Ep. 84 Salem: Why the Witch Trials of 1692 Should Still Scare You Today

It’s January of 1692 and there’s something very wrong with 9 year old Betty Parris. Her father, the minister Samuel Parris, rushes to her bedside. Betty screams. Her body writhes under the blankets, twisting and contorting into grotesque shapes. She grunts, she moans, she snorts, and shrieks. She grabs a candle from the bedside table and hurls it across the room uttering a shrill scream as if defending herself from some invisible apparition. Soon, Betty’s 11 year old cousin Abigail Williams is similarly afflicted. The girls are tormented, tortured, terrified, but by what? Parris calls in a doctor who takes one look at their bizarre behavior and quickly makes up his mind. This is the devil’s work. When accusations and confessions of witchcraft follow soon after, the snowball begins its descent, growing and growing as it rolls into one of the most haunting events in American history. But what caused the madness of the Salem Witch Trials? There were no witches in Salem. How did the peculiar outbursts of a 9 year old girl lead to the deaths of 25 innocent people and 2 dogs? Was it conspiracy? Insanity? Unchecked patriarchy? Religion gone wrong? Was it food poisoning? And most importantly, could it happen again? Let’s fix that.

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Sources: 

• Smithsonian Magazine "A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials"
• History.com "Salem Witch Trials"
• Peabody Essex Museum "The Salem Witch Trials of 1692"
• Penn Today "Possessed: the Salem witch trials"
• History.com "Salem Witch Trials: Who Were the Main Accusers?"
• Wikipedia "Salem witch trials"