Throughout all of Western Europe an extensive amount of witch hunts took place between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. ... However towards the beginning of the eighteenth century witch hunts decreased dramatically. Reasons for the decline include a development in the intellectual mind of society, a stricter judicial system, changes in religion and the fact that quality of life increasingly improved compared to the life lived by those prior to the eighteenth century. ... (Thomas 1971, p. 684) Therefore with all these new theories challenging traditional views, by the eighteenth century...

• Word Count: 1972
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

(Woloch, 30) John Demos a New England witchcraft historian writes "a hidden theme of the lives of seventeenth-century women seems to reveal an intense hostility of younger women toward the power and control of older women. ... Why were women (and especially women over the age of 40) signaled out and punished disproportionately in seventeenth-century New England? ...

• Word Count: 1873
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

During the seventeenth century, Religion was a way of life. ... In fact, the legal concept of "innocent until proven guilty" was not formally established until the late 18th Century (Asirvatham, 2002). ...

• Word Count: 1258
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

During the years 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts a young girl fell sick. Her "fits" or convulsion, contortions and outbursts of gibberish baffled everyone in the small town. When doctors failed to find a proper diagnosis, and several other girls were afflicted with the same fits, their fits we...

• Word Count: 1927
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Do you ever wonder why the world is like this? Humans have always had the curiosity to know and explain the world around them. Before the scientific era, people would turn to their faith for answers. In the Bible it states that unfortunate events are caused by demons and the devil. The word "wit...

• Word Count: 1676
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School