Persuasive Speech - Salem Witch Trials

Persuasive Speech

Option: One.

Character: Concerned citizen of Salem just before the hanging of Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor.

Concerned citizens of Salem, if it were a good mornin’ I would bid you that, however it is not. This mornin’ a grave injustice is looming like the grey clouds before a storm. This morning we will bear witness to yet another brutal and senseless murder of two innocent Christians, Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor. Ladies and gentlemen, for four long months the very court that proposed to protect us from all evil has deceived us and in fact perpetuated the evil doings running rife throughout our fair town. For four long months a prodigious fear has settled itself in our very hearts, a fear of the unknown and a fear of becoming one of the accused. My friends, it must be clear to any truly Christian society that the devil be not among us in the form of witchery or wizardry, but in the manifestation of vengeance! I implore you to take a stand, to band together and to put a stop to this madness before it completely takes hold of Salem and you too are on trial for witchcraft!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is not God’s work to kill. It is not God’s work to coerce innocent Christians into admitting a connection with the devil when none so obviously exists! “Thou shalt not kill,” is but one of the ten fundamental commandments legislated by the Lord himself in the Bible. Any true Christian would recognise the brutality of these witchcraft hangings as simply a blatant disregard for the Holy Bible itself. Has it not occurred to the officials of the court that those that have confessed have only done so out of the fear of hangin’ for telling the truth? Aye, Goody Good and Goody Osborne have confessed, but alas, it was naught for witchcraft but instead a desperate ploy to live. They did not possess the moral fibre to uphold their integrity as the virtuous Rebecca Nurse or honourable John Proctor. ‘Twas also the guilt that drove Bridget Bishop to confessin’ a connection with the devil, for she lived with Bishop for three years before marriage. Isaac Ward, who drank his family to ruin, also confessed obviously out of the deep, deep guilt he felt for destroying his family. These confessions alone prove to any intelligent citizen of Salem, that the word of such people cannot be trusted for not only are their reputations already tainted, but their confessions are only a desperate ploy to live or out of their own deep-seeded guilt.

Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor are two upstanding members of our close-knit community. How is it that Rebecca Nurse, a wise and kind lady and John Proctor, a well-respected and steady mannered farmer have become the victims of such vengeful accusations? Rebecca Nurse, who is widely known for her incorruptible nature and John Proctor, to whom many often flock for advice, both possess these favourable reputations because they have earned them. They have earned their trust. They have earned their respect. They have earned their love. Why should we then persecute Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, two of the few who are brave enough to die as testimony to the truth? We shall not Salem. We shall not allow this grand injustice to come to fruition!

It be naught the devil that possesses the accused rather the devil in the form of parochial jealousy that possesses the accusers. Brothers and sisters of Salem, if we hang the saintly Rebecca Nurse we will be committing a grave injustice. It is now obvious that dear Rebecca Nurse’s accusation was a result of not witchery on her behalf, but instead the jealousy of Ann and Thomas Putnam. Rebecca Nurse had been blessed with many children and in a rage of jealousy, the sour Ann Putnam, who had tried for