A Break with Charity and the Salem Witch Trials

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In the novel A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi, Susanna is the daughter of a wealthy family in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1692 Witch Trials. Before the trials begin, she desperately wants to fit in and become part of a group of girls in town. However, after those girls begin accusing innocent people of witchcraft, Susannah’s parents included, she divulges the information she held in so long. This is a story of the afflicted girls lying and the words that come straight from Ann Putnam herself, capable of ending the trials once and for all. After reading A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi, the reader gains knowledge of the Salem Witch Trials through a young woman who experienced the commotion first hand. The book describes the accusers, the accused and why they were accused, while giving the reader insight on the emotion that spread through Salem as the trials unfolded. The Salem Witch Trials began among a group of eight girls aged 11 to 20. Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam were the “ringleaders” of the group and were the first to fall into illness. Under this “illness” they moaned and shrieked for no reason, groveled and writhed and began to act as animals. The symptoms began to spread and Reverend Parris struggled to discover who was bewitching them. At the end of February of 1692, Abigail and Ann named their tormentors: Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne were already unpopular and distrusted by the Puritan settlement, however, the accusers began to care less about plausible accusations. The three women were arrested on March 1st and examined in front of the accusers at a special public session. Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne denied everything, while Tituba produced an imaginative confession, naming more people as instruments of Satan. Sarah Osbourne died awaiting trial, while Tituba’s confession saved her life. Those who
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