At the end of the 17th century, a colony of Britain called New England was located on the territory of the present state of Massachusetts in America. The Puritans lived here, who not only did not recognize the authority of the official church, but also did not allow any holidays and even at least some fun in their lives. The people of Salem were so harsh that it was here that one of the worst episodes in the history of the witch hunt happened.
The trial that took place in Salem is called the Salem witch hunt. It began in February 1692 and ended in May 1693. During this time, 19 people were hanged, one man died during torture, about two hundred people were imprisoned. Some of the prisoners could not endure the harsh conditions in the cells and died without waiting for the verdict.
Residents of Salem not only completely excluded all kinds of entertainment from their daily routine. Due to the very poor soil, they had to work hard enough to grow at least some kind of crop. It is also worth noting that they were periodically attacked by Indian tribes - the picture of the life of the Puritans from Salem becomes completely bleak and dreary.
At the same time, people were sure that such a fate was their evil fate, and all they could do to help themselves was to pray harder. Even children were not allowed to have fun - instead of playing, they had to go fishing, hunting, or learn some craft from an early age. The fate of women was generally a foregone conclusion: since they were considered originally sinful creatures, then their life was completely subordinate to the man. The Puritans were also distinguished by religious fanaticism, stubbornness, sometimes even courage, frugality, bordering on avarice, asceticism and faith in their "chosenness."
Two girls - relatives of a local pastor - complained of strange seizures. The girls would suddenly start hiding from other people, convulsing, screaming and plugging their ears when trying to preach sermons to them. The local doctor also referred to a similar illness that occurred in children in a neighboring town - there then, as a result of an official court decision, a woman accused of witchcraft was hanged. The people of Salem were now sure that a witch had appeared among them.
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The mass psychosis that was then observed among the Salemians for a year was later even studied by scientists. The women who were pointed out by the pastor's "sick" relatives were sent to jail. Even men and children appeared among the prisoners. These were, as a rule, those residents who, for some reason, did not like the Puritans of Salem for a long time, now they had the opportunity to get rid of all the unwanted ones. From Salem, the case leapt to neighboring cities - they even brought Salem girls there, who pointed out possible witches. The unfortunate people were thrown into prison and started trials, torture, executions.
The mass hysteria began to fade away little by little only after one of the accusers admitted that all her accusations were false. The second also reported that she accused innocent people under the influence of devilish forces. Some researchers of this process later hypothesized that the pastor himself could well have been behind the girls - for a long time the locals did not take him seriously. Then, perhaps, he decided to play this whole story in order to show himself from the side of an ardent fighter against witches and sorcerers. However, the story suddenly took an impressive turn and turned into a tragedy for many families.
Later, the general madness began to gradually subside, the prisoners were released from prisons, the sentences were canceled, the court decision on executions was officially declared illegal. And in 1992 a monument to the victims of the witch hunt appeared in the city. But, despite the proven innocence of women, now many esoteric shops with various "witch" accessories have been opened in the city - most likely to attract tourists. There is also the Witch Museum, which tells a sad episode from the history of Salem.