Pointing Fingers

In the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, resides reverend Parris and his family. Unfortunately for him, the cause of the beginning of the Salem witch trials can be traced down to his very own daughter and niece, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams. Around the time of 1692, the two girls came down with a strange illness. A doctor was called upon to examine them, but could not find anything physically wrong. For this reason and the lack of psychological knowledge, the doctor was convinced they were bewitched. In the American Era’s document, “The Salem Witch Trials”, it states, “the witchcraft hysteria of 1692 reflected deep anxieties among Puritans” (American Era’s 1). Since Puritans believed in the devil, it is of no surprise that fear and anxiety were provoked from the doctor’s diagnosis. In the book, Witchcraft at Salem, by Chadwick Hansen, he points out, “the persons who thought the afflicted girls to be under bodily disorders, let it affect their imagination” (Hansen 6). Once the word gets out about the girls’ diagnosis, there will be no stopping the imaginations and the pointing fingers of those who believe it. When questioned about who afflicted them, Elizabeth and Abigail effortlessly pointed their fingers at Tibuta, the Parris family slave. They also accused two women by thenames of Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. These last two women supposedly hadn’t been to church in over a year, which was a sin in Puritan eyes. This was just the beginning. Other girls caught on to Elizabeth’s and Abigail’s situation, and began pointing their fingers too. As a result, Tituba was jailed and later sold to pay off her jail fees. More than 200 people were accused, and 19 were executed including Sarah Good.

book:
Hansen, Chadwick. Witches at Salem. New York: George Braziller Inc, 1969.print.

 

"The Salem Witch Trials." American Eras. Vol. 2: The Colonial Era, 1600-1754. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 268-269. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 21 Apr. 2011.