The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials

Andover’s Witch Hunt: Coerced Confessions, Family Betrayals, and the Touch Test45 of the total 150–200 accused witches in the Salem Trials came from a single town that bordered Salem—Andover, where nearly 10% of the town population was accused of witchcraft and a lethal rumor spread: confess and live. Grounded in the real1692 examination transcripts and contemporary accounts from writers like Robert Calef, we trace how Martha Carrier’s May 1692 arrest ignited a wider dragnet, then how Elizabeth Ballard’s sudden illness brought Ann Putnam Jr. and Mary Walcott to Andover and triggered the infamous meetinghouse touch test rooted in beliefs about effluvia. As coerced confessions multiplied, family networks collapsed under pressure—from Ann Foster and the Mary Laceys to the torture-driven confessions of Carrier’s sons—and accusations surged through Reverend Francis Dane’s kin, fueling sensational claims of diabolical plots.00:00 Welcome and Andover Focus02:01 Martha Carrier Accused02:37 Defiant Courtroom Exchange04:41 Ballard Illness and Touch Test06:33 Confess and Live Rumor07:22 Lacey Family Interrogations09:37 Carrier Children Tortured10:50 Dane Family Targeted12:35 Sabbaths and Hell Crowns13:43 Mather Versus Carrier14:15 Elizabeth Johnson Testimony15:13 Execution and Closing .The Thing About Witch Hunts: https://aboutwitchhunts.comSalem Witch Trials History YouTube: https://youtube.com/@aboutwitchhuntsThe Thing About the Salem Witch Trials: https://aboutsalem.comSalem Witch Trials Daily: https://aboutsalem.com/salem-witch-trials-daily/People Accused of Witchcraft in 1692: http://www.17thc.us/primarysources/accused.phpBernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781107689619Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780190627805Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781589791329Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780375706905Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781594164378

Why Did Ann Putnam Jr. Accuse? Evolutionary Behavioral Reconstruction and the Human Story Behind SalemWe welcome producer-director Tom Phillips and evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Hogan Sherrow to explore the psychological research informing Phillips’ project Aftermath and to confront a question that has lingered for more than 330 years: why 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr., a central accuser in the Salem witch trials and the only known accuser to publicly apologize, did what she did. Using Sherrow’s “evolutionary behavioral reconstruction,” they examine Ann as a human being shaped by life history, Puritan cultural context, family pressures, possible mental or behavioral conditions, and the community’s belief in the devil as an everyday reality. They discuss how children’s networks, prior witchcraft cases, and Samuel Parris’s library may have supplied models to imitate, how grief and household instability may have acted as triggers, and how Ann’s courtroom influence helped reverse Rebecca Nurse’s verdict, while weighing whether Ann was deluded, mistaken, manipulated, or lying and scrutinizing the language and signature of her 1706 apology.00:00 Welcome and Setup00:27 Why Ann Putnam01:35 Project and Method03:55 Reconstruction Basics06:03 Age and Puritan Context08:17 Witchcraft Idea Spreads13:50 Triggers and Family Grief17:24 Courtroom Power19:29 Mental Health Possibilities21:52 The 1706 Apology24:33 Signature Doubts27:31 Aftermath Monologue29:50 Closing and Call to Share

New England Pilgrimage: Salem Witch Trials Sites, History Camp Boston, and Connecticut Witch & Culture FestWe share highlights from our New England trip for The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials, including visiting key Salem Village and Danvers sites with our colleague Mary Louise Bingham, paying respects at the Danvers Witch Trial Victims Memorial, and standing together as descendants of Mary Esty at her home site. We reflect on places central to 1692, such as the Samuel Parris parsonage site, the meetinghouse replica at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Ingersoll’s Tavern property, Essex Street, the Salem 400 exhibit, Charter Street Cemetery, and the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. We also recount presenting at sold-out History Camp Boston on how English witch-hunting manuals shaped deliberate New England legal proceedings, and staffing a history and remembrance booth at the Connecticut Witch and Culture Festival with tribute cloth signings, remembrance ceremonies, volunteer presentations, and connections to World Day Against Witch Hunts and modern anti-witch-hunt advocacy.00:00 New England Trip Intro01:06 Danvers Memorial Visit02:04 Meetinghouse Replica03:53 Parsonage Site Tour06:56 Pastors Pasture Stories08:28 Tituba Tribute Brick10:14 Salem Streets And Exhibit12:20 Charter Street Memorial14:37 History Camp Talk16:38 Meeting Fellow Historians21:13 Other History Camp Sessions22:43 Hartford Festival Booth23:57 Tribute Cloth Remembrance24:55 Festival Highlights27:19 Alice Young Play News28:42 World Day Against Witch Hunts30:40 Modern Witch Hunts Today32:17 Wrap Up And Dates Links:World Day Against Witch Hunts:  https://endwitchhunts.org/day The Thing About Witch Hunts: https://aboutwitchhunts.comSalem Witch Trials History YouTube: https://youtube.com/@aboutwitchhuntsThe Thing About the Salem Witch Trials: https://aboutsalem.comSalem Witch Trials Daily: https://aboutsalem.com/salem-witch-trials-daily/Hexenverfolgung heute | missio: https://www.missio-hilft.de/informieren/wofuer-wir-uns-einsetzen/gegen-hexenverfolgung/  

Where the Salem Witch Trials Records Really Come From (and What’s Missing)We dig into the biggest surprise at the heart of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials: the official Court of Oyer and Terminer record book is gone, and what people call “trial records” are mostly pretrial examinations, warrants, depositions, bills, diaries, and printed observers’ accounts. We explain how magistrates like John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin shaped the surviving dialogue-style transcripts, why those documents get mistaken for trial proceedings, and what sparse trial records typically looked like by comparing to the surviving 1693 Superior Court files. We trace how writers such as Cotton Mather, Robert Calef, Thomas Brattle, John Hale, Increase Mather, and others preserved competing narratives, and how Samuel Sewall’s diary fills crucial gaps. We spotlight the decade-long scholarly effort behind the 2009 Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, the myths it overturns (including confessors being tried and executed), and how New England and even Scotland show how missing records can distort history for centuries.00:00 What Records Survive01:09 Examinations Not Trials03:07 How Trials Worked04:31 Published Accounts Clash06:31 Proving Records Existed08:37 Where Records Went Missing09:52 Scribes Shape History11:38 Records of the Salem Witch Hunt13:58 Myths the Paperwork Busts14:44 Beyond Salem and Abroad16:59 Other Sources and Daily Paper18:20 The Devil’s Book That Never Was19:50 Voices of the Accused20:26 Why Records Matter End Witch Hunts: https://www.endwitchhunts.orgThe Thing About Witch Hunts: https://aboutwitchhunts.comThe Thing About the Salem Witch Trials: https://aboutsalem.comConnecticut Witch Trials History: https://connecticutwitchtrials.orgWatch us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@aboutwitchhuntsSamuel Wyllys Papers (CT State Library): https://ctdigitalarchive.org/node/3907524Samuel Wyllys Papers (Brown University): https://www.riamco.org/render?eadid=US-RPB-mswyllys&view=inventory#ref15Salem Witch Trials Documents - High Quality Scans: https://pem.quartexcollections.com/collections/salem-witch-trials-collectionBuy Books from our Bookshop: https:/bookshop.org/shop/endwitchhunts

The Toothaker Family: Folk Magic, Witchfinding, and Tragedy in the Salem Witch TrialsA folk healer known as “Dr. Toothaker,” Roger Toothaker was the only male healer/physician accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New England, and his story pulls our Salem Witch Trials podcast into a web of witchfinding, fear, and family fallout. After leaving his wife Mary Allen Toothaker and their children behind in Billerica, Roger was arrested in May 1692 for allegedly afflicting Salem Village girls and died in Boston jail; testimony linked him to diagnosing victims under an “evil hand” and to a “witch bottle” said to kill a witch. Soon Mary Toothaker and their young daughter Margaret were accused, and daughter Martha Toothaker Emerson was jailed after dramatic examinations and spectral allegations, while son Allen testified against aunt Martha Carrier. Though Mary and Martha were ultimately cleared, war violence later killed Mary and took Margaret captive, underscoring how folk magic, Andover/Salem Village accusations, and ties to Carrier made the Toothakers prime targets.00:00 Meet the Toothakers00:13 Roger's Early Life01:05 Healer Turned Accused01:51 Testimony and Witch Bottle03:05 Mary and Margaret Accused04:07 Roger Dies in Jail05:01 Martha Emerson Arrested06:59 Specters and Confession08:04 Mary Toothaker Confesses09:25 Allen Testifies Against Carrier10:20 Acquittals and Release10:54 War and Aftermath11:47 Legacy and Reading List