During the time of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, more than 20 people died an innocent death. The Puritans were very strict people …show more content…
Fear came with a spark,or stressful event is what often leads to scapegoating(Brooks). Fear of the Devil and witches who did his bidding was very real in Salem at the time. In Massachusetts during the seventeenth century, people often feared that the Devil was constantly trying to find ways to sneak in and destroy Christians and their communities. “As a passionate and strongly religious community living in near isolation in the New World, the community of Salem had a harsh sense of fear of the Devil and then experienced a spark when Tituba, one of the accused witches, confessed that she and others were in fact witches working for the Devil”(Brooks).
This panic and hysteria and quickly sparked a massive witch hunt(Trials). Although there were many other contributing factors, Tituba’s confession was the main reason why the Salem Witch Trials happened.The Massachusetts Bay colonists had accused and convicted people of witchcraft before, starting with Margaret Jones in 1648, but nobody in the colony had ever confessed to being a witch before or stated that there were other witches out there(Trials). Tituba’s simple confession reinforced all of the colonist’s underlying