[Jan_Sobieski]

Went to Salem Mass when I was working in Boston and studied the incident out of fascination. How could this happen in a Puritan colony? Certainly Willian Bradford and co. would never have sanctioned such a debacle. Here is my interpretation after study...

A grieving mother and some foolish high standing young girls started messing around with necromancy during the extremely long and lonely New England winters (husbands often out on frontier guard against Indian attack.) They used a young servant girl from Barbados named Tituba who could communicate with familiar spirits (demons). Moses and Isaiah warned about this behavior in that Demons deceive and plague people, acting like they are dead relatives on the other side, when actually they are only demonic spirits.

The girls got in contact with the demons and started receiving lies (spectral evidence) about certain people in the town being witches (mostly poor and sickly people). They also began manifesting demonic type possession symptoms (what happens when you mess with demons!), blaming it on the poor and sickly townsfolks!?

Because the girls were from wealthier families in the community, the stupid church and city elders believed the demonized girls rather than the falsely accused people...who often could not go to church because of sickness and poverty.

This is why accusations must be challenged and tested. Where did you hear the accusation? Who told you? The girls should have been reprimanded for their stupidity and not believed! This type of crazy stuff still happens today in spiritual circles (though not resulting in death)...

[CheshireTheCat]

I had not heard this theory, but it does make some sense.

I have heard about too many people who have claimed their home is haunted by demons and just picked up and left it and many of their belongings in the middle of the night never to return and at large financial loss to not believe in the existence of malevolent spirits.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

How could this happen in a Puritan colony? Certainly Willian Bradford and co. would never have sanctioned such a debacle.

William Bradford was not a Puritan.

The Pilgrims were Separatists who wanted just to be left alone.

The Puritans wanted to clean up the CoE who they regarded as corrupt.

The Puritans were often gentry and even aristocrats.

The Pilgrims were usually Yeoman class.