How The Puritans Came To America For Religious Freedom

During the 1600’s the Puritans came to America for religious freedom. When they arrived they found that a few people wouldn’t follow the strict new rules that they had set in place. They soon started calling them out as witches, and so the Salem witch trials began. But to know about the Salem Witch trials first you have to know who started them. Once you know who started them then you need to know what happened. How could you tell someone was a witch? How were these people prosecuted? Who were these people? Has it affect our everyday life? Many people don’t have a lot of information on the Salem Witch trials, but it’s certainly an interesting topic. The Puritans came to America in 1620 to seek religious freedom. They were oppressed in Europe
They first would assume it was only the people that wouldn’t obey the laws, but soon started accusing everyone that didn’t mold to their perfect expectations. They would accuse people of associating with the devil based off of simple things such as a mole on their cheek, or if you had come down with an illness. A few ways they would associate you with being a witch was if you had a blemish, if you drew away from a humans touch, they believed that it was impossible for a witch to read from the bible, the “Swimming test” this was why they through people into water bound because they thought they were incapable of being submerged, and they would use witch cakes. A witch cake was a disgusting concoction of the victim’s urine and grain then was fed to the animal which they owned. They figured that the animal would reveal who the witch
There were a total of twelve people that accused other people of being a witch. A list of people that died would be Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Sar ah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, George Burroughs, George Jacobs, Sr., Martha Carrier, John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmot Redd, Margaret Scott, Samuel Wardwell, Sr. While this is only nineteen people the last person, Ann Foster, was convicted but before she was prosecuted she died in prison. Then one other person was convicted, Mary Bradbury, but she was able to escape prison before she was prosecuted. One person, Mary Lacey Sr., pled guilty, but she was pardoned. This was due to her mother being Ann Foster. The reason Ann Foster pled guilty at last second was to save her daughter. This ended up pardoning Mary for being a witch. (Suffolk Court Records Case No.