Just as most persecutions begin, the people of Salem were trapped by an emotion which led to a six-month witch hunt; they were enraptured with fear. Though the whole situation began with a teenage joke, the Puritan society was in a paranoid state by trying to stay pure in their religion. The Puritans were not only afraid of the Devil tainting them, but rather a shattered reputation, and possibly death, by being accused of witchcraft. So, many Salem residents accused their neighbors of being witches to avoid blame on themselves. While fear was a large motivator for the trials, it is also a fact that "most of the accused lived to the south of, and were generally better off financially, than most of the accusers. In a number