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The Salem Witch Trials

            
             There are many theories on why the Salem Witchcraft Trials took place and endless speculation on which is true. I am writing this paper to offer my views on the subject and the most plausible theory in my opinion. .
             In my opinion, the best theory on why these trials occurred is in that women that were widows and owned land were accused so people could gain their land. Of course, you cannot go inside their minds and find out for sure what their intentions were but, it seems easy to believe that people were scared to expand into the countryside and wanted the land that had already been settled and since they could not take it from other men, they were forced to try to take it from the virtually defenseless widows. These widows had taken control of the land that their husbands had left behind and had no real way of keeping it. They had no sons on top of having no husband which made them even more vulnerable. Having no husband or sons may have also contributed to the witch persona because witched were not seen as being married because they were workers of the devil and not Christ. This made it easier to believe that these women were witches. This theory may not be true for all of the trials because I believe that some of those who pointed fingers did so because they were afraid they would be accused. To me, this is very believable because many people were being accused and if you acted fast and accused the next woman before she could accuse you, you may have been able to escape being hanged. .
            


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