arrested, tortured, put to trial and, persecuted as witches. One would

think that by the time the United States was colonized, these injustices on

humanity would have come to an end, but that was not so. In 1692 a

major tragedy occurred in America, the Salem witch trials. It all began

when a group of girls accused others, generally older women, of

consorting with the devil. The witchcraft hysteria in Salem,

Massachusetts resulted from the strict Puritan code which aroused the

girls interest in superstition and magic and caused strange behavior.

The Salem witch trials were based on the Puritans and their God

versus Satan and his followers and their strict codes. Puritans had

always thought that they were the new chosen people, abandoning a land

of sin and oppression to establish the Promised Land (New England).

Puritans beliefs were rooted in contrasts. (1) They believed that if there

was something good there was something bad to contradict it, for

instance since there was a God, there must be a devil. Since there was

good, there must be evil, and since there were saints chosen to do God's

work on earth, there must be witches who were ins

were forbidden in Salem, they were thought of as frivolous and

Salem. A witch was regarded as a person who had made an actual,

Books, Browie, MD, 1992, p11.

especially susceptible to the Devil's blandishments. In the years of the

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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)