In the following excerpt, Kittredge asserts that belief in witchcraft was common throughout history and points out that the witchcraft trials in the American colonies were remarkably limited in number.

In the following excerpt, Godbeer explores the ways in which catastrophes and threats of invasion created widespread fear and xenophobia in pre-1692 New England.

In the following excerpt, Koehler discusses the issues of empowerment and non-traditional behavior in examining why a disproportionate number of the accused witches and their accusers were female.

In the following excerpt, Drake examines pre-1692 witchcraft cases in the American colonies and finds them to have followed a different pattern from what would later occur in Salem.

In the following excerpt, Kibbey explores how the concept of maleficia, or harm-doing by occult means, influenced the social roles of adult males and played a central role in the Salem prosecutions.

In the following excerpt, Miller examines the impact made on the witchcraft trials by jeremiads, or Puritan sermons, which emphasized that God brings affliction on sinners and stressed the need for confession and repentance.

In the following excerpt, Boyer and Nissenbaum comment on the initial witch arrests in Salem, the delay before the trials, the desire for verifiable evidence, and the influence ministers had on the trials.

In the following excerpt, Demos comments on the significance of the fact that most of the accused Salem witches were eccentric and / or anti-social, middle-aged women, while their accusers were girls a generation younger.

In the following excerpt, Erikson discusses the factors that prepared the village of Salem for the witchcraft hysteria, summarizes the events of the trials, and concludes that the year 1692 marked the end of the Puritan experiment in Massachusetts.

In the following essay, Hansen emphasizes some differences between the Andover and the Salem witch-craft cases in an exploration of why the latter "got out of hand."

In the following excerpt, Gildrie outlines three distinct phases in the witchcraft investigations: the first, centering on Salem Village; the second, on suspicious characters; and the last, on the town of Andover.

In the following excerpt, Caporael suggests that convulsive ergotism (an illness caused by a rye fungus) may have initiated and furthered the Salem witchcraft delusion.

In the following excerpt, Demos explores the role of female autonomy, menopause, menarche, and anorexia nervosa in the Salem witchcraft crisis.

In the following excerpt, Spanos and Gottlieb offer a rebuttal to Linda R. Caporael's thesis, examining the symptoms of the participants in the Salem witchcraft trials, but finding no evidence that convulsive ergotism played a role in the crisis.

In the following excerpt, Trask outlines the conflicts between Salem Village and Salem Town and the controversies surrounding the Village's minister, Samuel Parris.

In the following excerpt, Weisman compares the Salem witchcraft prosecutions with those that took place before them, finding notable differences in the types of individuals accused and in the approaches taken at the trials.

In the following excerpt from a document written in the year of the trials, Fisk, representing the Salem jurors, admits that they were deluded and mistaken in convicting the accused witches, and humbly asks forgiveness.