The Salem Witchcraft Trials took place in the village of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The year 1692 seems to have been a particularly troubled one in New England. It was a time of political uncertainty, with Increase Mather at the English Court, seeking clarification of the colony's government. The French were waging war, and the Indians were on the warpath. Taxes were intolerable, the winter was cruel, pirates were attacking commerce, and smallpox was raging. In addition, the ingrown irritations of a small village, Salem, where ownership of land and boundaries were in dispute, increased the tensions. To men and women brought up in a restricting evangelical world, the troubles of 1692 were caused by the Devil. The Puritan, New England mind was alerted to devils and to their agents on earth, witches. …
