Tens of thousands of supposed witches—mostly women—were executed. Though the Salem trials came on just as the European craze was winding down, local circumstances explain their onset.
Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. The displaced people created a strain on Salem's resources. This aggravated the existing rivalry between families with ties to the wealth of the port of Salem and those who still depended on agriculture. Controversy also brewed over Reverend Samuel Parris, who became Salem Village's first ordained minister in , and was disliked because of his rigid ways and greedy nature.
The Puritan villagers believed all the quarreling was the work of the Devil. In January of , Reverend Parris' daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and niece Abigail Williams, age 11, started having "fits. Another girl, Ann Putnam, age 11, experienced similar episodes. On February 29, under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, the girls blamed three women for afflicting them: Tituba, the Parris' Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman.
All three women were brought before the local magistrates and interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, Osborne claimed innocence, as did Good. But Tituba confessed, "The Devil came to me and bid me serve him. Soon a wave of witchcraft allegations throughout the year swept up more than accused witches, including at least one child.
Local magistrates questioned the accused and determined whether any charges were to be brought against them. As paranoia spread, residents of Salem soon found themselves facing accusations from friends, neighbors, and families. The Puritans believed physical realities had spiritual causes. For example, if the crops failed, the Devil may have played a role. With this worldview, it was not a stretch for them to accept 'spectral evidence' of spirits and visions—which was the primary evidence used as proof of guilt during the Salem Witch Trials.
The so-called Witchcraft Act of served as the primary English law for witchcraft, deeming it a felony. A witch convicted of a minor offense could be imprisoned for a year; a witch found guilty twice was sentenced to death. In , the General Court, the legislative body of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, wrote the Body of Liberties , the first legal code established in New England. This collection of civil and criminal laws and rights included witchcraft among its capital offenses.
That was the beginning of a long and bloody witch hunt. Death sentences in the Salem trial were also justified with applying medical and physical categories to show the objectivity of a witchcraft. The accused women's bodies were therefore examined to search for the extra nipple. The crime of witchcraft died away in the 18th century.
People were more sceptical about the whole idea of spells, curses and conversations with the devil. Witchcraft ceased to be an offence in
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