In the 17th century, Salem, Massachusetts, was a port town populated primarily by Puritan settlers who came from England in the 17th century. Beliefs about witchcraft spread among the colonists who, if caught practicing, were subject to the death penalty. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of court cases in 1692 surrounding witchcraft where over one hundred people were accused, nineteen were hanged, and one was pressed to death. England had accused people of witchcraft as early as the 12th century, and it was not until the 14th century that citizens began to be arrested and tried. The accused were mostly women, and by the 17th century more than 50,000 so-called witches had been punished by death. Europeans seriously feared witchcraft at this time, so anyone found guilty of witchcraft was going to be tortured, in the hopes of revealing the names of others, or simply killed. It was believed that an accused witch had made a pact with the devil and would be named the devil herself. (LaPlante p33) The term devil included humans and spirits, anyone acting in a diabolical manner. (Roach) The English Puritans were so named because they believed their religion was purer than that of the English Church; they considered themselves God's chosen people. (Wilson 20) To break away from the religious oppression of the English monarch, these people left England and moved their families to the New England colonies. Along with their families, they brought with them: their bibles, their strict work ethic, and their misconceptions about witchcraft. Many of these Puritans settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1692, an epidemic of witchcraft accusations broke out in Salem. It began with the hysterical behaviors of two girls,...... middle of paper ......k place in Salem in 1692. (Wilson 60)The events that took place in Salem in the 17th century are still extremely controversial. Historians in the 21st century have continued to avoid attempting to make sense of the trials, because most physical evidence does not exist. Rumor and legend have mixed together over the years, making it difficult to know what really happened. Twenty people lost their lives in what is commonly considered one of the most hysterical events in American history. The Salem witch trials, although lasting only nine months, forever impacted the use of the justice system to determine religious crimes. by Marilynne RoachWitch Hunt, a History Channel documentary