Salem, Massachusetts was a colony of Puritan families with strong Puritan values.  They fully entrusted their lives to God, believing that good things only happen to those God is pleased with.  Likewise, all bad occurrences were blamed on the devil.[1]

With this thought process, the town was susceptible to the hysteria that was to occur.   The hysteria started in the house of Reverend Samuel Paris.  His daughter and niece began acting bizarrely; they were falling into trances and experiencing tremendous epileptic attacks.  Soon, the other girls of the town started showing these symptoms.  The children were soon after diagnosed as being cursed by witches.[2]

The girls began to accuse people in the village of witchcraft.  They accused three women who they knew would be easy targets: Sarah Good, Tituba, and Sarah Osburn.  They all had questionable behavior and would be easily accepted as witches.  Sarah Good had stopped attending church because she did not have suitable clothing.  She frequently went around the village pleading for food and tobacco and was heard muttering words under her breath.  Sarah Osborn’s husband passed away and she invited her manservant to stay with her in the house and later married him; this controversy gave rise to much gossip throughout the village.  She also did not attend church; she did not feel comfortable due to the gossip and was also aged and in poor health.[3]

Tituba, last to be tried, stood before the court, and out of fear, confessed that she had been practicing witchcraft and working with the devil.  Tituba’s confession made the girls a credible source for uncovering witches.[4]

Soon, more and more innocent people were accused and thrown in prison for practicing witchcraft.  The girls even accused honorable and devoted members of the church, such as Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, of being witches.[5]  Things were getting out of hand.  Yet, the town’s citizens felt vulnerable to the witchcraft and, out of fear, let the proceedings continue.  By May 1692, around 100 people were wrongly accused of witchcraft and imprisoned in the jails.  One by one these people were tried and convicted.  They were then taken to Gallows Hill and hanged for witchcraft.  Twenty four people died (nineteen were hanged and the rest died in prison).[6]

After the hysteria had come to an end, various judges and jurors came to their senses and realized the mistakes they had made during these trials.  Samuel Sewall, a judge during the witch trials, released a public apology due to his guilty conscience. Reverend Samuel Paris lost his position as a minister of Salem village and was replaced by Thomas Green.  Also, many of the jurors were displeased with their actions and announced that they were “sadly deluded and mistaken”.[7]

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