In your sleep you hear a strange bell noise - wait a minute, maybe it isn't so strange after all. You have heard that noise before! Someone is calling your name and you hear a commotion around you. Your head is resting on something hard. As you open your eyes you see people moving around you and your U.S. History teacher standing in front of your calling your name!

You suddenly realize, with great humiliation, that you fell asleep in your history class with your head on your desk! The bell just rang and class is over. Your teacher calls your name one last time and tells you that class is over. You quickly grab your stuff and run out the door embarrassed that you fell asleep in front of everyone.

You can't believe how real your Salem Witch Trial nightmare was. You really felt like you had spent weeks in Puritan jail.

As you rush past the elevators, you pause and take a second look at them because out of the corner of your eye you could have sworn that you had seen a mysterious door...

Conclusion

The Salem Witch Trials were a terrible time in the history of America. Before the hysteria ended, 20 innocent colonists lost their lives. 19 were killed by hanging and 1 was pressed to death. No one in America was burned at the stake.

We don't really know what caused the young women in Salem to begin to act strangely. It is possible that their lives were too stressful - the Parris house was a tense environment. In addition, there had been a series of wars with nearby Native Americans. Some of these girls came from areas where villages had been burned in the fighting and they had seen people killed. It is also very possible that they were acting out for attention or copying each other. Maybe it was a combination of all of these things.

Some have suggested that a mold in the bread the girls had eaten may have caused hallucinations. It is called ergot poisoning. This is not very likely as the symptoms the girls showed does not match those found in ergot poisoning.

Here is a list of those who were killed before the hysteria ended:

• Bridget Bishop

• George Burroughs

• Martha Carrier

• Martha Corey

• Mary Easty

• Sarah Good

• Elizabeth Howe

• George Jacobs, Sr.

• Susannah Martin

• Rebecca Nurse

• Alice Parker

• Mary Parker

• John Proctor

• Ann Pudeator

• Wilmott Redd

• Margaret Scott

• Samuel Wardwell

• Sarah Wildes

• John Willard

• Giles Corey