Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Salem Witch Trials

Starting point is 00:00:00 In 1692, in the village of Salem, Massachusetts, two young girls made claims that other members of their community were witches. These accusations soon spiraled out of control, resulting in multiple accusers, over 200 people being charged with witchcraft, and the deaths of 20. It remains one of the most notable cases of hysteria and injustice in American history. Learn more about the Salem witch trials, why they happened and its aftermath on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The Salem Witch Trials is probably the best known case of which trials, but it is far from the only case. nor is it even the worst. Beginning in the 14th century, Europe experienced a wave of witch hunts that would pop up sporadically over the next several centuries. Countries all over Europe would suffer from witch-hunt frenzies, and it's believed that as many as 10,000 people may have been killed due to accusations of being witches. Witch trials began with the Catholic Church, but were later picked up by Protestant sex after the Reformation. By the time of the Salem witch trials at the end of the 17th century, the witch hunts had mostly died down in Europe,

Starting point is 00:01:44 However, one of the last great witch hunts took place in England from 1644 to 1647 by the Puritans. In New England, many of the colonies that were established were established by a religious sect known as the Puritans. The Puritans were never a formal Protestant denomination per se, such as congregationalists or Presbyterians. As such, it's not possible to pin down a specific set of beliefs, but the term Puritan was originally used as a pejorative to describe the group who were considered. to be extremists by most Christians in England. The Puritans never called themselves Puritans. They refer to themselves by such terms as the godly, saints, or God's children. The Puritans who moved to America did so to get away from other sex that weren't as pure, and also to create their own communities, which were run by their rules and to the exclusion of everyone

Starting point is 00:02:36 else. The reason why I'm spending so much time on this is to explain exactly what sort of community Salem was and the environment in which the witch trials took place. As much as Americans like to think of the early Puritans as escaping persecution, in reality, the communities they created in New England were theocracies. The story starts in January 1692, when two girls began having what were described as fits. They would have convulsions, scream, bark, throw things, and they would contort themselves into unusual positions. The two girls were nine-year-old Betty Parenthood. Paris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams. It should be noted that Betty was the daughter of the village's only ordained minister Samuel Paris and that Abigail was his niece. Doctors examined the

Starting point is 00:03:24 girls and determined that there was nothing physically wrong with them. A minister from a nearby town, John Hale, said it was, quote, beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural diseases to effect. The cause of the girl's problem was diagnosed to be witchcraft. Once the witchcraft diagnosis was issued, several other young girls in the village started showing the same symptoms. In particular, 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr. and 17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard. Putnam was the daughter of Thomas Putnam, one of the leading citizens in Salem and a close friend of Samuel Paris. Hubbard was an orphan, but worked in the home of the doctor that diagnosed the girls. The initial accusations from the girls were against three women they

Starting point is 00:04:05 claimed were witches. Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and a woman named Tatuba. Sarah Good was a woman who had fallen on hard times and was a beggar. Sarah Osborne was a poor elderly woman who seldom attended church services. And Tatuba was an enslaved indigenous woman from the Caribbean who was owned by the village minister and father of one of the accusers, Samuel Paris. All three women were arrested in early March, and all of them were women who lived on the outskirts of Salem Society. Both Sarah. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne vehemently denied being witches. Tatuba initially denied it, but then admitted to witchcraft, which changed the entire proceedings.

Starting point is 00:04:45 And I should note, she only admitted it after being beaten by Samuel Paris. Tituba gave an elaborate explanation of making a witch's cake. She said that she wasn't a witch, but that, quote, The devil came to me and bid me serve him. She accused other people in her confession and weaved a fantastic tale that included black dogs, hogs, a yellow bird, red and black rats, cats, a fox, and a wolf. Her strategy seemed to be to just become an informer and go along with it to avoid conviction. However, her confession didn't help the overall witch hunt. It lent credibility to all of the

Starting point is 00:05:21 accusations that had been made. She had a firsthand account of meeting the devil himself, which only lent urgency to the investigation. More accusers then came forward, and they began to name even more witches. In late March, Martha Corey was accused of witchcraft, and she was a full member of the Salem religious community. Four-year-old Dorothy Good, the daughter of Sarah Good, was accused, as were Rebecca Nurse and Rachel Clinton from the nearby village of Ipswich. Martha Corey was skeptical of the accusations initially made by the girls, which probably made her get on their radar. Physical examinations of all the accused were conducted to look for moles and birth marks, which were thought to be signs of the devil. Throughout a

Starting point is 00:06:02 April, the accusations kept piling up. People who defended the accused were themselves arrested. One of the primary sources of testimony against the accused was spectral evidence. Spectral evidence would today be called not evidence. Basically, the accusers would say that they were tormented by spectral images of their accusers. The argument went that if the spectral image of someone appeared, then they must have been given permission by the devil to use their image, as if there was some sort of supernatural copyright law. To be fair, spectral evidence was highly controversial even at that time. There was a big theological debate surrounding the issue.

Starting point is 00:06:42 Those advocating spectral evidence believed that a denial of belief in spirits and demons necessitated a disbelief in God. Therefore, such beings had to exist. Moreover, they claimed that the devil couldn't take the form of someone innocent. But others claim that the devil could take the image of someone innocent, and that even if such a spirit had appeared before someone, it didn't imply that the person whose form appeared was guilty. It was simply the devil playing tricks to trap the innocent.

Starting point is 00:07:10 In May, after the accusations began piling up, the royal governor of Massachusetts, William Phipps, convened a court of Oyer and Terminer, which is just an old term for to hear and decide. Several notable figures in the Massachusetts colony, including clergyman Cotton Mather, implored the court to deny spectral evidence. but their requests were ignored.

Starting point is 00:07:32 One of the first people to come before the new court was an older woman by the name of Bridget Bishop, who was rumored to be gossipy and promiscuous. She was also known to wear odd clothing, which was against the Puritan ethic. She claimed, quote, I am as innocent as the child unborn. Nonetheless, she was found guilty and became the first person in Salem to be executed for witchcraft on June 10th. She was hung by the neck at a place called Gallows Hill just outside of the village. Contrary to popular belief, no one was ever burned alive in Salem.

Starting point is 00:08:03 The trials resumed in July and five more accused were sentenced to death. Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susanna Martin, Sarah Wilds, and Rebecca Nurse. They were all executed by hanging on July 19th. On August 19th, more people were sentenced to death. Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., George Burroughs, John Willard, and John Proctor were all executed for witchcraft by hanging. In September the trials continued. One man, an 81-year-old farmer by the name of Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea before the court, and as punishment for not entering a plea, he was crushed to death with heavy stones.

Starting point is 00:08:39 On September 22nd, eight more people were executed by hanging. By this time, it became obvious to almost everyone that the trials were getting out of hand. Over 200 people have been accused of witchcraft by a very small number of accusers. Concerns were now being raised that these matters should be brought to the attention of the crown back in England. On October 29th, the governor of Massachusetts closed the Court of Oyer and Terminer and ended all further executions. Not coincidentally, it was around this time that his wife had been accused of witchcraft. The court of Oyer and Terminer was replaced by the Superior Court of Judicature, which did not allow spectral evidence. Trials continued into 1693, but without spectral evidence, only three of 50 defendants were found guilty,

Starting point is 00:09:24 and no one was executed. By May 1693, Governor Phipps had pardoned everyone who had been imprisoned and found guilty of witchcraft. However, the damage had already been done. Twenty people had been killed because of the witch trials. In 1697, the Massachusetts General Court declared a day of fasting and repentance for the Salem Witch trials. The courts later declared the proceedings to have been unlawful. Samuel Sewell, the leading judge in the case, later publicly apologized for his role in the trials. In 1711, the Massachusetts Colonial Assembly issued a law reversing the decision of 22 people who were convicted and petitioned the government. There were seven convicted people who they or their families did not sign the petition. The governor also agreed to provide

Starting point is 00:10:09 compensation for those convicted and their families. As for the accusers, none of them were ever formally punished for their role. Ann Putnam Jr. made a full apology in 1706 to the Salem Church and claimed that Satan had deceived her to make accusations against innocent people. In 1957, the descendants of those not listed on the 1711 legislation had their innocence formally proclaimed. However, the legislation only listed one name, Ann Pudador, and everyone else was lumped together under certain other persons. It wasn't until October 31st, 2001, that the Massachusetts governor signed a law specifically exonerating all of the convicted and executed by name over three hundred. hundred years after it happened. The sale in which trials have captured the public's attention for almost three centuries,

Starting point is 00:10:57 and at the core of the fascination is the simple question, what happened? There have been many theories put forward, and they're not necessarily mutually exclusive with each other. The first is that this was simply a case of mass hysteria. This is a phenomenon that isn't well understood, but this could have been one of the biggest examples of it. The problem is, this wasn't a riot or some popular convulsion that over the course of the course of a few days just spilled over. These were trials with judges and testimony in a courtroom

Starting point is 00:11:26 that was conducted over a period of many months. What caused the initial fits by the girls who were the main accusers? Many people have put forward an illness known as ergotism caused by eating molds that were found in rye bread at the time. A bird-borne encephalitis has also been proposed as a reason. However, many historians think that the cause might have been much simpler. It could have just been a case of attention-seeking, petty jealousies, and grievances. The Salem Witch Trials are one of the darkest chapters in American history. Almost everyone involved regretted their involvement soon after it was over, and those who accused others of witchcraft had to live with the deaths of 20 innocent people.

Starting point is 00:12:10 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in everything everywhere daily merchandise, Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified of future episodes and projects,

Starting point is 00:12:33 please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Salem Witch Trials

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