15. Baseless Accusations of Witchcraft Threatened to Engulf an Entire Colony
The accusations of witchcraft spread like ripples from Salem until they threatened to engulf all of colonial Massachusetts. The governor finally ended the trials and their ever-expanding circle of accusations when his own wife was accused of being a witch. By then, 200 people had been accused of witchcraft, and 20 had already been hanged. Eventually, the authorities admitted that the trials had been a mistake, and compensated the families of the wrongly convicted witch hunt victims. The Salem witchcraft mass hysteria and resultant trials became synonymous with paranoia and injustice. They stand today as a cautionary tale about the dangers of religious extremism, false accusations, and the lack of due process.