Zeinert's The Salem Witchcraft Trials: Summary The story takes place during the sixteen-nineties (1690's or early colonial America). This was a time when superstition was well beleived and it was quite frightening for most people. The place where the events in question took place was in Salem, a town in the colony of Massachusetts. Around Salem were the towns of Andover to the NW, Topsfield to the North, Wenham to the NE, Royal Side to the East, Lynn to the SW, and the town of Reading to the West. The Salem village was not a very rugged place, it was just, to be frank, normal, no mountains or large depressions, although it was not completely flat either. In