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How did this conflict impact the trials? Well, most of the people accused lived in the part of Salem Village that was full of businesses and shops. This created a rift between the two groups in Salem Village. When Salem Village’s new pastor, Reverend Samuel Parris, came to town, he denounced the secular behavior of the innkeepers and blacksmiths and others. Meanwhile, those who lived further away clung to their rigid Puritan values. Those who lived nearer to Salem Town engaged in commerce and were seen as a bit more worldly.
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To complicate matters further, within Salem Village itself, there were two separate social groups. For years, Salem Village tried to separate itself politically from Salem Town. The two communities were three hours apart, by foot, which was the most common method of transportation at the time. Salem Village was populated mostly by poor farmers, and Salem Town was a prosperous port full of middle-class and wealthy merchants. It was divided into two distinct and very different socioeconomic parts. While the Salem of today is a thriving metropolitan area, in 1692 it was a remote settlement on the edge of the frontier. By pointing the finger at others, they were able to shift the blame and spare their own lives. Many of the accusers were adults – and more than a few of them were people who had themselves been accused. Often, in movies and television and books, the accusers in the Salem trials are portrayed as angsty teenage girls, but that’s not completely true. There is no documentation of where she may have gone after the trials. She was released from jail shortly after the hangings began, and was never tried or convicted. It’s entirely possible that much of the blame placed upon Tituba during the trials was based on her racial and social class. One of the best known of the accused has been the focus of some conjecture regarding whether or not she was practicing folk magic, because she was believed to be a "fortune teller." The slave Tituba, because of her background in the Caribbean (or possibly the West Indies), could have practiced some form of folk magic, but that has never been confirmed. Unlike some of the more notorious cases in Europe and England, such as that of the Pendle witch trial, there was no one among Salem’s accused who was known as a local witch or healer, with one exception. Does that mean they couldn’t have been practicing witchcraft? No–because certainly there are some Christians who do–but there’s no historical evidence that anyone was really working any kind of magic in Salem. In seventeenth-century New England, pretty much everyone was practicing some form of Christianity. It's also important to remember that there is no evidence, other than spectral evidence and coerced confessions, that any of the accused actually did practice witchcraft. It was viewed as a sin against God, the church, and the Crown, and thus was treated as a crime.
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While many modern-day Pagans cite the Salem trials as an example of religious intolerance, at the time, witchcraft was not seen as a religion at all.