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Salem Witch Trials  

Definition

  • More than three hundred years later, the Salem witch trials testify to the havoc that fear can play in ruining the lives of innocent people and the importance of due process in protecting individuals against false accusations. Some of those who insisted in 1787 that a Bill of Rights was necessary for the ratification of the Constitution undoubtedly knew about the treatment of the “Salem witches” and of how they had been deprived of the rights to which they should have been entitled under English common law. [Source: Encyclopedia of the First Amendment; Salem Witch Trials]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/Salem_Witch_Trials

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