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Salem Witch Trials Historical Report

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Salem Witch Trials Historical Report
Zoe Gabrielson
US History
Historical Report: The New Nation Forms
The Witches of Salem/The Salem Witch Trials “The devil came to me and bid me serve him” (Blumburg). According to Jess Blumburg, a writer and a historian, these were the words that started the Salem witch trials. Tituba was a slave living with the Parris family when she was swept away into the nonsense that was the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials happened in Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. Around 200 people, in the town of salem, were accused of witchcraft, and twenty people actually hung. The Salem witch trials are known to the world as a large conspiracy. Today when people read about Salem in history textbooks they think about how deranged the people in the town
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These people were called witches and were prosecuted heavily until about the end of the 15th century. In Salem Massachusetts the witch infamous witch hunt was partly caused by a new unpopular reverend named Samuel Parris. In 1692 when his daughter and niece began having fits it was easy for him and his daughters to blame it on witchcraft. Another child named Ann Putnam also began experiencing fits, the three girls blamed these fits on witchcraft and claimed they could see the devil. The first three people the girls accused was: Tituba, a Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless woman; and Sarah Osborne, a widowed poor woman. It was easy for the towns people to believe these three women were witches because they were at the bottom of the society. From here the court demanded the women confess, or they would hang. Tituba was the first to confess to save her own life. This confession caused the townspeople, and the people of the court, to truly believe that witchcraft was real and in the town of Salem. This enabled the three girls to accuse anyone in the town they liked. In turn it enabled Parris to tell his daughter and niece who to accuse, and he was able to rid the town of his

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