Final answer:
The Salem witch trials were a series of events beginning in 1692, where several Salem Village girls accused people of witchcraft, leading to trials and the execution of nineteen individuals. The hysteria was fueled by Puritan beliefs and fear of the Devil, social and political tensions, and was eventually quelled in 1693. Later, the convictions were annulled and families compensated.
Step-by-step explanation:
The events that are now referred to as the Salem witch trials began in spring 1692 in Salem Village (present-day Danvers, Massachusetts). During this period, several girls, including the daughter and niece of the local minister Samuel Parris, began exhibiting strange behaviors and fits "beyond the power of natural disease to effect." The girls accused Tituba, a West Indian servant in the Parris household, of teaching them occult practices, which led to a full-blown witch hysteria. As accusations spiraled, many residents of Salem Village and nearby areas were accused of witchcraft, leading to trials that resulted in the execution of nineteen people, and the pressing to death of an elderly man named Giles Corey.
Throughout these trials, individuals like Cotton Mather in Boston held a strong belief in the existence of witches and devils, partially based on personal convictions and also as a way to explain the misfortunes afflicting the society. The mass hysteria was driven by fear, superstition, and tensions arising from a changing social and political landscape, including traumatic experiences from Native wars and fears around non-conformity.
The trials continued until the hysteria finally subsided by the summer of 1693. Eventually, in a move toward justice, the Massachusetts courts annulled the convictions twenty years later and granted indemnities to the victims and their families.