This is a good source, as it links to other sources as well. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

The Crucible is a largely accurate account and it is inciteful, but perhaps more about how persecution and condemnation can whip up into a hysteria that loses sight of its core purposes. Thus it can be applied to many situations, the most obvious one at the time regarding communists of course. Thus the, largely irrelevant to us now, Salem Witch trials are used to give us an incite in 'witch hunts' in general. To the point where the term 'witch hunt' is now used as term to describe that very same thing, an excessive zeal to root out 'witches', or anything look like a witch (or weighs the same as a duck).