The Thing About Salem

We recount John Proctor’s role in the Salem witch trials, from his defense of his wife Elizabeth after she was accused in 1692 to his own arrest and conviction. We describe his criticism of the proceedings, petitions arguing the trials were unfair, and his execution on August 19, 1692 after being denied a final prayer because he would not falsely confess. Elizabeth survived due to pregnancy, later received a reprieve, and the family suffered property seizure and lasting legal and financial damage before later reversal of the attainder and restitution.00:00 John Proctor’s Final Morning: A Prayer Refused (Aug 19, 1692)00:36 Who Was John Proctor? Early Life, Family, and Reputation01:46 Elizabeth Proctor Accused: The April 11 Examination02:24 John Speaks Out—and Becomes the First Male Arrested03:10 Prison Petitions & Community Support Against the Trials03:49 Conviction and Execution: The Gallows on August 1904:09 Elizabeth Survives: Pregnancy, Prison Birth, and Reprieve04:28 Aftermath: Family Ruin, Property Seizure, and Burial Legends05:04 Restoring Rights: Estate Battles, Remarriage, and Restitution05:34 Myth vs. History: Debunking The Crucible’s Proctor Story⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-HuntThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily HubSalem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death⁠The Thing About Salem⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem StoryPeabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials CollectionThe Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of MassachusettsRichard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

The episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily profiles the influential Putnam family of Salem Village and their mixed roles during the 1692 witchcraft crisis. It traces the family’s origins and three main branches, highlighting that some Putnams were major accusers while others supported the accused, including signing a petition for Rebecca Nurse. The hosts also note a prominent Putnam opponent of the trials and concludes that people in Salem often played shifting and contradictory roles over time.00:00 Welcome + Why the Putnams Matter in 169200:48 Origins of the Putnam Dynasty & the Three Branches01:03 Branch 1: Captain John Putnam Sr. & Lt. Nathaniel—Accusations and the Rebecca Nurse Petition01:54 Aftermath Connections: Benjamin Putnam Takes in Dorothy Good02:26 Branch 2: The Thomas Putnam Line—The Accusation Powerhouse03:13 Ann Putnam Jr. in Court & Her 1706 Public Apology03:39 Family Crosscurrents: Supporters, Step-Relations, and the Afflicted Circle04:16 The Dissenter: Joseph Putnam Opposes the Trials (and Israel Putnam’s Legacy)04:54 Wrap-Up: Salem’s Complexity—Accusers, Defenders, and Changing MindsGeorge Francis Dow: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay ColonySidney Perley: The History of Salem, Massachusetts⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-HuntThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily HubSalem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death⁠The Thing About Salem⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem StoryPeabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials CollectionThe Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of MassachusettsRichard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

We discuss colonial physicians in the Salem area and their role in shifting unexplained illness from a medical issue to a spiritual and legal crisis. On February 16, 1692, physician William Griggs Sr. bought a home and land in Salem Village for 71 pounds, where he lived with his wife and his niece Elizabeth Hubbard, who became afflicted on February 25. Griggs is widely believed to have diagnosed Betty Parris and Abigail Williams as being under an “evil hand,” though the source does not name the physician, leaving open the possibility another doctor made the diagnosis. We compare Salem to Boston’s medical scene, highlighting Dr. Thomas Oakes’s 1688 diagnosis of the Goodwin children as afflicted by “hellish witchcraft,” a precedent connected to the Goody Glover case. Finally, we describe remedies recorded from Salem physician Zerubabel Endicott’s papers, including dried stone horse liver for bloody flux and a childbirth prescription using a lock of a virgin’s hair.00:00 Welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily: Doctors Enter the Story00:22 Feb 16, 1692: Dr. William Griggs Buys Land in Salem Village00:56 Elizabeth Hubbard & the First Afflictions Begin01:11 “Under an Evil Hand”: When Medicine Turns to Witchcraft01:43 Colonial Medicine’s Power Families: Endicott & the Winthrops02:27 Salem’s Medical Roster & the Swinnerton Family Web03:33 Medicine in the Courtroom: Judge Gedney’s Drugs and Ointments04:02 Was It Really Griggs? Doubts About the Famous Diagnosis04:43 Boston’s Precedent: Dr. Thomas Oakes, the Goodwin Children & Goody Glover05:55 What Did They Prescribe? Zerubabel Endicott’s Wild Remedies07:50 From Horse Livers to “Evil Hands”: Why the Supernatural Won Out (Conclusion)George Francis Dow: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay ColonySidney Perley: The History of Salem, Massachusetts⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-HuntThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channe⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily HubSalem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death⁠The Thing About Salem⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem StoryPeabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection:The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of MassachusettsRichard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781594164378

Martha Carrier was dubbed the “Queen in Hell.” We trace how her 1692 witchcraft case expanded into a royal family saga. The episode outlines her arrest, trial, and execution, then follows the accusations and confessions that swept through multiple connected relatives and in-laws in the Allen, Ingalls, Toothaker, Carrier, Dane, and Johnson branches, showing how family ties and reputation intensified the crisis in Andover.00:00 Welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily + Today’s focus: Martha Carrier00:37 From Billerica to Andover: Outsiders, smallpox blame, and suspicion01:03 Accusation to execution: warrants, “Queen in Hell,” and the trial timeline01:51 The Ingalls family web: a dynasty of accusations (and a surprising descendant)02:19 Immediate circle: Toothakers, testimony, and family turning on family02:47 Martha’s children arrested: coerced confessions and brutal pressure03:13 The Dane connection: Reverend Francis Dane and the Johnson/Faulkner cases04:32 Not just one “Queen in Hell”: how kinship networks were dismantled⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-HuntThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily HubSalem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death⁠The Thing About Salem⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem StoryPeabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials CollectionThe Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of MassachusettsRichard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

History remembers Tituba—but she wasn’t the only enslaved woman caught in Salem’s 1692 witch hunt. Meet Candy of Barbados, whose courtroom testimony turned Puritan assumptions upside down.When magistrates asked if she was a witch, Candy gave an answer that indicted the entire colony: “Candy no witch, Barbados. This country, mistress give Candy witch.” Then she brought cheese and grass into the courtroom as proof.What followed was one of the strangest examinations of the summer—complete with burning rags, forced grass-eating, and an enslaved woman accusing the woman who held her in bondage of witchcraft. Discover the story of resistance, strategy, and survival that the history books rarely tell.Salem Witch Trials Daily Videos & CourseThe Thing About Salem Website⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts WebsiteSign the Petition: MA Witch Hunt Justice Project www.massachusettswitchtrials.org Support the nonprofit End Witch Hunts Podcasts and Projects ⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection