Salem Witch Trials Daily

We focus on Wednesday, March 23, 1692, a day of intense spiritual conflict and the issuing of startling arrest warrants. We describe how Ann Putnam Sr. claims the specters of Rebecca Nurse and Martha Cory torment her, as Reverend Deodat Lawson observes the Putnam household during and after frightening fits and a dramatic confrontation with Nurse’s supposed apparition, including the use of a verse...

In this March 22, 1692 episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we cover a Salem town meeting that resolves long-running tension between Salem and Salem Village by keeping the Village part of Salem while easing obligations on both sides: villagers no longer support the town’s ministers or maintain the town meetinghouse, and townspeople are no longer required to fund Village roads. We also discuss Ann...

The Witch Cake That Sparked Salem’s Panic We revisit the crisis in Reverend Samuel Parris’s Salem Village household in February 1692, when his daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams suffered violent fits and a doctor declared they were under an “evil hand.” With no natural cure, neighbor Mary Sibley intervened while the Parrises were away, directing Tituba and John Indian to make a traditional...

We introduce the early events that sparked the Salem witch trials, focusing on January and February 1692 in Reverend Samuel Parris’s Salem Village household. Parris’s 9-year-old daughter Betty and 11-year-old niece Abigail began exhibiting alarming, inexplicable behaviors and violent physical afflictions. The family has tried prayer, fasting, and medical treatment without relief, and around Februa...