The main purpose of Clifford Lindsey Alderman’s essay entitled “Guilt” is to present the facts about the “accusers” and the “accused” during and after the Salem Witch Trials in 1692-1693. The key question that the author is addressing is “what really caused the witchcraft delusion to begin, why did it continue to spread, and why was it never again to occur?”(178) Alderman’s goal is to reveal the truth by letting the facts speak for themselves.
One key fact is that Alderman claims that Parris had caused the “dishonor” that resulted in the death of nineteen people because the delusion began in his house. If Parris had not made such a big deal of the girl’s behavior, the witch craft trials may never have occurred. Also, he started a court action against the congregation, but they fought back. They threatened to drive him and his family out of the church until he finally agreed to accept a sum of money to leave. If he had not filed the lawsuit, he would probably
have remained as their minister. Next, the Putnam’s greed for more land added the witchcraft hysteria. In order to take their land, the Putnam’s daughter had accused innocent people among them the nurses, who were rich landowners. Finally, the girls were more than naughty: they enjoyed the intention and power they held over the adults.
One of the reasons an actual repeat of the witch hunt did not occur later in the centuries was because no one is a greedy as Thomas Putnam and it is also because that the economy now is well organized better than the time during the Salem Witch Trials. Now days no one has the right to just accuse someone of a controversy just to take their land. The only reason why the Salem Witch Trials had happened in that time was because people were just greedy for land and wealth so people such as Thomas Putnam accused people of something that they were not just to own more land. So basically there were two sides in the Salem Witch Trials: the accusers and the
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