The town of Salem, Mass. was mostly comprised of rural farming families, and in early 1692 a few families became concerned because their daughters were demonstrating weird behavior and launching into psychotic frenzies, especially the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris. The girls explained the wild outbursts by blaming witches, naming three women in the town and accusing them of being witches. At this, the Reverend and other leaders of the community held a trial to determine if the three women were really witches. At the trial, the little girls claiming to be possessed erupted into fits and mimicked the accused women in strange ways to further make the women appear to be witches. The women were convicted of being witches, thrown in jail, and a full-blown witch hunt ensued.
All scientific, psychological and observational evidence indicates that witches do not actually exist. Thus, it is highly unlikely that there were any witches in Salem or that any women in the villages around Salem possessed supernatural powers. Nonetheless, there were reasons why the villages were so certain that the accused women were witches. In addition to the little girls' frenzies, one of the women being accused at the trial -- a slave named Tituba -- did not deny being a witch like the other two women, but instead loudly and proudly gave a sarcastic response in which she confessed to being a witch and claimed there were many more witches in the town that the villagers didn't yet know about. This sarcastic speech convinced the townspeople that they were correct about the existence of witches and that the three accused women were guilty.
During the next eight to nine months, the villages around Salem launched a massive and relentless witch hunt. Several people were accused of being witches, convicted at a trial that lacked valid evidence and locked in a jail cell. Many were then executed. Although during the beginning stages of the hunt only people of low status were being accused, as the hunt developed and progressed even wealthy people who held good positions and status in the villages were being thrown in jail and executed for being witches. By the time the madness settled and the villages -- regaining their judgment -- finally decided to end the witch hunt, over 150 people had been jailed, 19 people had been executed by hanging or pressing (including one man) and five women died in jail.
Another reason why the villagers were so certain that witches really existed and that the people they were executing were guilty of witchcraft were the many confessions uttered by accused people. Although the confessions were most likely false, many people realized that they would be executed if they did not confess. Thus, to save their lives, many people confessed to being witches -- even though they were not -- so they could remain alive in jail and not die by being hung in front of a crowd. It is understandable why these people confessed to being witches, however the confessions prolonged the witch hunt by encouraging the villagers and convincing them that the hunt was really exposing witches.