In the years of the Salem Witch Trials, 1692 to 1693, the Puritan law was the way of life. The laws that were in place were the laws of the bible which they followed deeply. Even as the general consensus about the Puritans, that they are synonymous for democracy and freedom, many of their practices and beliefs showed that rebellion against their way of life would not be tolerated. With the tide of Puritan immigrants to Massachusetts after 1630, Salem prospered, soon outgrowing the narrow neck of land that was its original site. The town selectmen began to make grants of land several miles in the interior: thirty acres to “the widow Scarlett” in 1636, 300 acres to Samuel Sharp early in 1637, 150 acres to William Pester in 1638. After 1639, when the General Court gave the Town of Salem the legal right to settle its hinterland as far west as the Ipswich River, the number of grants increased rapidly. Few of these original grantees actually made the move into the interior, they soon sold out to men who did; men bearing names ---Prince, Putnam, Swinnerton, Porter, Hutchinson, Ingersoll--- which would appear over and over again on the witchcraft documents a half a century later. For this was the beginning of what in time would be called Salem Village and then, still later the town of Andover. (Kallen)

Salem Witch Trials