there would be lots of hangings(around once a month) and executions for people accused of being a witch. The first hanging was on June 10 1692. The last documented execution was September 22. After that, some people died in jail but no more hangings and executions were documented. (Doc A)

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The timing of the Salem Witch Trails was about once every month. There were 20 people who were hung. 7 of them were men and 13 were women. Most people were bias and assumed that for the most part, women were witches. The hangings  accured once every month because we think that they wanted to create entertainment, as well as just getting rid of all the witches at once. (Doc A)

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We believe that ignorance was one of the main reasons why the Salem Witch Trial hysteria began.  During that time, many people were uneducated.  In Document D, it states "...nothing but the blindness of the bewildered community..."  When it says that the community was "blind" it really means that they are easily fooled. If they were educated, they would have realized that witches did not actually exist.

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During the time of the Salem Witch Trials, we believe that many people were greedy for power. This struggle for power was best demonstrated on the map in Document E. It shows that most of the people who were being accused were rich and most of the accusers were not. We think the poorer people wanted to accuse the rich so they could somehow gain more power. The struggle for power was a main reason why the Salem Witch Trial hysteria existed.

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During the Salem Witch Trial hysteria, we believe that many people had irrational fears.  People believed that witches actually existed!  At that time, people were very gullible, and they believed that everything they saw existed.  The fear first started to arise when the first accused witch, Bridget Bishop, was executed on June 10, 1692.  (Doc. A)  People were very scared of being accused.  Due to this fear, people, mostly young girls, started to act. They acted as if they were being possessed by a "witch".  Because of this, they caused other people to be accused.  This saved themselves from being accused. (Doc. D)  Because of this acting, people started to be afraid of the power of witches.  Fear was a big factor that caused the Salem Witch Trial hysteria to last for a very long time.

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According to document E, on the West side of Salem lived the poorer side of their society. On the East lived the richer. The Western side were almost all accusers of the Eastern side. We think that the poorer side was accusing the richer side because they were either jealous, in want of power, or were afraid. The richer side was not only the most accused, but also had the majority of people who were defenders.

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We think that men were thought of more highly back then which could be a factor as to why men were not accused as much as the women. (Doc. B) Women were accused more than half the time rather than men.  People were mostly biased against women and the rich.  We believe that this was because most people were jealous of these certain people.

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We believe that the Salem Witch Trial hysteria happened partly because many people were jealous of one another.  According to Document B, most of the accusers were young and single and most of the accused witches were older and involved in a marriage.  The accusers may have been jealous that the older women have husbands and they did not.

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The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hangings and executions for people who were accused to be witches in 1692. Witches were considered people who were taken over by the Devil and who's actions were controlled by the Devil. If someone was accused, they would be sent to jail for about a month until they either admitted they were a witch, or died in jail. If they were proven to be a witch they would be hung. If they admitted they were a witch, they may have assumed that the devil hadn't had much control over them and so they would let them go. If they didn't admit to practicing witchcraft then they would be executed or stay in jail until they did admit it.(Background Essay)

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The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the ...