Mather-Cheever Account of the Salem Witch Trials

Reprinted in Eyewitness to America

Published in 1997

Samuel Sewall

Diary Entries of Samuel Sewall

Reprinted in Early American Writing

Published in 1994

"It was noted that in her, as in others like her, that if the afflicted went to approach her, they were flung down to the ground."

During the colonial period most people had little understanding of their natural environment, so they looked to supernatural forces (spirits) for solutions to their problems. To Native Americans, Africans, and some Europeans, magic and religion were inseparable. They believed that people with special powers (called priests, shamans, and witches by various groups) could control good and evil spirits with prayer and rituals. Shamans, priests, and witches...