American witch trials document up for auction

A document from the Salem (Massachussetts, USA) witch trials is expected to fetch as much as $35,000 when it hits the auction block.

The original court indictment of Margaret Scott, a Rowley widow in her 70s and one of the last people hanged during the 1692 hysteria in colonial Massachusetts, is part of a private collection of historical documents being sold Thursday at Swann Auction Galleries in New York.

The pre-auction estimate is $25,000 to $35,000, but one local expert thinks that is too low.

Richard Trask, the Danvers town archivist and a leading expert on the trials, tells The Salem News (https://bit.ly/x2RBmQ) it's just the third time in a 50-year career he can recall a witchcraft document being sold.

Nineteen people were hanged and one person was crushed to death during the trials.
 

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