The Thing About Salem

When a seventh grader reached out with questions for their National History Day documentary, podcast hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack knew they'd been asked something special. The student's thoughtful inquiries became the foundation for this episode of The Thing About Salem.

This wasn't just another school assignment. The questions this student asked revealed a depth of engagement that many adults never reach when studying 1692. They saw past the surface story to the human complexity underneath, the kind of questions that don't have easy answers but force you to truly reckon with what happened in Salem.

We knew immediately these questions needed to be shared. They're the kind that make history stop being about memorizing events and start being about understanding people, choices, and consequences that still echo today.

Sometimes the best teachers are the ones still in school.

Keywords: Salem Witch Trials, National History Day, student history project, Rebecca Nurse, Joseph Hutchinson, Bridget Bishop, family history research, witch trial education, historical questions, Salem descendants, Tituba, Abigail Williams

In May 1692, one of Boston's most respected citizens walked into a Salem courtroom—and the accusers couldn't even identify him. Captain John Alden Jr., son of Mayflower passengers and decorated war hero, seemed an unlikely target for witchcraft accusations. But his connections to Native Americans and the French made him dangerous in the eyes of wartime Massachusetts.

What happened when Salem's witch hunt reached beyond the village to pull in a prominent Bostonian with impeccable colonial credentials? This episode examines how Captain Alden's examination revealed the absurdity and danger of the spectral evidence system and how his escape became one of the trial period's most dramatic moments.

From his parents' legendary Plymouth courtship to his own flight from justice, Captain Alden's story shows us who could be accused, who could survive, and what it took to navigate Salem's machinery of suspicion.

Episode Highlights:

• John Alden Sr. and Priscilla: The last surviving Mayflower passenger and the marriage that inspired Longfellow

• Captain Alden's controversial fur trading and the rumors that made him a target

• The chaotic May 31st examination where accusers needed prompting

• The touch test, the sword, and the claims of "Indian Papooses"

• His September escape to Duxbury and surprising return

Key Figures: Captain John Alden Jr., John & Priscilla Alden, Judges Bartholomew Gedney and John Richards, Rev. Samuel Willard, Robert Calef

The Thing About Salem examines the people, places, and events of the 1692 Salem witch trials. New episodes weekly.

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In this episode of The Thing About Salem, co-hosts Sarah Jack and Josh Hutchinson examine one of the most invasive and degrading practices used during the Salem Witch Trials: the search for witch's marks and devil's teats. Discover how this invented "evidence" was used to convict innocent people—including the hosts' ancestors.

What You'll Learn:

The Origins of Witch Mark Theory

• How English legal writers like Michael Dalton (1618) and William Perkins created detailed instructions for finding "devil's marks"

• Why Richard Bernard claimed these marks appeared in "secretest parts" requiring invasive searches

• The shocking truth: none of this evidence appears in the Bible

Familiar Spirits in Salem

• Cotton Mather's definition of familiar spirits as "devils in bodily shapes"

• Strange creatures described in testimony: hairless cats with human ears, rooster-monkey hybrids, and hairy upright beings

• How these supposed demons were believed to feed from witch's teats

The Salem Examinations

• Documented searches of accused witches including Rebecca Nurse, Bridget Bishop, and Elizabeth Procter

• George Jacobs Sr.'s brutal examination with pins driven through his flesh

• Four-year-old Dorothy Good's traumatic examination and the "flea bite" used as evidence

• Why some marks disappeared between examinations—and what that tells us

Dehumanizing Practices

• The invasive nature of stripping and examining prisoners in their "most intimate areas"

• How postpartum scarring from childbirth was twisted into evidence of witchcraft

• Why the Court of Oyer and Terminer convicted all 27 people tried in 1692—whether marks were found or not

Modern Connections As Robert Calef pointed out in More Wonders of the Invisible World, witch marks weren't biblical—they were man-made tests designed to find guilt. This pattern continues in modern witch hunts worldwide, where accusers still decide what constitutes "evidence" against innocent victims.

Perfect for listeners interested in:

• Salem Witch Trials history

• Colonial American history

• Wrongful convictions and false evidence

• Women's history and bodily autonomy

• Modern witch hunts and human rights

• Historical witchcraft accusations

• Legal history and justice reform

Featured Historical Sources:

• William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft

• Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1618)

• Richard Bernard, The Certainty of the World of Spirits

• Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World

• Robert Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World

• Deodat Lawson, A Brief and True Narrative

• Original Salem Witch Trial examination records

About the Hosts: Sarah Jack and Josh Hutchinson are descendants of Salem witch trial victims and co-founders of End Witch Hunts, a nonprofit addressing modern witch hunts globally. Together, they co-host The Thing About Salem and The Thing About Witch Hunts (265+ episodes).

Related Episodes: [Links to episodes about Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty, familiar spirits, spectral evidence, etc.]

Support Our Work: Learn more about modern witch hunts and how to help at EndWitchHunts.org

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Episode Description:

How does a town infamous for executing twenty people for alleged diabolical witchcraft rebrand itself as "Witch City"? Salem spent centuries trying to forget 1692, then something changed. Join descendants Sarah and Josh as they uncover the surprising story of how grief, guilt, and capitalism collided to transform Salem into America's Halloween capital. From the first witch-themed business to the controversy over memorializing victims, this is the untold story of who chose to remember, who profited, and what got lost along the way.

What You'll Discover:

Why did Salem stay silent about the trials for over 150 years, and what finally broke that silence? Who made the first move to capitalize on witch trial history (the answer might surprise you)? When the city had a chance to build a memorial in 1892, why did descendants of the accusers fight so hard against it? And how did a fish company, a souvenir spoon, and a Knights Templar march help pave the "yellow brick road" to Witch City?

Keywords: Salem witch trials | Witch City | Salem Massachusetts | Halloween tourism | dark tourism | historical memory | commercialization of tragedy | Salem history | 1692 witch hunt | American history | New England | modern witchcraft | Pagan community | tourism | memorialization | historical injustice | colonial America | Arthur Miller | The Crucible | Haunted Happenings

About The Thing About Salem: Sarah and Josh are descendants of Salem witch trial victims investigating how their ancestors' tragedy became a tourism empire, and what that transformation reveals about memory, commerce, and identity.

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