What is Salem Witch Trials?
[[File:Witchcraft at Salem Village.jpg|thumb|365x365px|Witchcraft at Salem Village. The main figure in this 1876 illustration of the courtroom is usually identified as Mary Walcott.]] The '''Salem Witch Trials''' were a series of county [[court]] [[trial]]s which accused people of being [[witch]]es. The Salem Witch Trials involved two kinds of trials. First, court hearings were held before local [[magistrate]]s; then trials were held in county court. The witch trials were held in [[Essex County, Massachusetts|Essex]], [[Suffolk County, Massachusetts|Suffolk]] and [[Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex]] [[County (United States)|Counties]] of colonial [[Massachusetts]], between February 1692 and May 1693. In February 1692, two young girls in Salem Village, Betty Paris and Abigail Williams, began twisting themselves into strange shapes and speaking [[Glossolalia|meaningless words]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/education/|title=Salem Witch Museum|website=www.salemwitchmuseum.com|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> Betty’s father called a doctor, who said that witches had invaded Salem Village and were [https://simple.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/bewitching bewitching] the girls.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Salem Witch Trials|url=https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/salem-witch-trials/|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/salem.htm|title=The Salem Witch Trials, 1692|website=www.eyewitnesstohistory.com|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> The girls accused people they didn’t like of being witches. During the Trials, over 150 people accused of witchcraft were [[Arrest|arrested]] and put in [[Prison|jail]]. Even more people were accused, but were never formally charged by the authorities. Twenty-nine people were [[Conviction|convicted]] (or found guilty) of witchcraft, which was a capital [[felony]]. Nineteen of these people - fourteen women and five men - were [[hanging|hanged]] on Gallows Hill in present-day Salem, Massachusetts. Another ma