In 1692, most people living in the far North of what is now the United
States were English Puritans. The Puritans
were a Protestant sect that placed right behavior, extremely strict living, and
high moral standards at the head of their faith-based communities. Even small
offenses were punished and bemoaned to such a degree that the people lived in
fear of spiritual evil in their day-to-day lives. When a group of teenage girls
began seeing "witches," the elders, who usually ignored advice from
adolescents, took notice. Without proper trial, they condemned the men and
women that the girls accused. It is thought in this modern age that the girls
may have been playing upon the religious notions of the day to get the
attention they felt they deserved, and that the people chosen, usually women,
may have been predominantly bullied because of family feuds or
"unacceptable" financial status.
Men and women were put to death for months in 1692, until a high official's
wife was accused, and only then did the killings end. Most of the accused
"witches" were hanged until dead, but a choice few were selected for
more malicious endings. Giles Cory, an aged husband and father, was accused and
bore his death with fortitude as heavy stones were piled over his body
periodically. Even to this day a feeling of death, of sorrow and evil intent,
is said by some to hang over the city.