Essay Archive - Witchcraft at Salem
Witchcraft at Salem
In 1692, nineteen villagers were put to death in Salem, Massachusetts.
The reason for conviction was the torment of teenaged girls by supernatural
means: witchcraft. These teenagers had experienced "pricking" and
"pinching" sensations, and some contorted into strange bodily positions,
reaching unusual postures of extreme rigidity. The village doctor blamed
the abnormal behavior on the supernatural; he delared, "An evil hand is on
them."(1) With those words began the greatest witchhunt in America's
history.
In 1976, Linnda Caporeal from the University of California at Santa
Barbara explained the actions of the g....
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