The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials

From Witch Trials to Revolution: Salem Village on the Front LinesWe connect Salem’s darkest legacy to the opening clash of American independence with historian Dan Gagnon, Danvers resident and author of A Salem Witch: A Biography of Rebecca Nurse. Our conversation brings the Revolution into the very streets of Salem and Salem Village (today’s Danvers), where coercive acts, a moved provincial capital, troops on the Salem Common, and General Gage’s presence near the Rebecca Nurse Homestead turned imperial policy into daily reality. Tensions surge as the Massachusetts legislature outmaneuvers Gage in Salem, town meetings defy his bans, and crowds force him to release arrested patriots. The action escalates with Leslie’s Retreat—an armed standoff over a raised bridge—and then the Lexington Alarm, as Danvers militia (including descendants of witch-trial families) race to Menotomy for some of the day’s most savage fighting.00:00 Welcome and Introductions00:12 Dan Gagnon Background01:06 Witch Trials to Revolution02:34 Rights and Rising Tensions03:05 Salem Becomes Capital05:14 Defying General Gage06:26 Town Meetings and Protests08:15 Leslie's Retreat in Salem11:00 Lexington Alarm Response14:05 Menotomy Bloody Fighting17:07 Losses and Legacy Links:Rebecca Nurse Homestead: rebeccanurse.orgA Salem Witch: A Biography of Rebecca Nurse by Dan Gagnon: www.bookshop.org/Shop/endwitchhuntsEnd Witch Hunts endwitchhunts.orgAbout Witch Hunts aboutwitchhunts.comSalem Witch Trials History YouTube: https://youtube.com/@aboutwitchhunts

Every April 30, bonfires burn across Europe on the same night witches were said to gather on a mountaintop and make their covenant with the devil. That image did not stay in Europe. It crossed the Atlantic, embedded itself in colonial New England theology and law, and by 1692 it was being sworn to in witchcraft trials that sent nineteen people to their deaths. In this episode, hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack follow that thread from a German mountain to a Danvers pasture — and the path runs straight through a Maypole, a folk magic discovery hidden inside a colonial home, a decades-old grudge over rancid butter, and a pear tree that has been standing since before the trials began and is still standing right now.In this episode, you will learn:Why Walpurgis Night and the Salem witchcraft sabbath descriptions share the same historical rootsHow one colonial settler's May Day celebration became a theological threat to Puritan authorityWhat a single word in William Bradford's writing reveals about how Puritans understood folk magic and social controlWhy witchcraft gathering testimony carried such evidentiary weight in colonial Massachusetts courts — decades before SalemHow one man's actions in the 1620s left a thread running directly through the 1692 witch trialsWhat a 400-year-old pear tree in a Danvers parking lot has to do with the Salem witch trialsThe Thing About the Salem Witch Trials is part of the End Witch Hunts podcast network. Learn more at endwitchhunts.org.#SalemWitchTrials #Witchcraft #FolkMagic #WalpurgisNight #ColonialHistory #AmericanHistory #WitchHunts #1692 #Puritans #NewEnglandHistory #MayDay #ThomasMorton #JohnEndicott #EndWitchHunts #SalemHistorySalem Witch Trials History YouTubeThe Thing About the Salem Witch TrialsSalem Witch Trials DailyThe Thing About Witch HuntsSupport Our Work, Buy a Salem Witch Trials History Book!

ESPN has a history podcast, and they used it to cover the Salem Witch Trials on the 50th anniversary of the ergot theory. Hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack, descendants of Salem Witch Trial victims, respond to Stupiracy's April 2nd episode on whether moldy rye bread caused the accusations of 1692.What you will learn:What the ergot theory is and why it has circulated for 50 yearsHow the historical symptoms from Salem do not match ergotismWho was executed and who died in jail during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692Why the devil, not bread mold, was the legal framework driving the prosecutionsThe witch legends and actual 1692 witch trials in ESPN's own backyard in ConnecticutHosted by Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack of The Thing About Witch Hunts Podcast. Learn more at www.aboutwitchhunts.com#SalemWitchTrials #WitchTrials #ErgotTheory #Salem1692 #SalemHistory #WitchHistory #RebeccaNurse #MaryEasty #GilesCory #ESPN #Stupiracy #ConnecticutWitchTrials #AmericanHistory #WitchHuntsLinksMargo Burns on Moldy Bread Theory Best Books on The Salem Witch TrialsThe Thing About the Salem Witch TrialsSalem Witch Trials DailyThe Thing About Witch Hunts

On April 19, 1692, Salem witch trials magistrates conducted their busiest day of examinations yet. Four accused witches appeared before the court in colonial Massachusetts. Two confessions were recorded. And the Puritan legal proceedings that would lead to nineteen executions shifted into a dangerous new phase.In this episode of The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials, Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack break down the examinations of Giles Cory, Abigail Hobbs, Mary Warren, and Bridget Bishop using the firsthand courtroom notes of Samuel Parris and Ezekiel Cheever. If you love American history, colonial history, or the true story behind one of the most dramatic legal crises in Puritan New England, this episode is for you.In this episode you'll learn:What Giles Cory said under examination, why his answers about a cow house drew the magistrates' suspicion, and how the afflicted responded to Giles Cory's every movement in the courtroomHow Abigail Hobbs became the first confessor since Tituba, what her confession revealed about life on the colonial Maine frontier, and why Abigail Hobbs' testimony produced the first legal accusation against Sarah Wildes of TopsfieldWhat Mary Warren claimed about the afflicted accusers that the Salem witch trial court chose to ignore, and why Mary Warren's examination collapsed across four separate appearances before the magistratesHow Bridget Bishop defended herself against charges of witchcraft in 1692, what the cuts in Bridget Bishop's coat had to do with spectral evidence, and why her answer about not knowing what a witch was became a trap that led to her hangingThe Thing About the Salem Witch Trials is hosted by Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack of End Witch Hunts nonprofit and The Thing About Witch Hunts podcast. For day-by-day coverage of the 1692 Salem witch trials, follow Salem Witch Trials Daily podcast.Salem Witch Trials Daily Videos & Course The Thing About Salem Website⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube⁠⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts WebsiteSign the Petition: MA Witch Hunt Justice Project Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice ProjectSupport the nonprofit End Witch Hunts Podcasts and Projects

What does the American Red Cross have to do with the Salem Witch Trials? The answer runs through one of the most defiant women of 1692.Sarah Cloyce was the youngest of the three Towne sisters, the sibling who survived when Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty did not. Born in Salem in 1642, Sarah lived a relatively ordinary Puritan life until March 1692, when her sister Rebecca was arrested for witchcraft and Reverend Samuel Parris delivered a sermon that changed everything. Sarah's response, walking out of the meetinghouse and reportedly slamming the door behind her, put a target on her back. Eight days later, she was formally accused.Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack tell the full story of Sarah Cloyce's accusation, her examination at the Salem Town meetinghouse on April 11, 1692, and her nine months of imprisonment in chains before the charges against her were finally dismissed in January 1693. They also cover the joint petition Sarah authored with her sister Mary Easty while both were imprisoned, Peter Cloyce's remarkable devotion to his wife throughout her ordeal, and the family's journey west to what would become Framingham, Massachusetts, where Salem End Road still marks the path the witch trial refugees traveled.And that famous descendant? Sarah Cloyce's daughter Hannah married Samuel Barton, and five generations later, Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was born in Oxford, Massachusetts on Christmas Day 1821.What You Will Learn:What one act in a church doorway made Sarah Cloyce a target of the accusationsWhat role the afflicted claimed she played at the devil's sacramentWhy one of the most active accusers of 1692 held back when it came to SarahWhat her husband did during her nine months of imprisonment that set him apartWhy Sarah survived when her sisters did notWhere Sarah and the other Salem refugees went, and what they left behindHow Sarah Cloyce's bloodline connects directly to one of the most celebrated women in American historyThe Thing About the Salem Witch Trials is hosted by Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack, descendants of Salem Witch Trial victims. New episodes every week.Also mentioned: the PBS miniseries Three Sovereigns for Sarah (1985) starring Vanessa Redgrave, authors Antonio Stuckey and Janice C. Thompson, and Salem Witch Trials Daily, the companion daily podcast. Visit aboutsalem.com for more Visit youtube.com/@aboutwitchhunts for The Salem Witch Trials Daily Podcast