And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusations should be made against opponents rather than against friends.
Besides, there were those who had very little faith in the children themselves, and had taken a kind of stand against them; and these too, were in a dangerous position.
"Who torments you now ?" The answer was ready: Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the charges being made now against the members, often the heads, of the most reputable families in Salem town and village and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Before the coming of the winter snows probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prison at Salem and Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge.

Two-thirds of these were women; many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highest reputation for behavior and piety.

Yet, they were bound with chains, and exposed to all the hardships that attended incarceration in small and badly constructed prisons.
A special court composed of the leading judges in the province being appointed by the Governor for the trial of these accused persons, a mass of what would be now styled "utter nonsense" was brought against them.
No wonder that the official record of this co-called court of justice is now nowhere to be found.

The partial accounts that have come down to us are sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy.