Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. Sometimes witchcraft is used to refer, broadly, to the practice of indigenous magic, and has a connotation similar to shamanism. Depending on the values of the community, witchcraft in this sense may be regarded with varying degrees of respect or suspicion, or with ambivalence, being neither intrinsically good nor evil.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft for more info on witchcraft.
Many of the accused were innocent. There are various stories as to how it got started. One of them was the 15 year old daughter of one of the prominent members was caught "playing with herself" and she, to save her face, accused some people of being the devil and forcing her to do it. This led to others accusing people for being witches and other evil beings. Religious extremism was the cause for it.
I do not believe there was any witchcraft going on there at all. What I think is more likely is that it was a combination of using witchcraft to explain things not at the time understood and a tool of revenge against someone a person did not like.
witchcraft in and of itself predates the Salem trials and is actually Wicca. This was a Puritan colony and rigid would be a mild term. It's believed that the hysterics of the time was due to a mold found on wheat, and acting as an hallucinogenic. IT is likely that Salem was run by some masochist and sadists, under the guise of religious righteousness. The old Christ said you're a sinner and must die., routine. For some reason this type of personality is able to rise to high political power, and find like persons for their own amusement.
Do you mean why were certain people or classes of people accused of witchcraft? If so, it was like this: by 1692 a clear stereotype of the witch had become accepted. She (the majority of accusations were against women) was usually elderly, poor, and living on the edge of society. It was therefore amongst this group that people looked to find witches when witchcraft was suspected. Of course there were examples that don't fit this pattern.
Some of the claims concerning witch accusations can however be discounted. It was not a campaign against women (many of the accusers and witnesses were women); nor was it a campaign by doctors against midwives (I know of no prosecution where a doctor is the prosecutor).
Most accusations were brought by neighbors against people they genuinely believed had bewitched them. There were cases of fraud - English witchcraft has several classic examples - but mostly it was frightened people trying to defend themselves.
When we think about these accusers, we must try and see things through their eyes. It's all too easy to look back at them and sneer at their superstitious beliefs. But they believed what most of their friends and neighbors believed, and what many educated people believed as well - that witches were a real and dangerous group, who intended harm, and who were in league with the devil.
There isn't room here for an extensive examination of witchcraft and witchcraft beliefs. There are a number of excellent books on the subject, as well as some very bad ones! A fine example is James Sharpe's Instruments of Darkness.
If you can be more specific in your question, I may be able to help further.
I was reading Salem Witchcraft trials?
