The short answer is that its complicated. It depends on a person's social standing, political ties, religion, and family. I'll give several examples from the Salem Witch Trials that touch on these points. All the records from the trials are in print in Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt edited by Bernard Rosenthal and many are online at salem.lib.virginia.edu if you want to look at cases further, or just ask a follow up question.

Sarah Good was a beggar. She was one of the first accused and considered an easy target. She went door to door in Salem Village asking for money, often times mumbling or cursing to herself and at others. Just prior to the accusations, she visited the home of Rev. Samuel Parris to ask for money and food, and Good allegedly walked away muttering to herself. Good claimed she thanked Rev. Parris and mumbled her prayers. However, Parris' daughter and niece were the first two afflicted by witchcraft, just after Good's visit, so her explanation was more or less dismissed. She was found guilty and hanged on July 19, 1692.

Sarah Osborne was accused at the same time as Sarah Good. Her accusation was rooted in feuds with the Putnam family. Her first husband Richard Prince died and left his land to his sons when they reached adulthood. His brother-in-law John Putnam and neighbor Thomas Putnam served as the executors of the will. John's wife Rebecca was Richard's sister. When Sarah remarried to Alexander Osborne, they tried to take the land for themselves. It resulted in a long court battle that began long before and finished long after Thomas Putnam's daughter accused Osborne of witchcraft. Osborne died in jail on May 10, 1692.

Wilmot Redd of Marblehead claimed psychic powers before 1692. She claimed to have cursed a family that resulted in the loss of their infant child. Another woman claimed Redd cursed her to cause constipation. She was not the only person of the time to claim any supernatural powers or admit to magic. Samuel Wardwell was a self proclaimed psychic who was accused and other confessors like Rebecca Johnson Sr. admitted to using white magic. Redd had not been accused before 1692, but openly claiming supernatural powers or the use of magic pushed her luck. She hanged on September 22, 1692.

Other women who previously faced accusations were accused. Bridget Bishop was accused for a third time in 1692. Her past two acquittals were the result of limited evidence, but in the hysteria of 1692, it was too challenging to escape. Others like Susannah Martin were not accused in the courts, but rumors spread about her being a witch. Bishop was hanged on June 10, 1692. Martin was hanged on July 19, 1692.

Rebecca Nurse was almost universally considered a devout Puritan. Even Judge Hathorne expressed his surprise at her accusation. The accusation of the 70 year old Nurse stunned many people and really allowed the accusations to continue. If Nurse could be accused, anyone could be too. Although some things were not in her favor. Her family did have some Quaker ties and her mother Joanna Town was once accused of witchcraft. Rebecca Nurse hanged on July 19, 1692, despite a strong defense for her. Her sister Mary Easty, who was accused just after trying to get neighbors to sign a petition for Nurse, hanged on September 22, 1692. Her sister Sarah Cloyce walked out of a church meeting in protest of Rev. Parris referencing Nurse as a traitor in their community. Cloyce was accused soon after, but she survived the trials.

Elizabeth Procter and her husband John were accused. Elizabeth sometimes worked as a healer. Elizabeth Hubbard, the niece of Dr. William Griggs, was one of the accusers. Although it was not the entire basis of her accusation, competition between Griggs and Procter certainly played a part. She and John were convicted. John hanged on August 19, 1692. Elizabeth was granted a stay of execution for her pregnancy. This allowed Elizabeth to survive the trials.

These are just several accusations from the 170+ of the men and women named in 1692. A lot of different factors played into each accusation. Sometimes it was as minor as a family feud or gossip, but it was also economic motivations and political tensions.

It could be as simple as being present when something unfavorable happened.

One of the major points to keep in mind is that Puritans (and other early Protestants) were firm believers in predestination, meaning that God was already aware if they were going to heaven or hell before the moment of their birth. To this end, God would always show favor towards those who were destined for the glory of heaven.

So if something negative were to happen, for example a crop failure or illness, it could only mean two things: either you were not favored by God and going to receive his grace, or an agent of the devil was testing your faith.

Imagine the anxiety of thinking you were condemned to hell no matter what you did in this life. Now if something unfavorable were to happen, which would you rather believe to be the cause? That your soul was already condemned to hell, or that someone in your community was working with the devil to visit ill upon you?

This is one of the reasons that witchcraft accusations spread like wildfire in most cases. If you execute a witch, and bad things still happen, well there must be more witches among you.

So, as for examples. My favorite is the case of Mary Lee, who was a passenger on board the Charity which was inbound to the Chesapeake from England. The ship had been plagued by a rough transit, and after hitting rough seas once again the crew came to the conclusion that Mary Lee had bewitched their vessel and cursed the trip. Eventually crew members took it upon themselves to inspect her for a physical sign that she was in collusion with the devil, and claimed to have found one.

The next day they set out to inspect her once again, and this time Mary offered up a confession (which brings into question just how humiliating/invasive this first search must have been). The crew demanded she be executed, and the ship's Captain, refusing to take part, allowed her to be hanged at sea by the crew.

While we know very little outside of those details, we can look at other cases of accusations and see a similar pattern. In 1654 a woman named Lydia Gilbert was accused of witchcraft, and among the charges were that she had induced the death of Henry Stiles - a man killed 3 years prior by another man accidentally discharging his firearm. She was also found guilty by the local court and most likely executed (records are sparse). And the pattern continues. That isn't to say men were immune from accusation or even execution, but the vast majority of witchcraft charges were brought against women in colonial America.

One of the reasons for this, and I can't stress it as only one of the reasons, stems from the biblical role of women in creating Original Sin. It seems, at least in Puritan New England, that women often receiving equal or harsher penalties than men - especially regarding sins of the flesh - at least in part derives from what was perceived as a longstanding weakness of women to be led astray by Satan.

For a great breakdown of accusations in colonial America pre-1692, see Frederick Drake's *Witchcraft in the American Colonies, 1647-1662] . Note: Link is to JSTOR. I couldn't find a digital copy floating around outside of a paywall.