Readers fascinated by this blood-splattered era will find no shortage of depictions of alleged consorting with the devil and, perhaps even more frightening, of human justice gone terribly awry. Even today, harassment and persecution prompted by unfounded accusation is still described as a “witch hunt.” When it comes to popular culture, the bizarre circumstances of the trials have left their mark on our collective imagination-a mark documented throughout the years in both nonfiction and fiction narratives. Now considered an example of mass hysteria fueled by personal vendettas and long-running feuds in the small New England community, the Salem witch trials will forever haunt American history. Spanning just over a year from 1692 to 1693, the Salem witch trials had a lasting impact on political and spiritual thought, legal practice, and popular culture in the United States-to the extent that historian George Lincoln Burr once called the event “the rock on which the theocracy shattered.” In what remains the deadliest witch hunt in the history of America, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft at least 19 were hanged while another individual was tortured to death.
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