The Salem Witch Trials hysteria occurred in Salem, Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. A total of 141 people were arrested, 19 people were hanged and one was crushed to death (SWT internet 3).

It all started off when Rev. Samuel Parris before coming a minister, worked as a merchant in Barbados. In his return to Massachusetts he brought back two slaves. One of the slaves, Tituba, his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth called Betty and his eleven-year-old niece Abigail. Tituba passed on stories to the other girls about voodoo. They soon became very interested in it and began playing with it all the time. One time when the other girls in the village knew about it, they all got into it and they all started telling each other's fortune. They did this by floating an egg white in a glass on water and predicted their future husbands. Betty started to

More than 120 people throughout New England were suspected of witchcraft. Sixteen out of twenty people were hanged in Salem Village, which now is called Danvers. Citizens of the town of Salem were Puritans. They were very religious people who believed they were sent to the new world by God to create a society based on God's, plans, and laws.

In 1669, Susanna was required to post 100 pounds bond to appear in court on a charge of witchcraft, a capital offense. At the same time George Martin sued William Sargent, Jr. for slander for saying that "said Martyn's wife had a child at Capt. Wiggins and was wringing its neck in Capt. Wiggins' stable, when a man entered, and she took him by the collar and told him she would be the death of him if he told". He sued William Sargent for saying his wife was a witch(Witch trials.com 4).

People in the village believed witches gained their power from the devil. It was decided to find the witches responsible for all the hysteria going around with the girls seeing things and hallucinating and kill them. All the girls accused Tituba for all the problems going around that the village thought was witchcraft since she was the one who brought it over. The first to be accused were Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Tituba claimed there were more witches, about six in number, led by a tall haired man. All three woman were taken to a prison in Boston.

One of the people accused was Susanna. Susanna was baptized in England on September 30, 1621. She was the daughter of Richard and Joan (Bartram) North. While she was still young her mother died. She came to America with her father, stepmother, and at least one sister. She married George Martin, a blacksmith, on August 11, 1646, in Salisbury, MA, and had eight children. During the first 23 years of her marriage, Susanna's name appears twice in public records. When she was 48 she was fined 20 shillings for an unnamed offense and in 1667, her husband George objected to her seat placement in the meeting house(witchtrials.com 5)

In May of 1692, 200 people were jailed for witchcraft unlike the 141 people that were arrested the same year. They kept accusing people for witchcraft and the number kept going higher and higher for th

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