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This is a picture of Tituba.

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-Tituba was a West Indian slave who got accused of practicing witchcraft by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams. When she was arrested, she admitted to the crime she was being arrested for. Surprisingly enough, it saved her life, whether she was a witch or not. (Background Essay)

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This a picture of the historian Charles Upham.

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-A 19th century historian named Charles Upham believed that there were people who caused the Salem Witch Trials because they wanted fame. These people began accusing others as witches. If this is correct, then their plan was quite successful. (Doc. D)

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-Most of the accusers were single females at about 16-20 years of age. (Doc. B)

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-Most of the accused were married women at about 41-60 years of age. (Doc. A)

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-Most of the people who were killed for witchcraft were hanged, except for one man, Giles Cory, who was pressed to death. (Doc. A)

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- The Salem Witch Trials began on June 10, 1692 and ended on September 22, 1692. (Background Essay)

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-After the trials had ended, more than one hundred people convicted of witchcraft were released from jail. If the trials hadn't ended, most of them probably would have been executed. (Background Essay)

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- A witch is someone who has been inhabited or possessed by the Devil (Background Essay)

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- The Salem Witch Trials ended when the governor's wife was caused of being a witch. The picture below is of the governor.

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-The first death of the Salem Witch Trials.

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Another theoretical cause of the Salem Witch Trial hysteria was fear of what may happen. They feared witches and what would happen if they didn't get rid of them. In the background essay it says, "In Exodus 22:18 the Bible proclaimed, 'Though shalt not suffer a witch to live'". This shows how serious being a witch was and that they feared witches. The Salem Witch Trials started with one person being executed, and escalated because people got paranoid.

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The first death of 20 in the Salem Witch Trials was Bridget Bishop after being accused of witchcraft by women of Salem and Samuel Parris, the minister of the Salem Village.

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- 20 people were hanged or pressed to death, because they were thought to  be witches; 7 were men and 13 were women. (Doc. A)

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We also believe that the Salem Witch Trials were cause by a thirst for power. This is because women in the 1600's had little power or control over their daily lives. So to gain control, they created a hysteria by acting to make people believe that witches exist and some of the townspeople are. As said in Document D, "They soon... became intoxicated... by their terrible success of their imposture (acting), and were swept along by the frenzy they had occasioned...". Some may counter-argue that they truly believed in witches and that they weren't acting. But if you look at Document B, more than 85 % of the acussers were women. And if they truly were witches, both genders would accuse close to equally rather than mostly women.

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We believe that one possible explanation for the Salem Witch trials was biased opinions. In Document B, we noticed that it was mostly females being accused of witchcraft. One possible explanation for this could be prejudices of that time. Women were thought to be weaker and that they would be more susceptible to being possessed by the Devil. These opinions were the cause of many deaths. Women may have also accused other women to keep themselves safe.