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The Salem Witch Trials began during the spring of 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts after a group of young girls claimed to be possessed by the devil. Betty Paris was among the girls who experienced symptoms including a fever, being in pain,and showing unusual behavior. Similar symptoms spread to Betty's friends and the girls accused several local women of witchcraft.

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By the end of the trials nineteen men and women were guilty of witchcraft and hanged to death. One man was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing the use of witchcraft. Over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and jailed for months. One method of testing a person accused of witchcraft would be a swim test. The accused person would be thrown into a body of water to test if they were a witch. If a person sunk they were human but were a witch if they floated.

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The Puritans were an extremely religious group that strongly believed Satan was active in the world and responsible for all the bad. They believed a person affected by witchcraft exhibited certain symptoms like having a witch's mark. Foreign influence, teenage boredom, and old feuds were some of the causes behind the hysteria in Salem. These situations caused the trials to last for a whole year and devastated many innocent lives.

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Puritans were a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries who sought to simplify and regulate forms of worship. The group's movement of reform occurred between the time of Elizabeth and Charles II. Religious persecution began for the Puritans when Elizabeth died and Charles II dissolved Parliament. The new group wanted to build upon the ideas of John Calvin and left to establish life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620. The Puritans extreme religious beliefs would eventually cause the witch trials to occur.

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Arthur Miller was an American playwright and a controversial figure in the twentieth-century American theater. He is best known for writing the Crucible, a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials. Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to research the trials in 1692, which became unsuccessful at the time of its original release. Today, the play is immensely popular and world renowned.