There were both underlying causes and immediate ones. For
one, the people of Salem in the late 1600s were both very religious, and very
superstitious. So when the first accusations of witchcraft came up, they were more
likely to believe it.
Secondly, the Puritan religion and
preachers had conditioned the population to fear all things satanic, and to believe that
they might not be able to control his influences.
Lastly,
fear of witchcraft goes back centuries before this time, as did the methods of dealing
with them.
The immediate cause was when accusations were
made against a slave, Tituba, for practicing voodoo. People who had been with her were
also accused, and all they could do to save themselves was to accuse someone else. It
was a spiral of fear.
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