Salem+Witchcraft


 * SALEM WITCHCRAFT...**

The puritains came over from holland/england in 1629. they were a religious group led by John Winthrop. They were upper-middle class and they were educated. They settled in Salem, Massachusetts.

What they believed in
 * no excesive laughing
 * no dancing with the opposite sex
 * no wearing bright colors
 * if you were not baptized before you died, then you were going to hell
 * men are inherently evil

Although there were witch hunts world-wide, the ones in salem trials are focused on the most. it's estimated that somewhere between 60,000 and 200,000 people died in the witch hunts in europe beween the 1500's and 1600's. in europe they were trialed by ordeal. they would burn you, drown you, pile stones on top of you, and put you into boiling water, and if you survied those things then you were a witch. the salem trials were different than that. in salem, you were tried in an official court of law, the bible could be used as evidence against you, the accuser was always right, and you had to pay your own stay in jail. the puritains were very strong belivers in god. and they were also very strong believer in the devil and demons (which is partly where the witch hysteria came from). they defined witchcraft as entering into a compact with the devil in exchange for certain powers to do evil. there was really no one cause for the salem witch trials. in the book The Crucible (which is 97% true) it somewhat attributes it to a group of young girls who were caught dancing in the woods. They lie to get themselves out of it, and the lies keep getting bigger and bigger until they start accusing people of being witches. there were an estimated 140 people [|accused] of witchcraft in salem. and 9 people were hanged, one was pressed to death, and about 13 people died in jail. so only about 24 people were [|killed]. the trials stopped due to a dropping of public support and lack of belief. some respected minister began to believe that some innocent peopl were being accused and excecuted based on unreliable evidence. because in those days, someone's word was all the evidence they needed to condemn you. the trials stopped after people started ignoring the accusations, and the people in jail were pardoned.

I found this [|site.] that lets you "experience" what it was like to be in the salem witchcraft trials. check it out. I got some of my info from this [|witchcraft.] site.