As we may already know, the city of Salem has been subject to an epidemic of witchcraft accusations that has lasted over ten months. Witchcraft of this period was not taken lightly. In England alone over 40,000-60,000 people were killed after being found guilty of witchcraft. Needless to say, people believed that witchcraft was a virus infecting the city. The first cases began with the daughters of Samuel Parris, the city's minister, who accused his slave, Tituba, of being a witch. She claimed that she and the others in town were witches and that there was even a wizard. The city erupted into hysteria in the following months. Over 100 people were jailed as a result of the charges. Even the council that was supposed to determine the innocence or guilt of these people was corrupt because declaring innocence meant you were guilty and if you had to plead guilty you could be redeemed. Many of the incriminating objects found were pins and voodoo dolls. Many of these people faced the psychological terror of being forced to plead guilty to a crime, not committed before a committee and scaring the living daylights out of the community they would be subjected to. Many of the witnesses in these trials are said to have suffered physical distress or acted inhumanely. Many historians state in these documents that because their body was under so much tension and fear of witchcraft surrounding them all the time, their bodies went through strange changes such as paralysis or temporary blindness with no real cause other than stress. But many historians also believe that the witnesses acted voluntarily and committed fraud against others. But why was it such a puzzle to understand why this small New England town was suddenly becoming a center… of paper… of everything. He strongly emphasized that the different factors of changing affairs, Quaker ministers preaching to the Puritans, and the general disagreement of ideas among the citizens. He does not seem to think that people deliberately accused their rivals of witchcraft and did not commit fraud, but unintentionally fed the lies they were told and had strange reactions when told to pass on what they had seen. He talks about how all of their problems were woven together solely to create the Salem witch trials and only discussed after the fact. His view seems to think that they were inherently hysterical about witchcraft, seeing as over 40,000 people were executed for it in England, and only amplified their concerns about life around them. In summary, his points say that the outbreak of witchcraft provided an explanation for how these tragedies might have seemed inevitable.