Salem Witch Trials

The examination of what is true or false is fascinating, especially when the what we hear is told to us by other people. It has been proven that the human mind will alter our perceptions of events, which can occur for various reasons, such as familiarity bias, traumatic experiences, mental illness, one’s own belief systems, etc. Understanding the Salem Witch trials through a modern lens lets us understand that the people condemned were not practicing witchcraft, but rather the circumstances of that time and place may have led some to be convinced of occurrences that did not really happen. We know that these people were extremely religious and believed in the existence of supernatural beings such as angels and demons. Their world view involved an evil force, such as Satan or the Devil, to be committed to drawing them away from God by convincing them to sin. When tragedy struck these people, such as illness and the loss of livestock, their beliefs led them to blame these happenings on the work of the devil, through the proxy of a witch. The human mind naturally searches for answers to unknown circumstances, so when people fell ill and didn’t have the knowledge of germ theory, their easy conclusion was the work of the devil. Additionally, these settlers arrived from an ocean away to a new location with many unknown elements. The native people were a general mystery to these people, other than the knowledge the settlers had of the natives speaking other languages and following cultural practices dissimilar from their own. The settlers feared the land and people in this new place, and that fear likely impacted their ability to process events rationally. I have really enjoyed getting to learn more about these historical events and how the human mind reacted to the circumstances at Salem.