[单项选择]In 17th-century New England, almost everyone believed in witches. Struggling to survive in a vast and sometimes unforgiving land, America’s earliest European settlers understood themselves to be surrounded by an inscrutable universe filled with invisible spirits, both benevolent and evil, that affected their lives. They often attributed a sudden illness, a household disaster or a financial setback to a witch’s curse. The belief in witchcraft was, at bottom, an attempt to make sense of the unknown.
While witchcraft was often feared, it was punished only infrequently. In the first 70 years of the New England settlement, about 100 people were formally charged with being witches; fewer than two dozen were convicted and fewer still were executed.
Then came 1692. In January of that year, two young girls living in the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village began experiencing strange fits. The doctor identified witchcraft as tile cause. After weeks of questioning, t
A. Puritan settlers witnessed the witchcraft of American Indians.
B. frontier refugees couldn’t admit their own defeat.
C. the early European settlers lacked the sense of security.
D. hundreds of American Indians died of the witchcraft accusation.