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The first death penalty for witchcraft, in what would become the United States, took place in 1648 in Massachusetts where Margaret Jones was executed as a witch. The midwife was the first person to receive the death-penalty for the alleged crime but she sadly wasn’t the last. Over the next few decades, hundreds of people were accused, tried and executed for witchcraft – culminating in the infamous Salem witch trials. Well nearly four centuries later, the Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project is hoping to persuade the state to take a fuller reckoning of its early history. The group’s leader, Josh Hutchinson, who has a personal stake in the project, told Newsday why there were so many people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts: “There were over 200 people accused of witchcraft… there was a lot of economic uncertainty, political and military instability, even religious conflict within Massachusetts and that was putting a lot of pressure on communities that were also experiencing neighbourly discord.” (Pic: Engraved illustration depicting witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts; Credit: Getty Images)