Salem Witch trials

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• People believed that the Devil could give powers.
• The people who got these powers where known as witches.

When did it start?

• Started after women from the Salem Village accused many of Witchcraft.
• Those women where taken to court and where soon executed.

What is Witchcraft?

• The practice of magic and powers relating to spirits and the devil.

Deaths/Cases

• In the Salem Village there where 200 cases of witchcraft.
• Of those 200, only 20 where killed.
• Most where young women, but 5 of them where men.

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• Soon there where people being accused of witchcraft all throughout Massachusetts
• They made a special court system in the Salem Village specially for witchcraft

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• Soon everyone was blaming each other for practicing witchcraft, even if they weren't.
• The higher class would blame lower classes to try and eliminate the lower classes.
• Considering only 20 people died, their plan did not work well.

The big question

• Why did people believe in witches in the first place?
• In the 17th century there was small scientific and medical knowledge
• They used witches for their way to explain things such as why people would get sick or how the human body worked.

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• After the word of witches started to spread that is what they started believe was the cause of their unexplainables.
• Witches became the enemy.

THE PRESENT

• The belief in witches is still around today.
• There is a such thing as "witch hunters" today, and they go after whoever they believe to be a witch.
• Not many today are accused of witchcraft today, there are only 3 known cases from 2010 till today.