>>1137656I spent a night unlawfully in a MA state park and didn't get caught. We went way off trail into some really thick woods but at like 11pm I saw a flashlight up by the trail searching around as the ranger walked through.
Also, MA is literally the bedrock of American litigious culture. The Puritans were very disciplined in their communal responsibilities, and as such they settled every dispute in the public forum. Meaning that if your neighbor erected a fence through your property you don't settle it quietly amongst yourselves, you drag them in front of everyone at the meeting house and make your case to the community, and have the elders decide the verdict. This practice permeated every aspect of life for them. You didn't like that your neighbor was selling eggs cheaper than you? Sue. You don't like that the commonwealth built a road through your town? Sue. The people in Salem Town want the church moved closer to their side of the colony? Sue them and accusing them of witchcraft. The amount of public trials in the Bay Colony is unrivalled just about anywhere in history. There's no coincidence this is where the witch hysteria started. In fact, accusing people you hated of being witches was stupidly common, it just didn't usually transgress into mass hysteria like it did during the Salem Witch Trials. Just one of the families in Salem is recorded filing something like 180 witchcraft accusations over about 50 years, as they tried to ruin competing businesses and drive neighbors out of town.
That's where we get it from anon.
