The only difference was that she was a little deformed. She was also very poor. Just because she was looked different and was not as wealthy as the "Upper-class." Sawyer had no broom and no black pointy hat. The image of brooms came about when these so-called witches were convicted. As you can see, a witch was a label that someone would be given if they were not like others. .
Many times the people convicted as witches were given tests to see if they were really witches. One of their test was to take a broom and jump off an edge of a hill. If they didn't fly they were innocent, but if they flew they were convicted and killed. Either way, once you were tried as a witch, you were going to die. Another test that was some what the same as the broom test was the water test. They were placed in the water with a stone tied to their legs. If they were able to float, they were witches. If they didn't float they were innocent. If they did float they were killed and if they didn't float they drowned. Either way, they people were screwed if they were witches or not. No test that was given was a fair test because the person always was killed.
In today's society, many people and groups are depicted the same way that Elizabeth Sawyer was. Many people put labels on others because they are not the same as them. In the early 1900's, a major ploy on depicting certain people was the holocaust. This major event happened in Germany. The Holocaust, was an event that was run by Adolf Hitler. He depicted religion in the surrounding areas. He killed Jews to try and overrule the world. Even though this was such an horrible event it was still a depiction on certain people just like the towns people depicted Sawyer.
During the Mid 1900's in the south east, people began to depict the African American community as a whole. During this time, African Americans began to integrate into schools. Others were not happen and took violent actions.