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The Puritans were English protestants who believed that the church of England did not reform enough, and due to this they faced religious persecution in England. After moving to Holland(Netherlands), they decided as a group to attempt to settle in the New World far away from any religious persecution, and establish a city on a hill. They wanted to establish a communal society embraced in the harmonies of puritanism.

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After coming to America the puritans settled in the region of America today known as New England. Many of their settlements were in present Day Massachusetts, and Maine. In the very early days of America a lot of these settlements were the biggest in all of British America. All of them had some significance, but none more than the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. A small city with a population of 1400 people.

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The Salem Witch Trails have become one of the most researched and well known events in American history, and American folk lore. It all started when a couple of young girls were being babysat by a voodoo practicing slave by the name of Tituba. This slave showed the girls voodoo tricks, and soon enough the parents found out and accused her of Witchcraft. The story doesn't end their though. For some reason the girls were thought of as being possessed by the devil, and therefore could point out the witches of the township. Over the course of the next year the girls accused more than 200 people of practicing witch craft, and as a result 19 people were hung and executed because of this. We will never know why the girls did this. Were they actually possessed by the Devil, or did they do that all in the pursuit of power, fame, and glory. WE WILL NEVER KNOW

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Obviously in the late 17th century, in a very religious city, witch craft was not exactly a crime that was met with light punishment. If you were to be accused of witch craft, even if it was proven you weren't one, your life, and social status was ruined forever. But that was if you were lucky. If you did not confess to witchcraft it was likely that you would be hung, and if you did confess to witchcraft you would spend the rest of your life in prison.

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Although nowadays very few people are being accused of witchcraft, that doesn't exactly mean that witch hunts are in the dustbin of history. First off we need to define what a witch hunt is. According to Google the official definition of a witch hunt is "A campaign directed against a person or group of people holding unorthodox views." In that case there are many examples of witch hunts that we have lived through in our life time. From the persecution of communists, or communist sympathizers during the red scare, to the persecution of Arab Americans post 9-11, to the most recent witch hunt in our country of Donald Trump and his supporters being deemed Nazis, and fascists.