The Salem Witch Trials are known as a series of people being accused and prosecuted of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts beginning in February 1692 until May 1693. The trials began after a group of girls claimed that they were possessed by the devil. Several local women were accused of witchcraft and this began the wave of hysteria that would forever haunt Salem and leave a painful legacy for a long time to come. Nearly every major school of historians has attempted to explain the answer to the mystery of the trials, trying to understand why they occurred. From Marxists who blame class conflict, to Freudians who believe in mass hysteria, the more ecologically based historians who put the blame on hallucinogenic ergot fungus, and now more…
The start of the voyage was on September 20, 1519. Magellan and a crew of approximately 300 men parted from their families, getting ready to face the most turbulent experience ever. They faced a storm as they reached the equator in a country called Sierra Leone. To make everything worse, Magellan found out that 3 of the Spanish Captains were planning to kill him and King Manuel sent ships to sabotage their voyage. To avoid the ships from Portugal, Magellan ordered the captains to sail along the African coast.…
During the eighteenth century, piracy began ruling the waters surrounding the American colonies. For many people piracy adds an exciting thrill to maritime history with its adventure, romanticism, mysteriousness, and its alluring nature. However, piracy is just the practice of a pirate: these pirates conducted robbery or illegal violence at sea; violence and crimes that killed, hurt, and affected the lives of others.1 Legally, crime is broken into three different parts: mens rea, the mental state of mind the criminal had during the crime; actus reus, the acts that are criminally committed; and locus, when and where the crime happened.2 These three things made the task of classifying a pirate as a criminal an extremely difficult one because the acts committed were inconsistent and the location of the crime was even less consistent; but colonists knew they were criminals. Piracy implied challenges to the law because kept themselves away from states’ jurisdiction, but that was going to change.3 Pirates were criminals and their actions were villainous and they needed to be punished for their wrong doing. They were following the very definition of crime with their acts of mutiny, destruction, and robbery.4 Pirates were a cause of chaos in Maritime History during the beginning of America, especially in the New England colonies, and religious authority used social and moral reasons to stop them.…
The second Amistad trial was the civil case that was tried before District Judge Andrew Judson (Linder). According to Wikipedia, The abolitionists filed charges of assault, kidnapping, and false imprisonment against Ruiz and Montez. The trial began on November 19, 1839 in Hartford. The ruling states;…
The MIT Pirate Certification is something that really interests me. Along with normal classes, I feel that working toward this certification would be a great way for me to have fun, and learn skills that many people do not have. This certification includes many activities that I wanted to do as a kid, and allows me to actually partake in them and learn more about them. I find it nice that MIT encourages students to enjoy themselves at MIT along with taking rigorous classes. I want to attend a school who understands this balance between work and…
The conviction of a Royal Marine for murdering an injured Afghan insurgent should not "besmirch" the organisation, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.…
In the novel, The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent we witness great historical significance in the years surrounding the Salem witch trials. For one, the author's ancestor was Martha Carrier, a key character in the novel and also known as the “Queen of Hell”, who was among the first of women to be accused of witchcraft. In this specific novel we relive the horrors that nine year old Sarah Carrier must face along with her family. The hysteria during the year of 1692 could have not been prevented, the superstition that would rise was inevitable, and the amount of damaged caused could have never been guessed.…
The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is held in Tampa every year in late January or early February to celebrate the legend of the mythical Spanish pirate, Jose Gaspar, who was said to have operated in Southwest Florida.…
One might ask how the great and powerful God and scavenger scum pirates have things in common. It seems like a bit of a stretch, but if one were to really look deeply at the basic principles that the two stand by the difference gap closes immensely. One can not simply state that they are identical, because there are definitely some differences that are scarcely spread between their guidelines. The guidelines that are comparable are none other than the Ten Commandments and The Pirate Code of Bartholomew Roberts.…
The Salem Witchcraft was a series of undesirable events, which was powered by paranoia and fear. Though several witch trials occurred before the Salem Witch Trial, this was the most well known of all. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft which resulted to 19 men and women that were hanged, 17 innocents that died in unsanitary prisons, and an 80-year old man that was crushed to death by putting stones on top of his stomach until he confesses (movie: The Crucible). In some accounts, it was reported that two dogs were stoned to death for cooperating with the Devil. Why did the Salem Witch trial occur? Were these trials appropriate? Or were they truly a Devil's work? The Salem Witch Trials might have occurred for a variety of reasons such as people's ignorance that led to superstitions. It might have also occurred because people's crave for power, or it might also be because of fear.…
Boston Massacre considered the real beginning of the American Revolution, the first shots heard around the world. It took place in Boston, Massachusetts, in March, 1770 when Captain Thomas Preston, Corporal William Wemms, and seven British soldiers confronted a crowd which attacked them with cudgel, ice balls, and other makeshift weapons. The soldiers formed a line and loaded their guns, warning the crowd to disperse. A soldier fired a musket into the crowd, immediately followed by more shots they heard someone shouting “fire.” five men, including a black man named Crispus Attucks, were killed on the spot; two more were wounded and later died.…
In the "case of the shipwrecked sailors", three men were marooned after the sinking of an oil tanker. Subject to extreme conditions and starvation, the men drew lots after about twenty five days and decided that the loser would be killed and eaten as food. When one of the men lost the draw, he pulled out his consent, and the other two men killed him anyway, eating him. Five days later, the remaining two men were rescued and ensuing actions incurred their murder charges. This seems to be a simple case over the battle of life and death, and it truly is. The two men, Dudley and Stephens, made a conscious decision to commit not only the crime of murder, but the atrocity of cannibalism. Crime is crime and law is law- when breaks a law and commits a crime, a punishment must ensue.…
It has been almost four hundred years since Shakespeare completed the last of his plays. His work however continues to be played to sell out audiences still captivating people. His plays are still taught in schools with eager passion. Many people question the relevance of his work and lingering popularity. So what could a playwright from the seventeenth century have absolutely anything to do with a world full of advancing technology, fast food and materialistic views?…
To understand Shakespeare’s perspective on justice in The Merchant of Venice it must be clear that they were in the reign of Elizabeth I. During this particular time Jewish people were hated and the Christians believed that they were superior. Shakespeare considered there to be a difference between law and justice, he shows that if the law is blindly applied without the Christian idea of mercy and fairness, the pursuer will fall.…
At the court of law in Venice, the Duke, Antonio, Bassanio, Salerio, Graziano, and various notable personages are gathered for Antonio's trial. The Duke begins the trial by showing how impartial he is: he immediately says he's sorry for Antonio and that Shylock is an "inhuman wretch, uncapable [sic] of pity, void and empty from any dram of mercy."…
