The correct answer is:
D. cruel and frightening.
The Salem (and Other) Witch Hunts
The trials were swift. Anyone who suspected that some untoward event or development was the work of a witch could bring the charge to a local magistrate. The magistrate would have the alleged evil-doer arrested and brought in for public interrogation where the suspect was urged to confess. Whatever his or her response, if the charge of witchcraft was deemed to be credible, the accused was turned over to a superior court and brought before a grand jury.
Much of the evidence used in the “trial” was the testimony of the accuser. If more “evidence” was needed, the grand jury might consider the so-called “witch cake,” a bizarre concoction that was made from rye meal and urine of the witch’s victim and fed to a dog. Eating the cake was supposed to hurt the witch, whose cry of pain would betray her secret identity.
One suspect was subjected to peine forte et dure, a form of torture in which he was pressed beneath an increasingly heavy load of stones to make him enter a plea. He died without confessing. Some of those convicted of “witchcraft” were paraded through the streets of the town on their way to the execution.
The witch trials could best be described as...
A. logical and calm.
B. strange but harmless.
C. odd but necessary.
D. cruel and frightening.
choose the correct answer
1 answer
1 answer