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Puritanism was the origin of the witch hunt of the 1620's. People who followed this practice were extremists who dedicated their life to the strict, basic beliefs of puritanism. The Puritans came over to the Americas in hope to have religious freedom. Their practice consisted of making sure that people retreated back to what was strictly said in the Bible. They believed that the devil was alive and working, which led them to live in fear most of the time.

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Brought to life by John Calvin, Calvinism is a set of theological beliefs that The Puritans lived by. These include: total depravity, predestination, limited atonement, grace, and education. Predestination, specifically, caused a big issue among the common folk as they didn't want to be rejected from God, so they would do anything to try and be one of the elect, even if it meant blaming other people for their own wrong-doing. Following the main principles, the Puritans wanted to create a theocracy in America making a government run by the church. Matching this, universities such as yale, harvard, princeton were created for the soul purpose of teaching the word of God.

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Many things caused the idea of witchcraft to explode in Salem. Most people believed that Satan was alive and working which lead people to blame Satan for everything bad that happened in the world. They also believed that the devil recruited witches and wizards to possess people. The people of Salem believed this to be true because there were actually people who admitted to being a witch. Foreign influence also impacted the extremity of witchcraft, exposing young girls to voodoo and magic.

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In the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 nineteen men and women were hanged. 200 were accused; however, what is interesting is that people used the witch hunt as a way to get rid of groups they weren't fond of. Old feuds between the accusers and the accused spurred charges of witchcraft. Most cases didn't need actual evidence in order to prove someone guilty. So most of the time, the accusers would be over dramatic and basically put on a show at the trials in order to convince the jury that the accused were guilty .

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Arthur Miller was inspired to write The Crucible because of the rising hunt for communism in the 1950s. During this time people were put on trial in order to figure out if they were a Russian spy. However these deemed to not be fair trials, most trials did not need concrete evidence in order to prove someone guilty. This is what sparked Miller’s mind to connect this “witch” hunt to the witch hunt of Salem in the 1600s. Miller knew the extremities in these trials as he was in one but refused to speak. Miller used his experiences and history to then write The Crucible.