In this article, the author, Edmund S. Morgan discussed how witch trials became an issue in the Salem Village which dispersed to other towns. The witch trials were well known in the sixteenth century. In the beginning, Morgan stated “the trials occurred at a time when the people of Massachusetts were passing through a very difficult time.” (Morgan, 47) The author clearly wanted to inform the readers that Massachusetts was already in a rough state to begin with until the witch trials came along. The witchcraft trials went unnoticed with only a few executions of the witches in a timeframe until 1692 where the people started to become aware and afraid of them.
One man who agreed with the prosecution and execution of withes was named Cotton Mather.
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In the article, Morgan defines witchcraft as “an ancient and in some societies a relatively respectable profession.”(Morgan, 47) The meaning of it seems as if witchcraft is not a threat to everybody and that there was more to being a witch. There were two different witchcraft that the witches did. One of them was benign witchcraft while the other one was malign witchcraft. There were various amounts of evidence that would be used to identify a witch before convicting them. It was more common to capture malign witches because of their actions. Some of the evidence that were recognized the most were the used in witchcraft. The witches tortured people by using dolls that resembled them in a way. The author states, “When the witch stokes the doll of stick pins in it, the person bewitched is supposed to undergo excruciating pains in the part of the body…”(Morgan, 49) This was effective to the witches because they didn’t have to be around a particular person to still harm them with the puncturing the doll. The “witch-marks” were known to be on a witch body but that was uncertain sometimes. If identified, the marks stood out on their bodies that were in unusual for a person to