An image of suspected witches being hanged in England.
published in 1665
I know that when I usually post a thought to ponder it is just that, a simple thought. Yet today my topic needed more than a mere quote and picture to go along with it.
318 years ago today, John Willard and Reverend George Burroughs were put to death during the Salem Witch Trials. I have always been amazed at the number of people who were chosen to die via execution simply because they may have been different or there were those who were too ignorant to know better.
In researching to find an approximate number of those put to death for this crime, I found many varying numbers. I found numbers as low as 35,000 to as high as 9 million. Considering that the witch hunts took place between the 14th and 18th centuries I would myself consider the number to be a high one. Even the number of 60,000 which I found and was to have been researched and found to be the most accurate seems somewhat low to me. We are talking about a period of over 400 years during a time when man was not capable of understanding many things therefore anything that was unexplainable was considered evil.
Let me stress also that there would be those who would argue that the witch hunts started well before the 14th century and continue still today. Lets not be fooled so easily, ignorance plagues us still. There are still those today who pay the price although it may not necessarily be death for what man fears.
To read more of my findings check out my article over at Ewitch
