Final answer:
The Salem witchcraft scare started in 1692 after Puritan girls claimed affliction by witchcraft and accused Tituba, leading to mass hysteria and the execution of 19 people by 1693.
Step-by-step explanation:
The witchcraft scare in Salem, Massachusetts, began in the spring of 1692 and was rooted in the Puritan belief system that the Devil was actively involved in society. It began when several girls, including the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, showed unexplainable fits and later blamed their afflictions on witchcraft, pointing to Tituba, a West Indian servant in Parris's house. Under duress, Tituba named two other women as accomplices, which led to mass hysteria and the accusation of many residents in Salem Village and nearby Ipswich of witchcraft. Throughout the trials, 19 people were executed, including 14 women, and many others were imprisoned. Cultural tensions, traumas from frontier wars, and the socio-political climate fed into the fear and subsequent accusations. The scare came to an end in late 1693 when the governor's own wife was accused, leading to skepticism about the validity of spectral evidence and a push from the elite to end the persecutions.