# 13 - She's a witch!

#13- The Salem Witch Trials, Salem, Massachusetts 

                                   What could represent Halloween better than witches and hangings? NOTHING!!!  Which is why..HAHAHA...which!.. get it? ..Which witch is which? Which is why we're heading to Salem for the Salem witch trials...This would be like one of the greatest trips for me... ever! I would go see Boston first  and then check out cool witch deaths! 
                                
             The trials were a series of hearings and  prosecutions that occurred between February 1692 and may of 1693. Hundreds of people, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft. The hysteria is believed to have started with Rev. Samuel Parris when he became the town's first ordained minister in 1689. He was disliked due to his greedy and rigid behavior.   Rivalry between families who depended on agriculture and those families whose wealth came from the port of Salem, also contributed to the discord within the town. The people were convinced this was the work of the devil. When the Reverends daughter and niece began throwing "temper tantrums" the local doctor claimed the girls were possessed. So THAT's what the problem has been this whole time! My kids are possessed! Why didn't I think of that?  And they so totally are....Anyway, it wasn't long before another girl began showing the same signs of the mysterious illness. The girls blamed 3 women for what what had happened to them. A slave, an elderly destitute woman and a homeless beggar. To make a long story short, all hell breaks loose. This woman is a witch, that woman is a witch...Witches everywhere! People became neurotic freakazoids and the hangings began...It wasn't long before there were was only 1 guy left -the town drunk who staggered around wondering where the heck everyone had disappeared to. 

               24 women were taken to "Gallows Hill" and executed. Their spirits still haunt the hill. 

                         *footnote*
                                    Just so you are aware, Salem eventually came out admitted the trials were a mistake, and compensated the families of those convicted. As well they should have! Good form, officials of Salem! They even  took the afternoon off work so they could find each and every one of the family members, hand them a check and personally say: "oops."  Wasn't that nice of them?