Fear can effect people in many different ways. It can make people do or say things they normally wouldn't do. Fear of the unknown and lack of understanding is what started the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch hunts started in the 1690's. It is set in the town of Salem Massachusetts. This is a small Puritan community. It is governed with a theocracy. The town is in the middle of the wilderness. The town was seen through the eyes of the Puritans as " Satan's playground." The forest was the only last part of America that was not tamed. It was full of mystery and unknown things. The Puritans feared what they didn't understand. Salem was a very ridged Bible living community. .
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A group of girl's decided to play by their own rules. Abigail Williams was an orphan. Abigail was the niece of the minister of Salem, Samuel. She was the main arbitrator of the deaths that occurred in Salem. She lead the "crying out" of the afflicted girls. .
Abigail's uncle ,Reverend Samuel Parris, was fairly new in Salem. He had been a merchant in Barbados until he relieved the call to ministry. He was not very popular amongst the people of Salem. .
The other two people that lived in the Parris's household were Tituba and Betty Parris. Tituba was the slave in the house, she was from the west indies. Betty was Reverend Parris's young daughter. The pariss house hold was very strict, and playing or anything of like that was looked down upon when you should be reading the Bible or memorizing verses. .
Now Reverend Parris had caught Abigail, Betty, and some of the girls from town doing strange things by the fire with Tituba, tituba would entertain the girls with magic, stories and practices with divitation, which was all forbidin, and Samul beat Tituba.
The girl's were frightened, because the town was talking of witchcraft. The girls began acting strangly. Since the girl's sickness couldn't be explained the people of the town immediately looked to witchcraft, and gave them a bread made of rye and the afflicted girls urine, then fed it to the dogs if they began having the same symptoms as the girls, that meant the girls were under witch craft.