Someone once said that Puritans did not leave Europe because they persecuted everyone there. How do you suppose Miller would respond to that...

I would suggest that the stage directions that help to
open Act I, Scene I could prove to be very helpful.  When Miller diagnoses the
historical condition of the Puritans and why the witch hunts seemed to be intrinsic to
their culture, I think that there is much with which to use as reference to the
comment.  Miller seems to believe that part of the reason why the Puritan community
served as home to the witch trials was because their own ancestors were marginalized and
persecuted.  Miller argues that the reason for them leaving England was to escape
persecution.  Interestingly enough, Miller argues that this cycle of abuse ended up
feeding their desire to leave, land in America, and start persecuting others such as the
Native Americans or others who were "different."  It is here where the "predilection for
minding other people's business" and the notion of the "candle that would light the
world" ended up becoming tools that they used to oppress others and control that which
lay outside of their socially accepted norms.  It is here where Miller makes one of his
strongest arguments that the victims of persecution and cruelty can often become the
very agents of repression and brutality down the dialectal path.  It is here where I
think that Miller, with the use of his stage directions to open the play, would disagree
with the statement.