INTRODUCTION

Forming part of the New England region, Salem can be found on the coast of the state of Massachusetts, USA. European Puritans began to settle in Salem as early as 1626. Puritans were a group of English Protestants from the 16th century, which was a religiously-driven era in Europe as God was the central force for the public. As such, the fear of the occult and Satan was pervasive. The Puritans brought these fears to Salem as they colonised New England in an attempt to flee religious maltreatment in Europe. However, ironically, the Puritans would establish a highly conservative and religiously intolerant settlement; a society where church and the government are a single, explicitly stringent, entity.
The austere attitude of the Salem community in 1692-1693, at the start of the Salem Witch Trials, would become visible. This was a series of events that have become an infamous part of American colonial history for being described as “mass hysteria” as they consisted of prosecutions, executions and imprisonments that infiltrated Massachusetts. The prosecutions were held under the premise that locals within Salem had begun to act peculiarly: morphing their bodies unnaturally, becoming physically ill and incoherently babbling. The community believed that this was a result of demonic possessions or supernatural forces, setting out to resolve the issue in a panic. Approximately one hundred and fifty locals were accused of involvement within that year and thus, twenty