Puritanism

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witchcraft on March 1, 1692.
In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris became very ill. When she failed to improve, the village doctor, William Griggs, was called in. After much deliberation, Griggs concluded that the problem was witchcraft. This put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the death of nineteen men and women. In addition to those nineteen people, one man named Giles Corey was crushed to death. Seventeen others died in prison and the lives of many were irrevocably changed.
To better understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to understand the time period in which the accusations of witchcraft occurred. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics, and rivalry with nearby Salem Town all played a part in the stress. There was also a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of an attack by ...

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