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The Trial Of The Salem Witch Trials

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I. Introduction In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity. II. Summary of Life Elizabeth Bassett was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, some 5 miles away from Salem. Her official birth date happens to be unknown. However, it is believed she was born sometime around 1650. It is also known that she was the first child of twelve born to William Bassett and Sarah Burt Bassett. William Bassett, survived so much: his father’s demise, being brought to America, and wars against Indians. Only then did he live to see his children, the third generation, destroyed by the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692. “Three of William and Sarah’s twelve children were touched by the Salem Witch Hysteria prosecution” (“Bassett Family Genealogy” 6). Additionally, Elizabeth’s grandmother, Ann Holland Bassett Burt, was a Quaker, a midwife and an accused witch. On April 1, 1674, Elizabeth Bassett, now

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