Somehow I got the impression that the Salem witch trials were just another instance of Christians persecuting those who were different: witches and other community misfits. Yet upon closer inspection, the real story looks more like the exact opposite: one of witches persecuting Christians and outcasts, until Christian clergy stepped in and had it stopped.

First, it was the accusers, not the victims, who were actually involved in divination, voodoo, and witchcraft:

There was an interest in books about prophecy and fortune telling throughout New England during the winter of 1691-92. These books were especially popular among young girls and adolescents. In Essex County girls formed small, informal circles to practice the divinations and fortune telling they learned from their reading to help pass the cold months.

Betty Parris, her cousin Abigail Williams, and two other friends formed such a circle. Tituba, Rev. Parris' slave whom he bought while on a trip to Barbados, would often participate in the circle. She would entertain the others with stories of witchcraft, demons, and mystic animals. Other girls soon joined their circle in the evenings to listen to Tituba's tales and participate in fortune telling experiments.... However, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams began to become upset and frightened with the results of their fortunes. [ref]

Soon after, these girls started acting sick, writhing, and uttering curses against God -- interpreted by townsfolk either as demonic posession or mere hysteria. If possession, then their precedent should have been that of Jesus, who never allowed the spirit within such an afflicted one to speak unfettered -- much less give testimony in a court of law! On the other hand, John Proctor (one of those accused) suggested their "condition" could be cured by a good whipping.

Throughout the ensuing trials, young and teenaged girls continued to function as the primary accusors, claiming to be afflicted by evil spirits and bringing accusations against townsfolk, charging over two hundred people.

(I find it interesting that divination and magic were popular among such girls back then, and notice that today movies like Pratical Magic, TV shows like Charmed, glamour magazine articles on magic and divination, and modern movements like Wicca include these same girls as a major or even primary demographic target.)

Another prominent figure was Salem's hanging sheriff, George Corwin, a notoriously cruel young man of 25 who also happened to the be son of the magistrate running the trials. Corwin tortured accusers to elicit a confession (in one case, to death), and used such accusations as a pretext (using an obscure old English law) to seize the property of those thusly accused. (He was later found not to have turned over said property to the Crown of England, as the law stipulated. Big surprise.) Many suffered ill treatment at his hands in Salem Dungeon and several even died under such awful conditions.

While some of the accused, like the beggar Sarah Good, were outcasts or had other attributes which made them easy targets, many others were respected, moral townfolk. The actions and lives of these demonstrated the sincerity of their Christian faith. Some prayed upon their death, and Mary Easter, convicted to die, wrote a letter in which she pointed out the error in the judges actions, but spoke lovingly and respectfully towards them. For others, their piety, good character, and/or good works were obvious.

The trials were brought to a halt when Increase Mather and other prominent Boston clergy spoke publicly against the proceedings, and, at their urging, governor Sir Williams Phipps convened the Court of Oyer which decreed that "spectral evidence" (that provided by spirits) could not be used as evidence of witchcraft.

Indeed, the problem, as Mather saw it, was not that there was too little Christian involvement in the witch trials:

Increase Mather, however, understood that innocent blood was being shed, and that the Salem court ran rampant without concern for the advice of the clerical guides, an unprecedented development in the Puritan Colony. [ref]

Increase Mather is apparently also the originator of the popularly paraphrased quote about it being better to let ten guilty go free than allowing one innocent person to be falsely convicted.