As is true with many historic events, it is difficult to assign the blame for the start of the Salem Witch Trials to a single person. Abigail Williams, Betty Parris and the other girls who began the accusations must take some of the blame. Samuel Parris bears some responsiblity because he played it up as bewitchment to the masses. The other ministers in Essex County are in a similar boat for not denouncing Parris as out for vengence on the town that had tormented him. Dr. Griggs could have stopped the whole mess in its tracks if he had just diagnosised the girls with a physical ailment, even a made up one, instead of witchcraft.
illness and some sort of trance to get out of getting in trouble. The city council was told of this. Once the news leaked out everybody blamed the people they hated and said they were a witch. They would put on an act and pretend to be taken over and in trance during the trial of the person and got the person burned as a witch.
EDIT:
First, that is only a theory. We do not know concretly how it started. The girls using magic and then lying has no evidence to support it. Otehr theories include ergot, a fungus that caused hallucinations when consumed, in the wheat, tensions between Salem Town and Salem Village, and encephalitis.
Second: Salem witches were hanged, not burned.
No one person could have started the Salem witch trials. Betty Parris and Abigail Williams are partly responsible for beginning accusations and teh rest of teh girls for continuing them. It was Reverand Parris' fault for playing up the supposed affliction. It was Dr. Griggs fault for diagnosising witchcraft without looking for alternatives.
Governer Phipps after his wife was accused
Betty and Abigail
In salem, Massachusets
The Salem witch hunts happened in the English colony of Massachusetts, in what is now the USA.
19
It was started by the people who were accused
Abigail Williams and Betty Parris
The Salem Witch Trials is NOT a title for a book. It is the name that describes a witch hysteria, a witch hunt and witch trials that occurred in 1692 in Salem Massachusetts and other towns in Essex County.
Salem witch trials.
Salem Witch Hunt Examine the Evidence - 2011 was released on: USA: 3 October 2011 (Salem, Massachusetts)
The Salem witch hunts happened in the English colony of Massachusetts, in what is now the USA.
In Salem, Massachussets............. Salem Village
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, he compared the 20th Century "hunt for communists" to that of the Salem Witch Trials.
1692-1693.
19
It was started by the people who were accused
they started in february 1692.
It was started by the people who were accused
19 people were executed
Abigail Williams and Betty Parris