Salem Witch Crisis.....

[Feralpeg]

PBS has an excellent video on this that you can watch at their site. My high school English class did a project on this after reading "The Crucible". Very interesting topic.

 

[Desnik]

If you ever get a chance to visit Salem I highly recommend it. They have a play which is a reenactment of a real trial that is so interesting and sad. You can see the dungeons where the accused were kept and it was so sickening to see how these people were treated all because someone lied about them. It was a sad time in history. They have numerous museums and information there and you learn so much about that time period. I highly doubt that any of those accused were actual witches.

And yes,there are real "witches" living and practicing in Salem. Many own local shops and love speaking to people about the Wiccan religion teaching about the truths of it and clearing up the many misconceptions.

 

[Aisling]

Mass hysteria, much like teenage crazes nowadays.

Unfortunately, innocent people lost their lives.

This is what I think, too.

 

[HelenaB]

A perfect case of mass hysteria.

 

[FredinFL]

If you go, don't miss the House of the Seven Gables and only do one museum, they are all pretty much the same thing. $$$ save your pennies.

 

[rockydek]

There are witches in Salem now in this day and age.
real ones

I live near Salem Mass...Laurie Cabot is a nowaday real witch ...You may find some info on the 1692 witch trials...if you google her. She has a shop in Salem and has tours. Salem is the place to be on Halloween.

 

[daisax]

Salem, Mass has the tourist attractions, but the bulk of the action took place in Salem Village, which, as one writer put it: "quietly changed its name to Danvers and tried to forget the whole thing."

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The teenage girls needed an excuse for being found naked together out in the woods.

 

[CurlyGirl]

Attention 'hos who let things get out of hand. Plain and simple.

 

[Bungle]

I watched a show where a person discussed the possiblity that a fungus (or the like) grew on the wheat crop that cause halucinations. It is a rare occurrance but the conditions leading up to the witch trials were the right conditions for this event.

I beleive the orginal were halucination but some of the later were just for revenge. IIRC the whole thing ended when the governor of Mass's wife was called a witch.

I seen this too on the History channel.