Witches of Salem, Massachusetts

Witches of Salem, Massachusetts
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Witches of Salem, Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, a region called Salem, some people practiced witchcraft. This practice occurred in the period between early 1692 and mid-1693. Many locals, more than 200 individuals, were accused of witchcraft (Blumberg, 2007), and some were executed after being found guilty by the courts. Eighteen years later, the colonial government pardoned those accused and compensated their families due to the hard times they endured due to witchcraft accusations.
Many factors led to people practicing and believing in witchcraft; there was a division between Salem which brought environmental and cultural influences. Salem was divided into two regions: Salem farms and Salem town (Le Beau, 2016). The town was more developed besides being a port town; they practiced trade and controlled food prices from villagers in the Salem farms who were poor and oppressed. These differences made villagers believe in witchcraft as they thought it would make them powerful to control events and people. Farmers wanted to harm their oppressors who controlled them both politically and economically. Also practiced Christianity when a Reverend was accused of witchcraft at one point.
Residents identified witches through physical and verbal signs, and testimonies of two or more eyewitnesses to acts of witchcraft were used to identify the witches. (Goss, 2008). Spectral evidence also was an outward sign to identify the witches; some were seen to interact with an unseen person or people. Those accused practiced harm to others and property hence being reported to authorities. They consulted with familiars and were mostly seen in the presence of their familiars. In their body, they had a mark called the devil's mark, and cats and other creatures in their house. Witches or the accused did not reside in the Lord’s Prayer without stumbling. When practicing their witch, they used dolls to work their curses; all these helped identify the witches and were highly used during trials of the accused in court.
The girl’s odd behavior included screaming,...