During the years 1692 and 1693, the fear of witchcraft swept through Salem, Massachusetts like a plague. Witchcraft strongly challenged Puritan beliefs and the Puritans executed all accused witches. Throughout the hysteria in Salem, 185 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Rumors of witchcraft endanger the lives of many people. Witchcraft was defined as entering into a pact with the devil in exchange for certain powers allowing him to do evil. This was considered a sin against the superiority of God; a strict rule against Puritan beliefs (Conforti). Although the Salem witch trials were an important and notable event for the Puritan people, there were no actual witches in Salem, only hysteria and suspicion. By 1692, footage of women had begun to have seizures. Young girls who tried to tell fortunes began to behave as if they were tormented. In addition to the seizures they fell into, they felt like they were being strangled, pinched and hit everywhere (Conforti). People began to question the way women behaved and assumed that it was the work of the devil. Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and Tituba, a slave in a one-daughter family who played with divination games and the like, were all arrested on suspicion of witchcraft (Gragg). Sarah Good pleaded innocent, but charged Sarah Osburn with suspicion. Osburn admitted to suffering from symptoms of bewitchment like the other girls. She dreamed that an “Indian figure dressed in black pinched her in the neck.” Similarly to Osburn's dream, Tituba experienced a similar sighting but in her situation there were "four women and a man who told her that while she would not harm the children, they would harm her" . ...... middle of paper ......s, and Crises in American History. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. American History Online. Facts about File, Inc. Web. March 24, 2014. .Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn. “Salem Witch Trials.” Encyclopedia of American Women's History, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000. American History Online. Facts about File, Inc. Web. March 24, 2014. .Asirvatham, Sandy. "'Believers and Skeptics'." The Salem witch trials, great disasters. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002. American History Online, Facts On File, Inc. Web. March 24, 2014. Gragg, Larry D. “Salem Witchcraft Trials.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2000. Web. March 24. 2014. .