Many problems within the society were attributed to the witches living in the town of Salem. At the time of their arrest, most of them were found with things believed to be used to propagate their activities.
First off, The accusers were mainly crowds of young people mainly ranging under the age of 21 years old who were mostly unmarried. Many say that the accusations were because they were jealous poor people. According to Document E many of the accusers were on the poor side of the community while many of the accused were on the wealthier side. For reasons that no one is sure the Rever girls began to have strange and violent fits. Maybe the girls actually believed they were possessed but I think it was just a stunt they pulled for attention that got out of control when it was fueled by paranoid adults. The 17th century puritans believed in witchcraft