Act One: Salem residents

THOUGHTS ABOUT SALEM RESIDENTS

• Forefathers were Puritans persecuted in England

• Believed others corrupt

• Europeans considered US missionaries a barbaric frontier and a sect of fanatics

• No holidays - only occasional celebrations

• Plenty who did not conform

• Hard working

• Strict morals

• Difficult conditions: hard winters, unfertile soil

• Minded each other's business

• Suspicious

• Told on each other to magistrates

• Dangers of starting again in the new world were fading and frustrations and envy emerging

• Close to wilderness

• Afraid of heathens who they thought were devilish

• Parochial

• Missionaries who failed to convert native Americans

• Resistant

• Disciplined

• Dedicated

• Communal

• Long suffering

• Theocratic - combined state and religion

• Repressed

• Long held hatreds of neighbours

• Jealousy