So, the girls began accusing neighbors of being the witches who tormented them. So when two girls began having twitching “fits” that became so violent their bodies contorted into grotesque postures, the doctors diagnosed them as being bewitched. The fears generated by this belief moved the colonial government to create laws that made practicing witchcraft punishable by death. Books had been written by “respectable men” about the terrifying effects of witchcraft. “Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem” by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic 2011) is the non-fiction story of the witch-hunt that began with the mysterious illness of two cousins, Betty Parris, eight, and Abigail Williams, twelve.Īmerican Puritans of the 17 th century believed the natural world was subject to forces from the “Invisible” world. Do you have warts? Moles? Hot flashes? Cold sweats? Do you twitch? If so, you’re rather lucky not to be living in colonial America- specifically, Salem, Massachusetts, 1692-because those maladies could have marked you as a witch.
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