This is incompetent and stupid. We know how the Salem witchtrials began: with accusations by a couple children of Carribean servants who sought to avoid punishment of misconduct by blaming a white woman for witchcraft. Belief in witches was commonplace among slaves brought up from the islands, and it caught on among the puritans of Salem. That it only lasted a short time is evidence that it was a passing hysteria, not a response to extended climate change.
You are so right. Those little brats got caught dabbling in voodoo with a servant girl of the pastor of their church. Who by the way was the father of one of those little girls.
In order to save themselves from severe punishment, they concocted the hysteria and they sold it to the community, who by the way also hated some of the accused women because they were becoming the new important people, the girls sold it to the Courts, who possibly also needed notoriety.
The pastor played it up to the hilt to protect his own daughter. He knew the truth.
That was in MASS? Sounds like the beginning of the Democratic party. GET CAUGHT DOING BAD, BLAME OTHERS. MASS. is still a mess.