The Salem Witch Trials

Target

List and describe the causes and effects of the Salem Witchcraft trials.

The Salem Witch Trials

Causes

Social class issues

Attention for the accusers

Mass hysteria

Religious beliefs

Effects

19 dead (hanged)

4 died in jail

150 were put in prison

Effects cont’

People began questioning the existence of witches

Changed the way they looked at the world

This led to Enlightenment

Enlightenment

Use of scientific reasoning and logic to discover natural laws

The world is not run by miracles or magic, but fixed mathematical laws

Thomas Jefferson- used reason

to justify natural laws

Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment

The Great Awakening

Religious revival of the strict Puritan code

Jonathan Edwards

“People must feel their sinfulness”

Others traveled from village to village preaching

Effects Enlightenment and the Great Awakening, though opposite,

both caused people to question traditional authority.

As a result, people would begin to question the traditional authority of Britain

No talk of Independence…yet

The French and Indian War