Colonial Terrorists

From the HowStuffWorks website which includes video!

Excerpt from the “colonial life library” at the site:
Articles in this section cover the exploration of the American continent and what daily life was like in the American colonies. You can learn about how people lived as the new country developed.

Featured Article: What was America’s first terrorist threat?

For centuries, the Barbary pirates plundered European and U.S. ships in the Mediterranean. How did America put an end to the kidnapping, enslavement and extortion? See more »

Salem Witch Hunts

The following is from the US Library of Congress -

Salem Witch Trials
March 1, 1692
In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, many people believed in and feared witchcraft. Consequently, when two young girls fell into trances and had seizures that doctors could not explain, many people in the town said witchcraft was to blame. On March 1, 1692, authorities charged three women, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and a slave woman named Tituba, with practicing witchcraft.

Soon prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from Salem and surrounding towns. Their names had been “cried out” by tormented young girls as the cause of their pain. Nineteen people were hanged, one man was crushed to death, and seventeen others died in prison before the witch-hunt was finally stopped. This kind of group panic is sometimes called “mass hysteria.” The people of Salem were ripe for it. In those days many people believed in witches, and they were quick to believe the girls’ accusations. When one girl cried “Witch!” others did the same.

White Magic

“White witch or good witch are qualifying terms in English used to distinguish practitioners of folk magic for benevolent purposes (i.e. white magic) from practitioners of actual malevolent witchcraft.” (Wikipedia)

Image from Witchcraft – World of Wicca at witchcraft.com.

Black Magic

A quick definition of Black Magic “is a form of sorcery that draws on assumed malevolent powers.” (Wikipedia). Image below is from Ancient Black Magic at ancientblackmagic.com

Magic & WitchCraft

If you know something about Magic (black and white) – legendary or otherwise – and Witchcraft, please share your knowledge, links and so on. I appreciate your assistance.