Living in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 during the Witchcraft Trials must had been an
uncanny event to experience. The entire witchcraft hysteria started because people were
pointing fingers at each other. Innocent women and children were being accused for ridiculous
reasons such as mysterious book reading and having poppets, or rag dolls, lying around the
house. The way the judicial system operated in the 1600's was entirely mismanaged. It let guilty
people live and innocent people die. If one was accused they were given one of two choices,
they could either confess and live or not confess and be hanged. Therefore innocent people that
were being accused would confess to save their life, even though they were not witches.
Women that were accused of witchcraft could make a third choice that men could not.
One would make this choice when they did not want to blacken their name by admitting and still
wanted to live. This choice was to pled that one was pregnant. When one made this choice their
trial would be put off for several months because the higher officials would not want to kill the
innocent infant. For example both Sarah Good and Elizabeth Proctor did not confess but said
they were pregnant so they were both thrown in jail until they gave birth or the officials could
definitely determine if in fact they were pregnant.
Throughout the story people mostly considered themselves as the first priority and they
could care less about the others in town, this meant they all looked out for just themselves. For
this reason many of the people in Salem, whether a witch or not, would confess so they could
live. They would not care that innocent people were dying because they would not confess to
witchcraft like the other cowards that confessed just to live. This was Tituba's confession, who
was one of the first persons to be accused. "No, no, don't hang Tituba! I tell h...