The Salem Trials and The False Witchcraft Accusations

Introduction

In the year 1692 an incident that resulted to twenty people being executed and even an additional two hundred people being accused of witchcraft .These injustices had prevailed in the society and people would be randomly accused and randomly killed because people believed that witchcraft was a punishable crime like other. In the most bizarre events in the American history the Salem trials had entirely become rampant and even shaped the court decisions (Levin,1955).

However in the year 1933common sense prevailed and most people argued that witchcraft would not be a punishable offense since supernatural forces could not be used as evidence in a court of law. Before the trials were brought to an end many prejudicial killings and occurrences of people being hanged after being accused of being witchdoctors had prevailed in the Salem community. The paper will basically address the various injustice son Salem trials and also give logical conclusions about these trials.

Related research

The initial events of these Salem trials began when a number of young girls in a particular community got a strange illness in February 1962 .Some of the possible and famous symptoms include fever aches and even pain. At that particulate point the medical examination could have directly proved that it was a bad flue. However these symptoms further progressed and become more volatile that the caused the girls to scream and even contorted their bodies in strange position by crawling under furniture. They were also heard uttering strange sounds and claiming that they were pricked by pins. In an attempt to examine and find the cause of these strange behaviors a local doctor closely examined the girls and claimed that they had been inflicted by a supernatural witchcraft force (Blumberg, 2007).

In the seventh century the Salem had been known of blaming witchcraft of the evils of the world and even prosecuted those who were thought of conducting these evils. As the mysteries continued the girls blamed three women for afflicting them with these estrange illness and hence the Salem trials began.

Some of the first three women who were to face these charges were Sarah, Tibuta, Good and Osborne. These women were seen as outcasts in the community and these made them an easy target for people in the Salem community to spread rumors that they were the ones who had bewitched the girls and even made them to suffer these strange illnesses and even make strange sounds at night. Both Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne strongly denied and even said that they had no association with witchcraft or even the devil.

However Tibuta on the centrally decalred that indeed the devil had visited him and all she needed was to serve him.(Warshow,1953). She did these in order to spark a debate and also believed that it could stop her from being further beaten and would go and jail to avoid her being killed. When she admitted of being a witch all the three were damned to jail

Chaos broke out and in the other consecutive months many people were being arrested for witchcraft accusation of bewitching young girls in the Salem. However no one was bullet proof to these accusations when a famous loyal churchgoer was charged with witchcraft and people began to panic. This is because pinpointing of even innocent people that had not history of witchcraft began to occur. When people needed to eliminate someone from a leadership position they went ahead to ensure that they were falsely accused of witchcraft and even went into jail.

The basic assumption was that if Martha Corey a famous churchgoer had been charged and accused of witchcraft then basically anyone else in the Salem community would probably face same charges because she was seen and perceived to be the most religious. As more and more charges were brought before courts and responsible authorities people from Salem and even surrounding areas were brought in for questioning.

Many of the accused however were simply unable to defend themselves because these charges were simply biased in nature and it was also very difficult to prove whether an individual was with or not. It was pathetic that the authorities went ahead to allow fake evidence such as foul gossips and other merely unsupported evidence and assertions. For example dreams and visions by people believed to decode witchcraft would be used against people and victims and these sets of evidence in a modern day would not build any form of solid evidence against the people.

For example even after Rebecca nurse had even provided enough evidence that were beyond any reasonable doubts to prove that she was not guilty the presiding judge in these trial decided to reconvene the jury in order to reconsider the laid down facts. To the surprise of many after the trial the nurse was found to be guilty and even convicted to be hanged. It was now clear that those who were weak and timid in their justification about their association with witchcraft would definitely be hanged .killed or convicted. In the year 1692 frenzy executions were conducted and an elderly old man was crushed to death with heavy stones.

There seemed to be no end to these prejudicial killings and trials until the then educator and president of Harvard College begged the court to reconsider their decision since there was no room for testimony and evidence that included dreams or even visions. He also went on record in his publication it would be better to release ten suspected witches than killing one innocent person. In response to these Mather’s appeal The then Governor of Massachusetts William Phipps finally put an end to these unfair and unjust trials by suspending all th trials and even releasing all the people charged with witchcraft on may 1963.These action was widely welcomed by people and also put an end to this prejudicial kills that had occurred. Both religion and the church also played a major role in facilitating these trials because most of those accused were thought of being sinners and those who did not go to church.

The trials also became personal and those who were in conflict with the church norms and tradition would easily be victimized and even mad to undergo trials. Solid and tangible evidence have to be well incorporated before a judge can fully declare someone guilty. From a critical point of view witchcraft is not verifiable an d no evidence can be used to prove whether someone is a witch or not. For example in the case scenario for the three girls, medical examination would have proved that they were suffering from a bad flue as opposed to witchcraft which many had claimed. During the 17th century religion also played major role in also determined who was right and wrong which was totally against their free will and ability to make decisions and live their lives how each one wished.

Conclusions

In conclusion the trials in Salem were clearly unjust. Witchcraft was non verifiable and no one could claim that supernatural forces could be used as evidence in a court of law. Accusing people of witchcraft was simply a clear way of getting rid of people regarded as outcasts and sinners in the church. Just by the mere fact that those accused were not allowed to have a legal counsel was clear violation of their human rights and the court had even failed to protect its people by allowing fake evidence in its rulings (Fels, 2017)

Since the Salem trials were banned in 1702 the justice legal systems dramatically improved and hence before any accusation or case laws were allowed to precede solid evidence had to be provided before a court of law and carefully evaluated. In case the evidence was not sufficient the clients had to advise.

Social rimes such as witchcraft which mostly rely on dark and supernaturally forces cannot be verified and accusing an individual would be totally wrong and illegal. Other dispute resolutions such arbitration would be used in order to settle this matters outside a court of law since it would be very hard for a judge to ascertain when, where and whether the occurrence had occurred or not.