The chapter starts by explaining where the accusations of witchcraft started, which was Salem Massachusetts. It explains how a group of people accused a group of adolescent girls of engaging in witchcraft because they started to act strangely. Other people were convicted and hanged before the trials were stopped. The girls were the first ones to be accused but then others would start to describe their experiences with this idea.
People would say that they felt odd sensations and felt like they were being choked by someone else. They also explained that they saw someone when they were being tormented which then lead people to believe that it was enough information to accuse you as a witch. If you were accused of being a witch you could confess but then would have to say who your tormentor was who made you become a witch. The author explains that maybe the girls started the idea to get attention but then they and others might have been affected by symptoms of psychosis. This making logical sense today for we know the girls probably weren’t involved in witchcraft.
It is also explained from the map that most of the accusers were from the west part of the village and the ones accused were from the east part of the village. This showing how there was some sort of social divide because of expansion. From the chapter, I can agree with the author that because of the incentive of not being tortured and killed, people would falsely accuse others of being a Witch. This caused more accusations and more confessions to which then more trials were done.
If you confessed of being a witch but then accused someone else you would live, but if accused and you denied it you would die. Many people were convicted and hanged before the witch trials ended because of people realizing that others were being convicted with no evidence. Also, I can agree with the author that the social differences between the east and west parts of the village. This is because the idea of expansion was a part of a town would split off and build up until that town would split off and build up. The accusations seemed to follow this pattern of expansion to which you could see how it was developing.