A Study On The Salem Witch Trials In New England And Their Influences At The End Of 17th Century

Salem witch trials were one of the most mysterious events in New England in the17 th century,and it was considered the first real crime in New England.In this incident,people deliberately turned the chatting and strange accusations of a few bored little girls into a mass hanging of innocent people.In Salem witch trial,the girls in Salem village made up a lie that ghosts of people can harm people in an effort to gain more attention under the background that people had previously formed the established standards for judging witches.Adults with economic conflicts used this lie to accuse their neighbors who were adverse to them.Puritans who fantasized about reshaping Puritan authority claimed that the devils were around them.These made people confirmed that witchcraft existed around them.In addition,villagers in Salem village who had experienced war urgently needed an event to ease their anxiety and fear,and the witchcraft case happened just at this time.After the case happened,a series of unreasonable trial standards and interrogation procedures applied in the court made it easy to determine whether the accused person was a witch or not.As a result,villagers in Salem,covered with anxiety and numerous contradictions,took to court to sue people who were adverse to themselves or who had long been resentful.Cases,like snowballing,gradually spread from Salem village to its surrounding villages and towns.By the time the case had to be closed in 1693 because of the involvement of some senior official figures,more than 20 people had died and another 200 were arrested or imprisoned.Subsequently,although some of the accusers apologized to the victims and their kith and kin,others still refused to do so.The parties and their kith and kin also appealed many times in order to restore their reputations damaged in the case.Among them,it is worth mentioning that the Salem witch trial case made the later American judicial system attach great importance to the legitimacy of the procedure,which is a vital influence brought by the case.