What Caused the Salem Witch Hunts?
In the year 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts almost 150 people were arrested and at least 20 people were executed as witches. It all started with a group of young, unmarried women between the ages of nine and twenty who began visiting a slave named Tituba at the home of Reverend Samuel Parris and listened to her stories of West Indian lore. Two of the younger girls became very emotionally excited by these stories and began having convulsions and crying fits, and their behavior became mischievous. After this, the eight older girls followed suit. The climate was ripe for such hysterics, and the town officials took these matters very seriously. “The Puritan New England mind was alerted to devils and to their agents on earth, witches. Belief in the supernatural was unquestioned. The Bible told about witches and demoniacal possession; the Mosaic codes of Massachusetts turned legend into law. Witchcraft was part of the Weltanschauung [world view] of the colonists, [which was] especially strong s
