In Salem Village, 1692, hysteria spread across the Puritan settlement. For over a year, the church examined cases of possible witchcraft. The Puritans believed that Satan was in the village, with intentions to destroy their way of life. They also believed that the devil was afflicting the land with witches to do his dirty work. Accusations spread quickly after one person admitted to witchcraft. A court was then established to determine who was a witch and who wasn't.
The Salem Witch Trials were not debunking the fact that people were witches, but only proving that they were innocent. All of the torture methods used to get one to confess were absurd. They threw people off cliffs, tried to drown them, and other things of this nature. If they lived, then they were a witch. But if they died, then they were innocent. There was never any real proof that anyone was guilty. Also, the "witch marks" that they said proved someone was a witch could have showed up on anyone. It could just be a mole or a bump or something like that. They also tried to see if someone was a witch by the pricking the witch mark to see if it bled. Of course, if someone gets stabbed they are going to bleed. That's just a fact of life. If they didn't bleed, then there's something wrong with them.
Only hearsay and false accusations were used to determine if someone should be questioned. According to the U.S. courts website, hearsay is defined as "Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone .
else," (Glossary of Terms). This would never hold up in a court today, and it shouldn't have held up then, since they were trying to follow God's laws, and God would never kill anyone who hadn't sinned.
Puritans based their entire life on their religion and what they believed God wanted them to do. They tried to live by God's word. They even left their home country to go to another where they could worship God properly without other distractions.
