"As they descended the steps, it is averted that the lattice of a chamber window was thrown open, and forth into the sunny day was thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins, Governor Bellingham's bitter-tempered sister, and the same who, a few years later, was executed as a witch." (Hawthorne 113)
The only thing I really know about witches came from the music I listen to (not a good idea) and from APUSH (but did I ever really understand anything in that class?). The music that I listen to gave me a really bad impression that witches were burned at the stake and basically went on to burn in hell.
After doing some research I found a few facts.
- Everyone in Puritan society believed in witchcraft and the Devil.
- Most accused women were either poor, elderly, widowed, or a combination of all of them.
- A failed crop or a sick newborn were signs of witchcraft in a community
- Accused witches were tried and then hung if found guilty-most were.
- Witch hunts began in Salem, and then spread to other colonies.
"'Wilt thou go with us tonight? There will be a merry company in the forest; and I well-nigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one.'" (113)
Mistress Hibbins in The Scarlet Letter was openly a witch, but she doesn't have the standard characteristics of most witches. Should Mistress Hibbins have been tried and hung too? This shows how people see what they want to see. Since Mistress Hibbins lived in a nice house with her brother the governor people assumed that she was a good person. 
Although it is wrong that people were accused for being witches, I find it odd that Mistress Hibbins was not tried, too. This must be because people were treated differently due to their individual status' in society.
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