History
During the winter of 1692, in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts, something terrible happened. Salem Massachusetts became the center of a horrible tragedy, which changed the life of many people. It was a time of fear, because of bad crops, Indian raids, and diseases. The people of Salem Village had to blame something, or someone. The people of Salem Village accused people, and called them witches. They were accused of all those terrible things and more. Salem Village was a small, farming community with a population of 550. It was smaller than Salem Town, and about eight miles away. Salem Town was a large port, and was a prosperous fishing community The two towns had the same minister, and used the same church as the people in Salem Village. At that time there was two groups in the village. Those who wanted to be separate from Salem Town, and those who did not. Samuel Parris was the minister of the group that did want to be separate. He helped divide the groups even more by his sermons. He called the group that did not want to separate, evil and bad, and the group that did, good and righteous. The Reverend Parris and his wife had two children living with them. They were Betty, their daughter, and Abigail, their ni
The governor's wife was accused, so the governor put an end to the trials. It ended September 22, 1693. That was also the day that the last eight people were killed. By the end of the trials, two hundred people, and two dogs had been accused. Nineteen people and the two dogs were killed. The rest were in jail. It had been a horrible time for everyone, near, or far away from Salem Village. One way of convicting someone was called spectral evidence. An example of this is if someone had an argument with their neighbor, and a few days later a cow died. They could use that evidence to accuse their neighbor. Another example is, if a person did not like someone, they could say that they saw a little yellow bird over the accused, and accused person would be arrested. There was no way to fight against spectral evidence. If someone was accused, they were as good as convicted. After the trials, though, an individual needed solid evidence to convict somebody or the accused had to confess. This was what made the Salem witch trials so different from any other trials. Never before had spectral evidence been used to identify witches.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1075
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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