Essay On The Salem Witch Trial
Breaking the law was no joke back in colonial times. Punishment were extremely harsh. The convict will be punished by physical pain or sometimes death. Do to the poor judgment from the court's most of the accused were innocent. Even the defendants of the accused were punished, if the accused were proven guilty. One of the crimes that were taken really seriously was Witchcraft, which was punished by death. A lot of innocent women died during those year in Salem. The punishments for crime in colonial times were not fair. The death penalty was one of the main ways a person was punished. The first person executed for murder was John Billington. He had shot and killed a man during a quarrel. After the incident he was accused of murder and was
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However most of the victims executed during the witchcraft trials were innocent. It all began in 1692 when people began screaming and doing strange dances in the woods. As the settlers began to notice the strange events occurring. They decided that the punishment for witchcraft was death. The only way some lived was when they confessed and helped convicted others. Some of the confessors lied and pointed fingers at innocent. During the salem witchcraft 20 people were executed. Now some people suggest the girls were suffering from epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, mental illness. One woman named Susannah Martin was accused of witchcraft. She had been accused of witchcraft before but she was found innocent. This time she was accused again by her neighbors and was hanged. Susannah had been extremely religious. While she was waiting for execution she comforted herself by reading her bible. Later on it was found that she had been linked to an inheritance dispute. During this time people were scared and miss judged some things. “It was the darkest and most desponding period in the civil history of New England. The people, whose ruling passion then was, as it has ever since been, a love for constitutional rights, had, a few years before, been thrown into dismay by the loss of their charter, and, from that time, kept in a feverish state of anxiety respecting their political destinies”( Brooks 1). After the witch trials ended people realized that some of the things done was
However most of the victims executed during the witchcraft trials were innocent. It all began in 1692 when people began screaming and doing strange dances in the woods. As the settlers began to notice the strange events occurring. They decided that the punishment for witchcraft was death. The only way some lived was when they confessed and helped convicted others. Some of the confessors lied and pointed fingers at innocent. During the salem witchcraft 20 people were executed. Now some people suggest the girls were suffering from epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, mental illness. One woman named Susannah Martin was accused of witchcraft. She had been accused of witchcraft before but she was found innocent. This time she was accused again by her neighbors and was hanged. Susannah had been extremely religious. While she was waiting for execution she comforted herself by reading her bible. Later on it was found that she had been linked to an inheritance dispute. During this time people were scared and miss judged some things. “It was the darkest and most desponding period in the civil history of New England. The people, whose ruling passion then was, as it has ever since been, a love for constitutional rights, had, a few years before, been thrown into dismay by the loss of their charter, and, from that time, kept in a feverish state of anxiety respecting their political destinies”( Brooks 1). After the witch trials ended people realized that some of the things done was