The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials

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

She accused 16 people, was named a victim in 13 indictments, and may have been the most powerful force driving the Salem witch trials of 1692. So why does history overlook Mercy Lewis?What You'll LearnWhy some historians consider Mercy Lewis the ringleader among the afflicted girlsHow surviving the Wabanaki wars shaped her role in the Salem witch trialsThe full content of her April 1st visions, including the biblical passages a glittering multitude sangWhat she claimed George Burroughs offered her on top of a high mountainHow her near-death episode sent the Marshal of Essex County riding through the night to re-arrest Mary EstyWhy former employers testified she was a pathological liarAt 19, Mercy Lewis was a maidservant in the Thomas Putnam household, carrying the trauma of war, probable orphanhood, and displacement from Maine. Her visions were among the most vivid and theologically detailed of the entire crisis. Her accusations helped send people to the gallows.Were those visions vivid dreams, trauma responses, or deliberate fabrications? Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack dig into the evidence.Follow 1692 day by day on Salem Witch Trials Daily Podcast. Resources and episodes at www.aboutsalem.com.LinksBuy the Books Mentioned in this Episode Salem Witch Trials Daily Videos & Course The Thing About Salem Website⁠The Thing on 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

Follow the events of April 4, 1692, as new testimony and complaints target recent suspects. We cover a reported spectral attack involving the shape of John Proctor afflicting Abigail Williams, then dig into multiple depositions against Rachel Clinton, including claims of meetinghouse disturbances, strange animal apparitions, a mysterious loss of beer, and a tense late-night confrontation followed by an apparent affliction and near-death of Betty Fuller. We also examine Mercy Lewis’s statements about being bitten, pinched, choked, and urged to “write in a book,” attributed to the shape of four-year-old Dorothy Good and to Sarah Osburn. Finally, we follow new complaints filed against Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor, including an early mention of John Indian among the afflicted.00:00 April 4 Overview00:23 Proctor Spectral Attack00:38 Boarman vs Clinton01:49 Beer Barrel Curse02:56 Edwards Livestock Losses04:38 Fuller Night Visit06:10 Dorothy Good Accusation06:34 Osburn Book Pressure06:54 New Complaint Filed07:19 Afflicted List UpdateA Brief and True Narrative by Deodat LawsonSign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victimsFind My Massachusetts LegislatorsThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub⁠The Thing About Salem⁠⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Bernard 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 SiegeHigh Quality Scans of the Original Court Documents -Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

We explore a striking claim from within the crisis itself: that the afflicted may have been “dissembling.” We revisit Sunday, April 3, 1692, when Samuel Parris read aloud a note Mary Warren had posted at the Salem Village meetinghouse, inviting the congregation to offer prayers of gratitude for her deliverance—yet the note’s contents are unknown because Parris never copied it into his church record book. We also examine the puzzling gaps in Parris’s records during the most active months of the trials, raising questions about what was happening in the meetinghouse. Finally, we tease an April 19 court record showing Elizabeth Hubbard accusing Mary Warren of making the “dissemble” remark, which we’ll dig into next.Note: We will soon publish Salem Witch Trials Daily only to its own podcast feed00:00 Afflicted Dissembling00:10 Daily Show Intro00:17 Mary Warren Note00:42 Parris Missing Records01:22 Silence Raises Questions01:38 Hubbard Accusation TeaseA Brief and True Narrative by Deodat LawsonSign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victimsFind My Massachusetts LegislatorsThe Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub⁠The Thing About Salem⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Bernard 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 SiegeHigh Quality Scans of the Original Court Documents -Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection