Servant of Evil

The hysteria began in 1692, during a bleak winter that often plagued the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The root of the calamity was in the strict Puritan society of Salem Village, where two young girls went mad in their beds, spasming and howling, inflicted by a dark curse. Others soon joined them. Witchcraft, the doctors said. The witches who were harming them so terribly were sniffed out, but the accusations kept coming. Husbands turned against wives, brothers turned against sisters, cousins turned against cousins- the fear was infectious and took over the lives of everyone in Salem. In just one year, nineteen were dead, one was pressed to death, four died in prison, and hundreds of others were left poverty-stricken, their lives ruined by an event that never should have been conjured in such a holy place. Was God not merciful?

By the end of it, Mary Warren did not think so.