The Salem Witch Trials were a major event for colonial American times and for it's self. It began with two little girls, who suffered from fits of halluanations. The elders and the girls attributed these fits to witchcraft. The trails were held in the village of Salem about eight miles outside of Salem town in the state of Massachusetts. So why did these events happen and what are the reasons they carried out the deaths of the people?.
There are four main reasons historians believed this event happened. One of these reasons is the the beginning of a land war. Why could this have been a reason for the trails? One reason could have been a depression. The English had begun to put a tax on everything from books to tea. Then there was always a war with the Indians over land disputes and attacks on villages. The second possible reason was food shortages. Many colonists had bad harvests because of weather conditions and not knowing how to plant in this new land. Some had food shortages because Indians stole their food as a way to scare them off. The third reason and possibly the most thought of reason were disputes with neighbors over land and money. Some neighbors fought because they thought they should have some of their neighbors land. Greed was a big problem for these people. There were several people involved in the situation. But the two major ones were Reverend Samuel Parris, who was the father of nine year old Betty Parris. Betty Parris was the first of the two girls who began having fits as mentioned before. Then her cousin Abigail Williams, who was living with the Parris" due to her parents death, began having these same fits which involved hulltionations, not eating and making strange animal sounds. This strange sickness was blamed on witchcraft brought into the home by the Parris's slave Tituba, who was brought over from the island of Barbados, which Mr. Parris inherited from his father.
