Essay Database

In the strict Puritan villages of Massachusetts Bay Colony in the late 1600s, people were uneasy about strangers and strange behavior. Puritans worried about the “evil eye”, where a sudden illness or death of a pig was commonly misconstrued for “devil’s work”. It was a place where anyone different was not trusted — and Tituba was perhaps the most different among them. Not only was she a slave, which was unusual in the area, she …

…to prove her newfound righteousness. Ridiculous Puritanical beliefs had all of Salem truly believing that witches rode on broomsticks across the sky every night even alongside the devil himself. They believed that these mere humans could send their “specter” out and haunt the children of their town. It was this hysteria that resulted in The Salem Witch Trials, and to think it all began with the wild stories from the lips of a single slave.