Question

How did racism play a role in the Salem Witch Trials?

Answer 1

• The Salem Witch trials were a hunt for the undesirables in society. They were accused and put in front of a jury but were guilty until proven innocent which was almost impossible to do. When people were hung, it was a town event where people were passionately chanting because of the "excitement to rid the town of the devil". After 19 had been hung, they shut down the witch hunt because they realized that it was just a game to those who were accusing.
• When the Witch Trials were going on the community estranged itself from the witches because they didn't want the dark spirits near them. Those accused no longer have friends and even their families are questioning if they should still stay in touch.
• With racism, people tend to estrange themselves from the race that they feel superior to. They feel as if the person of a certain race, isn't looked at for their personality, but for their tone of skin. One example of estrangement in racism is when the "seperate but equal" law came out. This says "Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities was to remain equal.
• In Salem the citizens were encouraged to throw each other under the bus even though they weren't witches, just so that they wouldn't be accused themselves. They would say their neighbors were witches just because of previous grudges that they now had an opportunity to get the ultimate revenge. People were so gullible, that there was no hope or proving yourself innocent in these cases so the accuser always won.
• The early associations between Blackness and the devil played out during the Salem witch trials in 1692 and 1693. In nearly every instance, fearful Puritans described the devil as a “Black man.”
• In accordance with the tradition of Protestant countries of the time, most of those found guilty were hanged rather than burned at the stake. (One man who refused to confess or plead innocence, knowing that either way his land would be taken from his family, was pressed to death.)
• In American political discourse, the Salem witch trials often serve as metaphor for the dangerously irrational political passions of the mob. They are of particular scholarly interest for research on gender, class, age and race.
• As the historical event unfolded, some girls in town denounced a West Indian servant; many believe that racism had a great deal to do with the whole affair. Moreover, more women were accused than men (although not nearly in the same numbers as in Europe), making for interesting observations on sexism within the US.