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The Salem Witch Trials, 1692

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The seeds of the hysteria that afflicted Salem Village, Massachusetts were sown in January 1692 when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior.

The tight-knit community was at a loss to explain the convulsive seizures, blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states that afflicted the youngsters. The physicians called in to examine the girls could find no natural cause of the disturbing behavior.

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If the source of the affliction

The Salem Village Meeting House where the trials took place

was not attributable to a physical malady, the community reasoned that it must be the work of Satan.

Witches had invaded Salem.

In February the village began praying and fasting in order to rid itself of the devil's influence. The girls were pressured to reveal who in the community controlled their behavior. Three women were identified and examined.

One, Tituba (a slave), confessed to seeing the devil who appeared