THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS By Kaleb Ricardo Timea

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS By: Kaleb, Ricardo, Timea, Dasia, Miranda

WHAT WERE SOME BELIEFS ABOUT WITCHCRAFT AND WITCHES PEOPLE HELD IN THE PAST? • Belief in magic was almost universal in the past. • Almost all cultures believed that you could use supernatural means, to help make crops grow or to make humans or animals fertile. • Beliefs that witches made a pact or agreement with the devil and agreement to worship.

WHAT WERE THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS? • The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693.

WHAT ARE SOME POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS? • Glover was a disagreeable old woman described by her husband as a witch; this may have been why she was accused of casting spells on the Goodwin children. After the event, four out of six Goodwin children began to have strange fits, or what some people referred to as "the disease of astonishment". The manifestations attributed to the disease quickly became associated with witchcraft. Symptoms included neck and back pains, tongues being drawn from their throats, and loud random outcries; other symptoms included having no control over their bodies such as becoming limber, flapping their arms like birds, or trying to harm others as well as themselves. These symptoms would fuel the craze of 1692.

WHAT OPTIONS DID AN ACCUSED WITCH HAVE IN SALEM? • They could admit they were witches, and they would be hanged. • The other choice was deny it and go through a trial and usually end up in cases where they were killed. • 1 person denied being a witch and he was prest to death. • 19 people were hanged.

HOW QUICKLY DID THINGS GET OUT OF HAND IN SALEM? Things at Salem got out of hand faster than the people thought it would. As the future became closer they found it harder to control everything that was happening around them.

HOW LONG DID THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS GO ON FOR? • It was between January 1692 and May 1693.

WHAT SORT OF EVIDENCE WAS USED TO ARREST ACCUSED WITCHES? • If the accused witch touched the victim while the victim was having a fit, and the fit then stopped, that meant the accused was the person who had afflicted the victim.

DO "WITCH HUNTS" STILL HAPPEN? • Witch hunts still happen to this day. It was proven that witch hunts will happen no matter where you live. • Witch hunts will more then likely last until the end of the time.

CAN YOU THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THIS COUNTRY THAT WOULD ALSO BE CONSIDERED A "WITCH HUNT"? • An example of a witch hunt in this country world be what took place after 9/11 in the killing of Muslims.