The events that led to the Salem witch trials began shortly after the First Doctor and his companions first arrived in Salem in what they at first thought was 1691, but was in fact 1692. Hoping to escape the hysteria which they knew was about to envelope the settlement, the Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and Susan Foreman made a hasty retreat back to the TARDIS, but were followed by Rev. Parris, who was suspicious of these new arrivals. It was while tracking the time travellers in the nearby woods that Parris caught his daughter and niece with some other local girls engaging in black magic rituals. Parris's daughter and niece accused Tituba, a slave who was living with the family as a servant, of bewitching them. Parris beat her and compelled her to confess herself a witch. The de