After Richard Henry Lee motioned to legally separate the Bri…

After Richard Henry Lee motioned to legally separate the British American colonies from England on June 7, 1776, members voted to create [BLANK-1], led by John Adams. Other members included Roger Sherman, Robert Livingstone, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Although every member was expected to contribute, Adams was initially appointed to write the majority of the work. He instead turned over the majority of the project to Thomas Jefferson, as he believed he had a more elegant writing style.

The most controversial aspect of the proceedings of the Cour…

The most controversial aspect of the proceedings of the Court of Oyer and Terminer during the Essex County Witch Scare was the decision to allow the use of [BLANK-1] and their claim that Satan could not imitate the appearance of an innocent person. The examiners used Richard Bernard’s A Guide to Grand Jury-Men (1627) to inform their proceedings, but ignored Bernard’s specific warning not to use this type of testimony or proof, “the Devil can lye more often…than speake truth.” The tormented accusers described seeing and speaking with accused witches even when their physical bodies were many miles away or even in prison. The witches’ projections could hurt the accusers and often made confessions to them in private (though the actual accused witch denied those confessions in court). Examiners put a great deal of emphasis on the accusers’ reactions during the trials, noting that they would fall into hysterics and pain when an accused witch looked at them or denied the charges but becoming silent and calm when a witch confessed. They employed the touch test (by which the accused witch would touch the tormented accuser during a fit – if the fit stopped immediately after the accused touch, then that was considered proof of guilt). Following the sensational examinations of Abigail Hobbs and George Burroughs in April, 1692, the court began to rely almost exclusively on these types of testimony and tests to verify the guilt of the accused. By September, public opinion began to turn sharply against the use of these kinds of tests and burdens of proof as local religious leaders Increase Mather and Cotton Mather made the claim that the Devil could take the shape of innocent persons. By January of 1693, the court fully abandoned these tests and adopted a more rigorous burden for truth. Governor William Phips conceded “we were convinced and acknowledged that their former proceedings were too violent and not grounded upon a right foundation…the new trials have adopted another method.” From that point forward, none of the accused witches were executed.

[BLANK-1] convened in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in M…

[BLANK-1] convened in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in May, 1775, and included most well-established colonial political figures, but also a new representative from Virginia named Thomas Jefferson. This was an active body that was responsible for The Olive Branch Petition, the creation of the Continental Army and Navy, and The Declaration of Independence. There was hardly consensus among the representatives, however, and there was much debate before the eventual decision to declare independence from Great Britain was achieved.

The most willing confessors during the 1692 Essex County Wit…

The most willing confessors during the 1692 Essex County Witch Scare were [BLANK-1]. In July, two young women “witch-finders” paraded through the town pointing out witches. By August most of the accused had been arrested and nearly all of them confessed. It had become apparent that confession was one of the surest ways to save one’s own skin by this point in the trials, however, this does not fully explain the high rate of confession. One woman later recounted that she submitted to the repeated pressure from the examiners to confess, “I had been press’d, and urg’d, and affrighted until I said anything that they desired.” Every accused child from this group confessed. The people of this community preferred consensus, valued submissiveness and obedience from women and youths, encouraged individuals to follow the majority opinion. Ironically, the fact that the children from this group were behaving as good New England children should, by submitting to authority and doing what was asked of them by adults (in this case, to confess to being a witch), meant that they would do what their elders told them to do and claim to be witches.

Instructions: Combine one prefix, one root, and one suffix f…

Instructions: Combine one prefix, one root, and one suffix from the selection below to form a correct medical term. Then define it. Prefixes: brady-, inter-, hypo-, hyper-Roots: my/o, cardi/o, therm/o, neur/oSuffixes: -itis, -megaly, -algia, -ic Example: an-, ech/o, -ic = anechoic > produces no echoes and therefore appears black