Massachusetts experienced political upheaval in the early 1690s. In 1684, England repealed the colonial charter. Five years later, the governor was removed in the Glorious Revolution’s aftermath. The Revolution was a bloodless coup. The Protestant Parliament removed the Catholic King. Between the events in England and uncertainty in America, tensions were high. In 1692, Massachusetts received a new governor and charter. Political uncertainty and the hardships of daily life created an environment that fed hysteria. Once the witch hunts began, tensions fed them. The hunts took on a life of their own and when they ended, twenty people and two dogs were executed and four died in prison.

One day, a couple of young girls, Betty Paris and her cousin Abigail Williams, began acting erratically. The girls screamed, threw things about, and contorted their bodies. A doctor was called. In his opinion, there was nothing wrong with the girls. Witchcraft was suspected.

The authorities arrested three people for hurting the girls. All three were outsiders. Sarah Good was a beggar. Sarah Osbourne did not attend church regularly. Tituba was an African or Caribbean slave. Since these three did not belong to the Puritan community, no one helped them. Osbourne died in jail. The Puritans hanged Good. Tituba confessed and survived. Despite the initial discrimination, the Puritans eventually began to accuse their own.

The next round of accusations targeted pious church members. Rebecca Nurse was an unlikely defendant. Her reputation should have precluded any suspicion. Despite her reputation for piety and her advanced age, the seventy-one year old Nurse went to the gallows. Likewise, Martha Corey had an upstanding reputation and attended church regularly. She questioned the girls credibility and they turned on her. The paranoia was too strong. Corey was hanged. Her husband, Giles, defended her. He was pressed to death by heavy stones. Rather than confess, he requested additional weight be added to speed up his death.

The girls remained at the center of the hysteria. As the turbulence increased, the number of afflicted girls did as well. Soon, seven girls claimed bewitchment. Magistrates launched investigations of people the girls accused. When John Proctor questioned the girls, he was arrested and hanged. The girls were all powerful. Arrest warrants flew from the investigators. Even Salem Village’s former minister was accused. The girls claimed he cursed colonial soldiers prior to a disastrous engagement with Indians in 1689.

The trials were farcical by modern standards. The courts allowed “spectral evidence.” If someone was bewitched by a defendant, the victim could claim they saw apparitions and spirits. This encouraged lying. Assuming the accusers were not taking hallucinogens, they sent people to the gallows on a lie.

The lie began in the spring, ran through the summer, and began to collapse in the fall. Prominent figures began to speak up. Eventually, the governor banned spectral evidence. Defendants started receiving acquittals. The governor pardoned those convicted during this period. Without government sanction, the witch hunts sputtered out.