The Salem Witch Trials took place in colonial Massachusetts. It all started when several women in the Salem community were accused of witchcraft by a group of young girls claiming to have been afflicted by their powers. These convictions started a village wide outbreak of fear; neighbors accusing neighbors, friends accusing friends. It lead to the jailing of hundreds of members of the community and that were either tortured, killed, or left in jail for life. The convictions were finally put to an end when one of the young girls accused one of the elders of being the leader of all the witches. It is speculated the girls suffered from hysteria and hallucinations from eating bad rye locally grown. The Puritans strongly believed in the Devil and his malicious work so it was hard to know if someone was really a "witch" or if it was a lie. It took years to finally find out the truth.