Failed crops, dying livestock, strange illnesses or injuries were often believed to be the result of a spell cast by a witch or a neighbor who practiced witchcraft. witchcraft as a result of retaliation from an argument about the boundaries of the earth, an unpaid favor, or other trivial civil matters. “Witches” were accused of “pricking, pinching, or suffocating” their accusers without being physically present or “appearing as an apparition” as in the case of Elizabeth Hubbard against the Indian Tituba (Godbeer 90). Men, women and children were accused of being witches; however, women were more often the accused. Any sarcastic remark or spiteful comment said in private, public, or social settings sometimes manifested itself in an accusation of a spell or curse cast on an unsuspecting