To add to what the others have said, those accusers who had suffered from the conflict with neighbouring Indians had had their lives upended. Those who were orphaned were now living with relatives or friends of their late parents, and those whose families had been displaced lost whatever livelihoods they had previously worked. Their prospects, both for marriage and the rest of their life, were greatly diminished. They could provide little in the way of a dowry, a vital part of arranging a beneficial marriage, and their newfound benefactors (if they had them) had other priorities than their new wards. It is perfectly understandable to look at their situation from their perspective, and feel resentment and anger towards the events that had led to their diminished position; this was the problem. They had been taught that feeling this way made them perfect recruits for the Devil’s cause. He could use their resentment to slip through their defences of faith and use them to further his diabolic aims.
Richard Godbeer suggests that while these first accusers may have genuinely believed that they were the victims of the Devil, their ‘possession’ gave them a legitimate method of expressing their grievances in a society that disapproved of such self-pity. It’s hard for a modern perspective to understand how firmly held beliefs in magic and the Devil were. In other trials, some individuals willingly handed themselves over for the crimes they believed they had committed. Alexander Sussums of Long Melford, Essex had volunteered to be searched by a witch finder during the East-Anglian panic, out of a genuine belief that he had been a witch for over a decade and a half. Through his guilt and negativity, combined with a genuine belief in the power of the Devil and his mother’s reputation for witchcraft, Sussums convinced himself that he too was a witch. Such was his conviction that he actively sought out the man who could, and did, order his arrest and trial for capital crimes (although he was eventually pardoned). Of course, with a society as deeply strained as 17th century New England, there were definitely accusations driven by more mundane motivations, but it is very likely that at least some of the young women who declared their possession did so out of a genuine belief that they were the victims of the Devil.