During the years 1692 and 1693 the fear of witchcraft spread through Salem, Massachusetts like a plague. Witchcraft strongly challenged Puritan beliefs, and Puritans executed all accused witches. During the hysteria in Salem, 185 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Witchcraft rumors endanger the lives of many people. Witchcraft was defined as making a pact with the devil in exchange for certain powers to do evil. It was considered a sin against the superiority of God; a severe rule against Puritan beliefs (Conforti). Although the Salem witch trials were an important and extraordinary event that happened to the Puritan people, there were really no witches in Salem, only hysteria and suspicion. By 1692, sequences of women had begun to have attacks. The girls who were trying to predict the future had begun to act as if they were tormented. In addition to the attacks in which they fell, they felt suffocated, pinched and hit all over (Conforti). People began to question the way women behaved and assume they were the works of the devil. Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and Tituba, a slave in the family of a girl who was one of the girls who played fortune-telling games and the like, were all arrested on suspicion of witchcraft (Gragg). Sarah Good declared herself innocent, but accused Sarah Osburn of suspicion. Osburn admitted that she suffered from witchcraft symptoms like other younger girls. She had a dream that an "Indian-looking figure dressed all in black was pinching her around 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 if she didn't hurt the children, they would hurt her." ...... middle of paper ...... and Crisis in American History. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. American History Online. File, Inc. Web Facts. March 24, 2014. .Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn. "Salem Witch Trials." Encyclopedia of Women's History in America, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000. American History Online. File Web Facts, Inc.. March 24, 2014. .Asirvatham, sand. "'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 Witch Trials.” American history. ABC-CLIO, 2000. Web. 24 March. 2014. .