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Home Page Emily Slade Mrs. Laurencot Non-Fiction Essay

The book //The Salem Witch Trials// by Kekla Magoon explains what the Salem witch trials were, what happened during that time, the people who were involved and the events that occurred. The Salem witch trials were unexplainable for a very long time and people still wonder about what happened to this day. It was crazy during this time and people feared many things. The trials were unfair and many people died from being accused of witchcraft. This book tells a lot about how society was and how it is important to history. This book relates to society in many ways. It shows you what people were like during that time and how they reacted to the trials. It also connects to people today. People were very scared during the time of the trials and the decisions that were made were not fair and weren’t the best. Villagers were accusing women of being witches without proof. Although the young girls who were affected by the illness or “spell” began naming people who did this to them, they didn’t have much proof to show that they were witches. For example in the book it says, “Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne were the first named.” and, “Since both women were social outcasts, no one was surprised to think that they might be witches.” (pg 10). This shows that people judge others just like many people do today. Also, the book says, “Any person who was feared or disliked could be accused of witchcraft and killed without and proof or evidence of what he or she had done.” (pg 33). This connects to society very well because people only think for themselves and they judge others. They just accuse others and assume that they are right. Another quote from this book that supports this is, “Fear inspires people to rush to judgment. People want the problem solved as soon as possible and are willing to accept an imperfect result. This attitude, however, often results in innocent people being punished.” (pg 93). This is very true and still occurs with people today. This book also states a current example that relates to the witch hunts which is the September 11 terrorist attacks. Americans became afraid of the terrorists and started a hunt for more possible terrorists. Since terrorists were Muslims, many Muslim men fell under suspicion, sometimes without evidence (pg92), just like the witches. This book connects to society because people were similar during the trials and today and people judge others. The Salem Witch Trials can relate to history because it is history. The events that happened are in the past and affects the present. For example, in the book it says, “Studying the history of events such as the Salem witch trials can help societies understand why and how such witch hunts happen. With this knowledge, such crises can be prevented from occurring again in the future.” (pg. 93-94). This shows that the Salem witch trials taught people a very important lesson and this prevents a similar event from happening again. Also, the book says “The aftermath of the Salem witch trials also lead to one of the important principles of law that is still in use today- the exclusion of hearsay as evidence in a lawful trial.” (pg 76). The trials have a big impact of the way we do things today. We no longer use hearsay in a trial which changes a lot. Without the exclusion of hearsay from the Salem witch trials, we could still be experiencing the same problems they did. Also, this is a part of American history because many of the trials occurred in America. It will always be a part of American history and it changed a lot of things that we currently use. This book provides the reader of knowledge about the Salem witch trials and they can gain a lot from this. This book shows them the changes in society from 1692 when the strange events started to occur, to present time. It shows them that people acted the way people would today. However, because people acted that way, it changed the way we do things today. It also shows that people are wrongly accused and people are very demanding. The reader learns that the Salem witch trials changed the ways of things that we do today, and shows them what the world is like around them. It shows how people act and what should be done in certain situations like this.