by Alison Parker

Salem was a town of pious living and devout Christianity. However, the denizens of Salem heavily alienated and persecuted those with different religious practices. This is best exemplified by the ferreting out of alleged witches and wizards during the Salem Witch Trials.

The mass hysteria began in Salem, a town paranoid from epidemics and potential tribal invasions, when area children had bouts of violent seizures and screaming fits that local doctors concluded Satan was causing, according to Salemweb.com. The afflicted girls named three women as witches. Warrants were quickly issued for the arrests of the women: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and a servant, according to the Salem Witch Trials Documentary and Archive Project.

When examined by town magistrates, only a servant from the Caribbean, Tituba, admitted to practicing witchcraft. Osborne died in a Boston prison awaiting her trial in May, and Good was executed July 19, according to Salemweb.com.

The initial witchcraft accusations did not end at the trial, but instead the trial incited a fever for uncovering witches.

Bridget Bishop was the first pronounced guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to death on June 2 and subsequently became the first casualty of the hunt.

Within a few days of her sentencing, Justice Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned from the

Court of Oyer and Terminer because of his displeasure with her trial, according to Salemweb.com.

While the accused were predominately female, men did not escape the accusations or the executions, according to Salemwitchtrials.com. Giles Corey was pressed to death for failing to enter a plea. Out of the 19 hung in 1692, six were men. One accused wizard died in prison alongside at least three accused witches, and as many as 13 witches may have died while imprisoned, according to Salemwitchtrials.com.

Paradoxically, all those who confessed to practicing witchcraft or wizardry were allowed to live. Many of those who sincerely repudiated the false claims against them were executed, mostly by hanging. A select few, like Nehemiah Abbott, among others, were found innocent of all charges and released, according to Salem Witch Trials Documentary and Archive Project.

In October of 1693, Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer after hearing of the heinous trials from a concerned Salem citizen, according to Salemweb.com. The hysteria was over, but at least 20 had lost their lives. Centuries later, opponents of McCarthyism cited the Salem trials as reasons not to hunt out luminaries with different political affiliations or religious beliefs than the status quo.