Preview

How the Salem Witch Trials relate to the changes occuring during the late 17th century in colonial British America.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
729 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How the Salem Witch Trials relate to the changes occuring during the late 17th century in colonial British America.
Colonial America was bursting with changes throughout the late 17th century and into the early 18th century. A new time era known as "The Enlightenment" came about which brought many advances in medicine, science, botany, and education. Also, the "Great Awakening", a time of great religious revival flourished. A well known event, the Salem Witch Trials were known as an essential turning point in history. It showed how religion and government changed through history. British America became a more stable environment with mixed results due to these turning points.

"The Enlightenment" was a period known for many advances. Disease was still strong, and Cotton Mather and Zabdiel Boylston are credited for the first inoculation of any kind. The Enlightenment inspired new technology. Scientific advancement was by far the most interesting. Sir Isaac Newton is acknowledged with his theory of gravity and John Locke was accredited for noting the fact that knowledge is gained by experience. Up until these theories had been proved many people believed that spiritual Gods controlled their destiny. Advancement in education improved also, with many schools and colleges being formed. Studies of botany and plant life helped with crop growth and supported families. Many individual began medical training and surgery practices were proving to be safer than in the past.

Religion was known to vary greatly between cultural groups. The Great Awakening was a wave of religious revivals. It quickly swept thru New England and increased conversions and church memberships. It was once believed that life was predestined by God, but the happenings of the Great Awakening ended that notion. The movement shattered the existing church structure of the colonies, as congregations wakened to the teaching style or revivalist, or New Light, ministries. There views were liberal, explaining the consequences of leading a "bad life".

We are able to compare the events of the Salem Witch trials with that of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Apush CH.4 identifications

    • 1041 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Great Awakening: The Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals in the North American British colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries. During these "awakenings," a great many colonists found new meaning (and new comfort) in the religions of the day. Also, a handful of preachers made names for themselves.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials are known as a series of people being accused and prosecuted of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts beginning in February 1692 until May 1693. The trials began after a group of girls claimed that they were possessed by the devil. Several local women were accused of witchcraft and this began the wave of hysteria that would forever haunt Salem and leave a painful legacy for a long time to come. Nearly every major school of historians has attempted to explain the answer to the mystery of the trials, trying to understand why they occurred. From Marxists who blame class conflict, to Freudians who believe in mass hysteria, the more ecologically based historians who put the blame on hallucinogenic ergot fungus, and now more…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris became ill, and when the children’s health did not improve, the village doctor William Griggs was called in to help. He swiftly diagnosed the girls with bewitchment and the famous witch trials of Salem took off. Salem had recently had an epidemic of Small Pox and had always had a strong belief in the Devil. These two factors added with the constant fear of attack from warring tribes caused the villagers to be suspicious and constantly on edge. More than 150 men and women were arrested as the girls kept accusing more and more people of the source of their pain and hallucinations. Bridget Bishop was the first of the arrested to be tried in court. She was found guilty, and as witchcraft was then punishable by death, she was hanged. Gallows were set up in the town square just for the hangings. During the three days after the first hanging, 13 women and 5 men were hanged until Governor William Phipps disbanded the gallows in October 1692. In all, 19 men and women were hanged, one man was crushed to death, and several others died in jail (History of Salem).…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Awakening impacted the people in the 13 American colonies. Settlers were encouraged to disregard sectarian differences which brought religious, political, and cultural unity among the colonies. However, some churches divided into factions based on class ranks; for instance, “Old Sides” among Presbyterians and “Old Lights” among Congregationalist. Revivalism later resounded as “New Sides” and “Old Lights”. This event undermined traditional views of authority which contributed to the development of the American identity.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), this was a passage that the Puritans lived by. The Salem Witch Trials took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692 and claimed the lives of many innocent people. It led to the hangings of almost twenty, leaving more than one hundred in prison. A group of young girls in Salem Village accused several local women of witchcraft while being claimed of being possessed by the devil. This is causing a wave of hysteria to spread throughout colonial Massachusetts.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Christian World is in a dead sleep. Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it” (George Whitefield). A time of spiritual renewal, a time where the religious barriers were broken, a time known as the Great Awakening. This was such an important time in history, it swept the nation, and had a big impact on New England. When the Church of England was established as the Reigning Church of the country, the Great Awakening was put in motion. Religion became an unchanging routine, the people did not feel the connection to god anymore, so they began to put emotions into it, they spoke to god with their heart and soul. The Great Awakening was this time period of spiritual renewal, caused by tiresome religious…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Awakening of 1735-1745 was a reaction to a decline in piety and a carelessness of morals within the Congregational Churches of New England. Although the Great Awakening stimulated dramatic conversions and an increase in church membership, it also provoked conflicts and divisions within the established church. This striking revival of religious piety and its emphasis on salvation ultimately transformed the religious order of Connecticut. The decline in piety among the second generation of Puritans, which stemmed from economic changes, political transformations, and Enlightenment rationalism, was the primary cause of the Great Awakening.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Awakening Dbq

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Great Awakening was when individuals woke up to the need of religion in their lives, and it held onto the oppressed, for example, agriculturists, the blacks and the slaves. On the other hand, Enlightenment stayed in the savvy people's hands and the researchers. In spite of the fact that the Great Awakening was a reaction against the Enlightenment and John Winthrop's concept of a city on a hill; yet it was likewise a long term reason for the Revolution. Some time recently, pastors spoke to a high society of sorts. Awakening priests were not generally appointed, separating appreciation for betters. The new religions that developed were a great deal more democratic in their methodology. The general message was one of greater fairness. The Great Awakening was likewise a national event. It was the first real occasion that every one of the colonies could share, serving to separate contrasts between them. There was no such scene in England, further highlighting changes in the middle of Americans and their cousins over the ocean. In fact this religious change had stamped political…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Salem Witch Trials Essay Here lies a point in history that is usually passed over without a second thought, but in fact there are some deep truths of society in 1692 Colonial America. With little research, one can find that in 1692 in Massachusetts, a series of charges were held against a group of dangerous witches. Every researcher looking for the truth, though, should ask this serious and important question: Were the Salem Witch Trials truly fair and just? Or were they just the over-reactions of a superstitious community to a childish prank?…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials of 1690s was an extremely dark time in American history. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed during the hysteria. The events that led to this hysteria caused the people of Salem to be deeply affected by this terrible time in our history. With that in mind, the outcome of these trials caused people to be killed even if they were innocent. Historians believe that this time in our history was immensely unfair and no one had a fair trial.…

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many historians would define “The First Great Awakening” as the regeneration of religion and religious piety that rose through the colonies of America in the 1700s. The revitalization was much bigger then just religion it could be considered a broad movement. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean an evangelical upsurge was taking place. In protestant cultures during the middle decades of the eighteenth century a new faith began to grow that would encounter the age of enlightenment it confirmed the correctness that in order to truly be religious it meant trusting the heart instead of the head. Treasuring feeling rather than actual thinking.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As stated in the text, The Great Awakening is “the North American religious revival of the Great Awakening”. This religious revival grew the resistance of the rationalist approach to religion. This movement spread throughout all the colonies and was used to attack enlightened theology. This was another phase of the protestant reformation where people would experience “new lights” and “old lights”. New lights are people who converted during this revolt while old lights is the belief in a personal relationship with God inside and outside…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “About 139 people have been falsely accused in 2014, and the numbers have increased since,” according to the Huffington Post. When people are thrown into jail, their lives change and they become a different person; additionally, the ones around them also see them differently. Of the many falsely accused people, Brian Banks was a victim of a modern day witch-hunt that changed his life.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Enlightenment and Religious Revival As colonies grew and developed in the Americas, so too did the needs and wants of the people who lived within them. With all the mounting turmoil that was stirring, people’s moral compasses spun about wildly, contrasting sharply, chalk full of uncertainty. Access to knowledge was available to a vast array of people from all walks of life. This was the perfect recipe for a religious reformation, or The Great Awakening.…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over time, Enlightenment ideals have had an immense impact on contemporary and modern society. The Age of Enlightenment was a time during the 17th and 18th century in which scholars and philosophers began to question traditional ideas about society. Centuries of corruption and exploitation from numerous monarchies and the church, initiated intelligent people to speak out, and thus, the Enlightenment began. This Enlightenment changed the world by promoting new ideas concerning political, economic, and social values. These changes include equality for women, elimination of cruel and unusual punishment, and enforcement of religious toleration.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays