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Parris Proctor is suspecting that his daughter, slave Tituba, friend Ruth and his niece Abigail have been involved in witchcraft. They were all puritans and witchcraft was against the beliefs of the puritans, and if people thought you were involved in witchcraft you would get black listed. When Parris had caught his daughter, his niece, and slave in the forest they were dancing around a fire naked. Dancing was also against the beliefs of a puritan.
When Parris screamed at his daughter she suddenly became ill. He believed that it was because of witchcraft. Ann Putnam and her husband had said they had seen Beth flying. Their daughter also had fainted after the incident in the forest. All these girls were being accuse of witchcraft, and this could have been the worst thing to be accused of. The girls all denied that it was an act of witchcraft. They all said that they had been possesed by the devil. They all agreed that if they were going to blame it on anyone they would blame it on Tituba.
Being accused of witchcraft was like being accused of being a communist around the 1930's and 1940's. If you were living in America around then and someone said that you were a communist that was the end of you. They would start investigating you, your family, and all your friends. They would ask I you had shown any kind of communism, and if they said yes just because they were scared of being black listed then you were in trouble. The only way that you had a chance of getting off the list was by telling the investigators if you knew someone who was really a communist. If you got black listed you could not get jobs. People would recognize you as a communist and life would get very difficult for you.
Being accused of witchcraft was very similar to being black listed. If people thought you were a witch then it would almost be as you were being exiled. You would not be able to get a job anywhere, and people would look down on you. There was no way to lose the title of being a witch once you got accuse or said to be one. This was a very big issue for Parris and his entire family.