The Salem Witch Trials. Part 2

The Joey Bolognone Podcast

After the first execution of the Salem Witch Trials, colonialists are pushed into making a choice: Do we turn back and stop making any judgments in the court of Oyer and Terminer until we can understand these strange torments? Or do we press in further, launching a crusade of bloodshed against the whiles of the devil?

The Witch Trials are an incredible case study of how fear can warp the mind. Is anxiety producing hallucinations? Are demons playing games with the lives of the colonists? Perhaps it’s a strange amalgamation between the two. Giant white birds with demon eyes, black cats, murderous raids in the French and Indian Wars, greasy imps, witch coven meetings in Boston, jealousy, bitterness, and tragic loss all swirl into one of the most chaotic and infamous events in Western History. Colony life was incredibly challenging, and pain and suffering surround every accusation and condemnation in the witch courts.

Dive into the heart-wrenching stories that caused the 18th century to rethink its faith and practice, and helped create case laws America is still using today, like presumption of innocence.

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For Further Reading: (Books/articles) on the Salem Witch Trials

Mather, Cotton. The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England

Rosenthal, Bernard, ed. The Records of the Salem Witch Hunt.

Boyer, Paul and Nissenbaum, Stephen, Salem Village Witchcraft

Kors, Alan Charles and Edward Peters. Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700 A Documentary History

Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials.

I’d love to address topics that interest you, or answer specific questions you have! Send me a message via my website or send me a DM on social and let me know what historical question you want me to address, and I’ll get back to you and perhaps address the question in the podcast for other listeners!