by Natasha Nemyre

Created on: April 05, 2009

A small girl falls sick. It's 1692. Her "fits"- convulsions, contortions, and outbursts of gibberish- baffle everyone. Other girls soon manifest the same symptoms. The doctors can suggest but one cause: Witchcraft. That grim diagnosis launched a Puritan inquisition that took twenty-four lives, filled prisons with innocent people and frayed the soul of a Massachusetts community called Salem.

The Salem Witch Hysteria is one of the most mysterious and tragically misunderstood events in United States history. In order to completely understand the events that led to the witch trials, one must understand that the Puritans came from England and settled in Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in their homeland. The Puritans had a strict moral code and their way of living was fashioned around their religious beliefs.

During the winter of 1691-92, Abigail Williams, the eleven year-old niece, and Betty Parris, the daughter, of minister Samuel Parris began to meet with Tituba, their slave from Barbados, to listen to her strange and forbidden tales of magic and island lore. The girls knew that by listening to these tales they were violating strict Puritan morality. Nevertheless, eventually, four other girls joined Abigail, Betty and Tituba. The story telling continued in Samuel Parris's house until Betty Parris began having "fits" that defied all explanation. Soon the rest of the girls became inflicted as well. Doctors and ministers watched in horror as the girls contorted themselves, cowered under chairs and shouted nonsense.

Lacking a natural explanation, the Puritans turned to the supernatural- the girls were bewitched. Prodded by Parris and others, the girls named their tormenters: a disheveled beggar named Sarah Good, the elderly Sarah Osburn and Tituba herself. Each woman was something of a misfit. Arrest warrants were issued for the three women. At their trials, both Sarah Osburn and Sarah Good pleaded innocent. Tituba, however, confessed to being a witch and offered "evidence" that Good and Osburn were fellow witches. Tituba claimed the devil made her do it. Villagers sat spellbound as Tituba spoke of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds and a white-haired man who bade her sign the devil's book. She said that there were several undiscovered witches on the loose in Salem. These witches yearned to destroy the Puritans. Finding witches became a crusade, not only for Salem, but all Massachusetts. Before long, the crusade turned into a convulsion and the witch-hunters

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