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<v Speaker 1>Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve. Episode four hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>fifty five. Salem. In the stillness of winter sixteen ninety two,

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<v Speaker 1>a creeping dread fell across the Massachusetts seaside village of Salem.

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<v Speaker 1>Here you could hear the bare trees clung against shuttered windows,

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<v Speaker 1>the wind ever present. If you've ever been to Salem,

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<v Speaker 1>which I have, seems to carry something almost to natural.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, it's hard to imagine it nowadays, but in

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen ninety two this was a hard scrabble Puritans settlement

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<v Speaker 1>on the edge of the world, and in this particular winter,

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<v Speaker 1>men and women whispered only one thing, which is secret

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<v Speaker 1>packs and invisible torments. That wasn't the first time that

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<v Speaker 1>these fears had gripped a community, not by a long shot.

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<v Speaker 1>But Salem is going to become infamous. Its fever would

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<v Speaker 1>burn longer, spread farther, and end more tragically than most.

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<v Speaker 1>But to understand why this happened, I need to take

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<v Speaker 1>you back first. I need to go back all the

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<v Speaker 1>way across the sea into Europe and explore the heart

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<v Speaker 1>and the origin of witchcraft and which fear. Now, the

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<v Speaker 1>idea of a witch was no idle superstition, It was

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<v Speaker 1>grounded in theology across Europe. Beginning in the fifteenth century,

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<v Speaker 1>Christian authorities constructed a systematic belief in diabol local witchcraft.

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<v Speaker 1>No longer merely the village healer or cunning women, the

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<v Speaker 1>witch was now redefined as a heretic in league with

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<v Speaker 1>Satan himself. Manuals like the infamous Malus Malificarum The Witch's Hammer,

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<v Speaker 1>first published in fourteen eighty seven, laid out in lurid

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<v Speaker 1>details how witches were said to fly, conjure storms, cursed children,

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<v Speaker 1>and engage in all kinds of sexual acts with demons,

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<v Speaker 1>which hunts erupted in the Rhineland, France, Scotland and Switzerland.

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<v Speaker 1>By some estimates, more than forty thousand people, mostly women,

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<v Speaker 1>were executed as witches in Europe between fourteen fifty and

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<v Speaker 1>seventeen fifty. New England, settled by Calvinist Puritans in the

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<v Speaker 1>early sixteen hundreds, inherited these beliefs. Ministers warned their flocks

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<v Speaker 1>of the devil's snares. Law codes of Massachusetts and Connecticut's

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<v Speaker 1>expressly banned witchcraft. The legal basis often came from Exodus

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<v Speaker 1>twenty two eighteen quote thou shalt not suffer a witch

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<v Speaker 1>to live end quote. Trial secured sporadically in the colonies

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<v Speaker 1>throughout the seventeenth century, in Hartford in sixteen sixty two

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<v Speaker 1>and in Charlestown in sixteen eighty, but none reached the

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<v Speaker 1>scale or intensity of what would follow in Salem. Central

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<v Speaker 1>to this worldview was the belief that the devil could

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<v Speaker 1>grant his servants a quote unquote spectral body. This was

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<v Speaker 1>something that one could use to torment the innocent victim invisibly.

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<v Speaker 1>If your milk spoiled, if your child grew sick, if

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<v Speaker 1>your crops failed, it wasn't misfortune. It might be malice,

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<v Speaker 1>and as always behind the malice was Satan. No figure

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<v Speaker 1>better captures the complex mingling of science, superstition, and Puritan

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<v Speaker 1>piety than Cotton Mather, the Harvard trained minister and son

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<v Speaker 1>of the influential Increase Mather. Cotton was a man of

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<v Speaker 1>prodigious learning. He was also a man deeply concerned with

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<v Speaker 1>spiritual warfare. In sixteen eighty nine, he published Memorable Providences

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<v Speaker 1>relating to Witches and Possessions, a herring account of the

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<v Speaker 1>supposed possession of children in the Godwin family of Boston.

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<v Speaker 1>Mather would write, quote, they the children barked like dogs,

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<v Speaker 1>They were struck dumb, their limbs convulsed, their senses overcome

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<v Speaker 1>end Quote Now what was the source of all these problems?

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<v Speaker 1>According to Mather, it was a washerw and accused of witchcraft.

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<v Speaker 1>Mather in fact personally observed the children and documented their

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<v Speaker 1>torments in a clinical, yet faith driven prose. He concluded

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<v Speaker 1>that Satan had indeed found an agent in the woman.

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<v Speaker 1>The book was widely read in New England, and among

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<v Speaker 1>its readers perhaps was eleven year old Abigail Williams, niece

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<v Speaker 1>of the Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village. Mather's work

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<v Speaker 1>laid the intellectual groundwork for accepting the reality of invisible

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<v Speaker 1>affliction and demonic manipulation. He would later claim that while

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<v Speaker 1>he urged caution in the use of spectral evidence, he

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<v Speaker 1>believed firmly that witches were among them and must be

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<v Speaker 1>rooted out. In a famous sixteen ninety two sermon, Mather

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<v Speaker 1>Warren quote, witchcraft is a kind of treason in the

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<v Speaker 1>civil man. Registrates may act against it as they would

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<v Speaker 1>against those that would overthrow the commonwealth. All of these

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<v Speaker 1>ideas beliefs, superstitions, quasi science would come to a head

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<v Speaker 1>in January sixteen ninety two in the small village of Salem,

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<v Speaker 1>Matt We'll be right after this. In January sixteen ninety two,

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<v Speaker 1>in the village of Salem, in the home of Reverend Paris,

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<v Speaker 1>a household crisis began to unfold. His daughter, aged nine

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<v Speaker 1>named Betty, and niece Abigail eleven, began to suffer unexplained fits.

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<v Speaker 1>They screamed, convulsed through objects, and claimed invisible hands were

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<v Speaker 1>choking or pinching them. A doctor, WILLIAMS. Griggs, was called

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<v Speaker 1>and gave a stark diagnosis the girls were a quote

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<v Speaker 1>under an evil hand end quote. Within weeks, the symptoms

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<v Speaker 1>spread to more and more girls in the village, Anne Putnam,

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<v Speaker 1>Junior Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and others. Under pressure to

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<v Speaker 1>name their tormentors. The girls accused three women, Sarah good

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<v Speaker 1>a destitute beggar, Sarah Osborne, a sickly church absent landowner,

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<v Speaker 1>and Tishuba, a West Indian woman enslaved by the Paris family.

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<v Speaker 1>It's worth pointing out that notably all the girls accused

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<v Speaker 1>quote unquote witches on the outskirts of society. Puritanism was

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<v Speaker 1>an extremely conformist society. The three individuals named Sarah Good,

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<v Speaker 1>Sarah Osborne, and Tishiba were those who were clearly on

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<v Speaker 1>the outside or margins, of the Puritan life in Salem.

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<v Speaker 1>There were people that were easy to go after. At

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<v Speaker 1>her examination, Tishiba offered a shocking confession. She said, quote,

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<v Speaker 1>the devil came to me and bid me serve him.

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<v Speaker 1>End quote. She then went on to describe strange familiars

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<v Speaker 1>black dogs, red cats, and flying on poles. She said

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<v Speaker 1>there were other witches in Salem working with her. She declared, quote,

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<v Speaker 1>there be four women and one man end quote. Whether coached, coerced,

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<v Speaker 1>or perhaps deluded, her confession electrified the colony. If witches

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<v Speaker 1>were conspiring, then they must be rooted out swiftly and

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<v Speaker 1>according to scripture, without mercy. The months that followed saw

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<v Speaker 1>Salem descend into utter chaos. Accusations multiplied the afflicted girl's

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<v Speaker 1>pointed fingers with increased fervor, often at those who had

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<v Speaker 1>spoken out interestingly against the Putnams or Reverend Paris. The

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<v Speaker 1>political vacuum and social rivalries of Salem village, a place

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<v Speaker 1>that had already been simmering with tension. Harvest had been

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<v Speaker 1>bad for a time. There were tensions with Native Americans

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<v Speaker 1>nearby provided perfect fuel for the fire, and so it

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<v Speaker 1>was that in May of sixteen ninety two, Governor William

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<v Speaker 1>Phipps established a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

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<v Speaker 1>Chief Justice William Stoughton, a rigid and godly man, presided.

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<v Speaker 1>The court decided that it was going to admit spectral evidence.

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<v Speaker 1>Spectral evidences, testimony that the accused spirit had tormented someone

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<v Speaker 1>in a dream or a vision. There were no alibis

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<v Speaker 1>against spectral evidence because you didn't have to be there

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<v Speaker 1>at the time. It was basically tantamount to allowing someone

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<v Speaker 1>to testify to the accuracy of their dreams. Even Cotton Mather,

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<v Speaker 1>in his writings, had warned against the admission of spectral

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<v Speaker 1>evidence without other indistion of reliability, but Chief Justice Stowton

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<v Speaker 1>decided that they were going to let it all in.

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<v Speaker 1>Rebecca Nurse, a saintly woman of seventy one, was accused

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<v Speaker 1>and swiftly condemned. Her family's pleas were ignored as she

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<v Speaker 1>was led to the gallows on July nineteenth. She maintained

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<v Speaker 1>her innocent, stating quote, I am as innocent as the

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<v Speaker 1>child unborn end quote That didn't save her. She swung

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<v Speaker 1>from the noose. All the same, all nineteen were hanged.

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<v Speaker 1>Giles Corey, refusing to submit to the court's jurisdiction, was

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<v Speaker 1>pressed to death with stones over three agonizing days. His

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<v Speaker 1>only words were more weight. Hundreds were accused, Jails overflowed,

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<v Speaker 1>fear became self perpetuating. Even the wife of the Governor,

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<v Speaker 1>Lady Mary Phipps, was rumored to be under suspicion, and

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<v Speaker 1>still the trials marched on. By the fall, skepticism had

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<v Speaker 1>started to grow. As accusations reached Boston elites, the social

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<v Speaker 1>fabric began to fray. Doubt spread among the colony's leaders.

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<v Speaker 1>It was one thing to accuse individuals who were on

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<v Speaker 1>the margins of society, but quite another to accuse the

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<v Speaker 1>wife of the governor. Increase mather Long, a voice of

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<v Speaker 1>religious authority, issued a rebuke in cases of conscience concerning

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<v Speaker 1>evil spirits. He wrote, quote, it were better that ten

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<v Speaker 1>suspected wishes should escape than one innocent person should be condemned.

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<v Speaker 1>Governor Phipps responded by dissolving the Court of Oyer and

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<v Speaker 1>Terminer in October of sixteen ninety two, a new court

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<v Speaker 1>was convened. This one would not allow spectral evidence, and

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<v Speaker 1>within months, as a result, most of the remaining prisoners

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<v Speaker 1>were released. No further executions occurred. By the spring of

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen ninety three, the panic had all but subsided. The

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<v Speaker 1>aftermath of the trials was a slow, painful reckoning. In

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen ninety seven, the Colony declared a day of fasting

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<v Speaker 1>and reflection. That same year, Judge Samuel Sewell stood in

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<v Speaker 1>his pew and publicly repented, quote, God has visited me

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<v Speaker 1>for my sins end quote. He wore a haircloth shirt

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<v Speaker 1>for years thereafter as penance. In seventeen oh six, and

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<v Speaker 1>Putnam Junior, one of the accusers, stood before the Salem

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<v Speaker 1>Village church and confessed, stating, quote, I desire to be

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<v Speaker 1>humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that

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<v Speaker 1>befell my father's family end quote. Restitution came more slowly.

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<v Speaker 1>In seventeen eleven, the Colony granted compensation to the heirs

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<v Speaker 1>of those wrongfully executed, but the money could not undo

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<v Speaker 1>what had been done. It would take until actually the

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<v Speaker 1>year two thousand and one for all those condemned to

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<v Speaker 1>be officially exonerated by this state of Massachusetts. You know.

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<v Speaker 1>Ever since the Salem witch trials, historians, theologians, psychologists, and

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<v Speaker 1>sociologists have wrestled with the same haunting question, why why

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<v Speaker 1>did it happen? Over the centuries, a rich tapestry of

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<v Speaker 1>explanations has been woven together, each offering a different lens

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<v Speaker 1>on the fears that seized and gripped control of Salem Village.

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<v Speaker 1>One of the earliest and most enduring explanations of course

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<v Speaker 1>ponts to religion. Salem Village was a place drenched in

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<v Speaker 1>Puritan ideology, a society where the devil was believed to

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<v Speaker 1>walk the earth in tangible form. To these settlers, life

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<v Speaker 1>was a fragile thread suspended between salvation and damnation. The

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<v Speaker 1>ministers who preached from their wooden pulpits painted the devil

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<v Speaker 1>not as a distant abstraction, but as a constant presence

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<v Speaker 1>in the world, luring the weak and tempting even the righteous.

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<v Speaker 1>Cotton Mather, one of the more influential ministers of New England,

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<v Speaker 1>warned of quote an army of devils end quote among

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<v Speaker 1>the people. In such an atmosphere, it was a short

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<v Speaker 1>step from spiritual anxiety to just full blown which panic.

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<v Speaker 1>Others have traced the cause to social tensions roiling beneath

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<v Speaker 1>the surface. Salem Village in sixteen ninety two was a

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<v Speaker 1>community divided. Old feuds over property lines, church appointments, and

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<v Speaker 1>family alliances simmered in the background. Historians Paul Boyer and

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<v Speaker 1>Stephen Nissenbaum, in their groundbreaking work Salem Possessed, argued that

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<v Speaker 1>the accusations followed along these fault lines. Many of the

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<v Speaker 1>accusers were from poorer, farming families who resented the wealthier,

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<v Speaker 1>more commercially minded neighbors closer to Salem Town, which craft,

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<v Speaker 1>in this view, became a weapon for the disenfranchised against

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<v Speaker 1>the rising tide of mercantile prosperity. And then there is

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<v Speaker 1>the theory of psychological contagion. In a rigid, high pressure

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<v Speaker 1>society like Salem's. The stresses of constant surveillance for sin,

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<v Speaker 1>the dangers of frontier life, and the ever present threat

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<v Speaker 1>of Native American attacks created a perfect incubator for mass hysteria.

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<v Speaker 1>The fits and strange behavior of young girls like Betty

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<v Speaker 1>Paris and Abigail Williams may have been unconscious cries for help,

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<v Speaker 1>ways of expressing rebellion in a society that offered few,

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<v Speaker 1>if any, acceptable outlets for emotional distress. Once the first

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<v Speaker 1>accusations were made, fear itself became more contagious. Each new

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<v Speaker 1>arrest validated the terror of the last, until nearly everyone

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<v Speaker 1>could see themselves imagining, which is everywhere. A more physiological

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<v Speaker 1>theory surfaced in the nineteen seventies when historian and researcher

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<v Speaker 1>Linda Kapol suggested that villagers symptoms hallucinations, convulsions, a sense

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<v Speaker 1>of creeping doom might have been caused by ergot poisoning. Ergot,

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<v Speaker 1>a fungus that grows on rye and other grains, can

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<v Speaker 1>produce a chemical very similar to LSD. Contaminated bread could

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<v Speaker 1>have introduced a real psychological madness into Salem's kitchens and taverns.

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<v Speaker 1>While this theory remains controversial and many historians doubt its likelihood,

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<v Speaker 1>it captures the eerie blending of the natural and supernatural

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<v Speaker 1>defines this Salem story and part of what makes it

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<v Speaker 1>so enduring. Of course, there were political factors too. At

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<v Speaker 1>the time of the trials, Massachusetts was undergoing the political

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<v Speaker 1>crisis its original charter had been revoked by the English

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<v Speaker 1>Crown and a new one had just been implemented. In

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<v Speaker 1>the instability and uncertainty that followed, the judicial system was

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<v Speaker 1>fragile and ad hoc. Governor William Phipps, newly arrived and

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<v Speaker 1>eager to assertain control, allowed the establishment of the Court

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<v Speaker 1>of Oyer and Terminaire, which relied heavily on spectral evidence,

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<v Speaker 1>the testimony of an afflicted that the spirit respector had

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<v Speaker 1>harmed them. It was a legal house of cards, vulnerable

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<v Speaker 1>to collapse under the way of fear and ambition. Finally,

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<v Speaker 1>some scholars have emphasized the rule of gender. Nearly all

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<v Speaker 1>the accused were women, many of them marginalized either by poverty, widowhood,

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<v Speaker 1>or their refusal to conform to expected norms of female behavior.

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<v Speaker 1>In a world where women were expected to be silent, obedient,

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<v Speaker 1>and pious, those who stepped outside the prescribed boundaries became

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<v Speaker 1>easy targets. As historian Carol Carlson has pointed out, the

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<v Speaker 1>Salem witch trials can be seen as a violent reinformation

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<v Speaker 1>of gender hierarchies at a moment when traditional structures were

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<v Speaker 1>under pressure. In the end, no single explanation fully captures

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<v Speaker 1>why Salem fell into madness. Rather, it seems that the

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<v Speaker 1>witch Trials were just a combination of many factors, religious zeal,

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<v Speaker 1>social strife, psychological trauma, maybe biological absence, political instability, and

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<v Speaker 1>ever present gender tensions. Like a dark mirror, Salem reflects

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<v Speaker 1>to us the hidden fears and fractures of our society

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<v Speaker 1>even today. Maybe that's why it continues to haunt us still.

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<v Speaker 1>I think the Salem Witch Trials endure because they reveal

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<v Speaker 1>something really primal about human nature, the yearning for order

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<v Speaker 1>amidst chaos, the temptation always to blame outsiders and the ease,

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<v Speaker 1>and which fear can be weaponized. They remind us that

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<v Speaker 1>justice without due process is a sword that cuts too deep.

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<v Speaker 1>But the trials also bookend in age no belief in

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<v Speaker 1>witches would persist. Salem marked the last time that the

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<v Speaker 1>full force of the state would be used in New

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<v Speaker 1>England to combat a supernatural threat, suggesting we did actually

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<v Speaker 1>learn from it. In the century sense, authors, dramatists, and

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<v Speaker 1>scholars have returned to Salem again and again. To some,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a parable of the dangers of fanaticism. To others,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a cautionary tale about political power. And social constrol.

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<v Speaker 1>But in its essence, Salem remains a story of people ordinary, frightened, devout,

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<v Speaker 1>convinced they were under siege by the Devil himself. In

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<v Speaker 1>their fear, they lick fires that consume their neighbors. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>next time, we're actually going to shift, finally, a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit back away from the North American continent, back across

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<v Speaker 1>the pond to England, where the English Civil War is

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<v Speaker 1>going to erupt, changing English society and eventually American society

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<v Speaker 1>once and for all.