During the witch trials in Salem, MA, how did they select those they tried as witches?

Do NOT use the Crucible as your guide to the Salem Witch Trials. It is really a parable about McCarthyism, NOT colonial history.

A group of teenaged girls started acting strangely, which their parents interpreted as their being "bewitched." At first the girls pointed the finger at a few of the kind of marginal women who normally were victims of witchcraft accusations; the Caribbean slave, Tituba, who had taught them fortune-telling, an old widow, a poor midwife.

But the cases didn't come to trial quickly because the Glorious Revolution back in England had overthrown the government and there was no governor in Massachusetts yet. So everything was kind of suspended, and in the meantime the girls, being the center of attention, continued their behavior. This made the adults think there must be more witches, since the first group were in jail awaiting trial and couldn't be casting spells from there, and pressing the girls to name more names.

Salem Village was already bitterly divided and had lots of enmities and rivalries that had to do with its frustrated efforts to separate from Salem Town, debates over the formation of a new church, and a wealth gap between the more commercial east side of the village and the poorer western woodland. The girls were from the poor side of town, so the next, bigger, round of accusations were directed at their families' wealthy rivals on the rich side. A former minister who had been kicked out and gone to Maine was also accused.

The numbers now made Salem a bit of a sensation and a lot of prominent people in the colony started to get involved. A governor had arrived and trials began, somewhat rushed, and people started to get executed. There was then a third round of accusations where the girls started naming people as witches that they didn't know and hadn't even met - distant figures that they just heard talked about. That was the point where the slowly accumulating doubts many had about the whole process came to the surface. The leading clergy of Massachusetts finally published a statement calling for an end to the trials, not denying that witchcraft existed but arguing that the evidence being used to convict people was too slim. By then, hundreds had been imprisoned and nineteen executed. The remaining prisoners were pardoned and their cases dismissed.

Back then, when someone accused another, the accused were pretty much guilty until proven innocent. Those "witches" would be taken to jail until they met with a judge. In court, the people accusing would act like maniac, making it look like they're possessed by witches (in this case, the accused). And the judges would blindly believed what was happening, thus leading to execution.

I suggest reading a play called the Crucible (written by Arthur Miller). It's about the Salem Witch Trials. Before writing it, the author did extensive research on the Witch Trials, and the character are actual people of Salem back in 1692. The accusation and execution of the witches in the book pretty much depicted what actually happened in Salem.

And @ Patronized Meatloaf: The slave was from Barbados and her name is Tituba.

The girls would commonly choose people that were ostracized from the community or had "weird" behavior and mannerisms to make it more believable. The girls would often act twitchy or display what then was deemed Satanic behavior around these women. Originally the girls heard a story from their Cuban(?) maid (her name started with a T but I can't remember it) about witchcraft and thought that it applied to this situation. The mass hysteria and mania that was caused because of it is nothing short of breathtaking. It shows how much the Puritanical colonial Massachusetts emphasized the importance of religion.

The Smithsonian! AND National Geographic! You're sorted then, no need to ask us lesser mortals anything at all.

Link below. Now finish your homework.

Anyone could turn someone in as a witch, and that person would go on trial. Much of what occurred during this nightmarish period were persons paying back old scores or solving new ones with innuendo and gossip.

I watched a video in History about this and there were these girls who would just nominate random people because they liked the publicity. So basically innocent people lost their lives because of the girls. The girls would pretend to shake and scream if they got near.

If you've consulted those sources, why on earth are you hoping to get a better answer here?