The Salem Witch Trials The place is Salem, Massachusetts. The date is January 1692. While trade is making Salem prosperous, only the merchants are becoming rich. Trade is made easy because Salem is located next to the second largest port in the area. Tension between merchants and the local farmers start to mount as the farmers begin to lose social standing and political power to the merchants. The episode of the witch trials began in January, 1692 when nine year old Elizabeth Parris and eleven year old Abigail Williams began to exhibit strange behavior, such as blasphemous screaming, convulsive seizures, and trance-like states