12 Crazy Reasons Why Your Ancestors Were Accused Of Witchcraft

8. If You Struggled To Speak In Public

To this day, many of you will struggle to speak with confidence in public. From giving a presentation in High School to making your Best Man speech at your friend's wedding, it's something that many of you dread, and your ancestors weren't any different. Except, instead of just making a fool out of themselves or receiving a lousy grade, they would have been put to death. One method of discovering who was a witch was by getting the accused to read out a passage of scripture. It was understood that witches could not read scripture out loud but bearing in mind that not everyone could actually read in those days, it wasn't really a fair trial. If you couldn't read because you were never taught then this wasn't a legitimate excuse, you weren't illiterate, you were a witch. If you could read and stumbled on a word; you were a witch. Let's just hope that your ancestors could remember passages by heart.