The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we revisit March 20, 1692, when guest preacher Deodat Lawson delivered a sermon in Salem Village and later described the day in A Brief and True Narrative. We share who Lawson observed attending the meeting, including several of the “afflicted persons,” and how their fits and interruptions disrupted public worship. We recount some of the remarks attribu...

We cover March 19, 1692, when Henry Kinney and Edward Putnam file a witchcraft complaint against Martha Corey for allegedly afflicting several Salem Village residents, leading magistrates to issue a warrant for her arrest and examination at Nathaniel Ingersoll’s tavern. We also follow reports from Ann Putnam Sr. of intense spectral torment attributed to Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse. Our story th...

In today’s March 18, 1692 episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we recount renewed spectral activity in Salem Village as Ann Putnam Senior describes being attacked and pressured to sign a book by the specter of Martha Corey while trying to rest. We also shift to Ipswich, where late-night fears of witchcraft accusations erupt when Rachel Clinton visits James Fuller, Jr. amid talk of fits in the comm...

In this St. Patrick’s Day episode, we explore overlooked trans-Atlantic links between Ireland and Colonial New England that helped shape the intellectual and theological foundations of the 1692 Salem Witch-Hunt, drawing on Katherine A. Hermes and Beth M. Caruso’s article on Thomas Thornton and the English Atlantic world. We follow Puritan networks forged during Cromwell’s 1650s conquest of Ireland...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we examine the Porter family’s extraordinary wealth and political influence in Salem Village and how it shaped their experience of the 1692 witch trials and their aftermath. We discuss patriarch John Porter Sr.’s massive estate and how his sons became the village’s leading taxpayers while aligning with Salem Town commerce. We explore why Porter blood me...

It’s March 15, 1692, and specters are reported to roam Salem Village and torment the afflicted. We discuss claims involving Martha Cory and Elizabeth Hubbard, including testimony about the devil’s book, and we recount disturbing reports tied to the specter of Rebecca Nurse at the Salem Village parsonage involving Abigail Williams. We also examine how these spectral encounters are said to include t...

This special Podcasthon 2026 episode of The Thing About Salem brings together two stories separated by more than three centuries. Hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack share a clip from End Witch Hunts' International Women's Day panel featuring Maimunat Mohammad, a woman from Niger State, Nigeria, who grew up in a community that accused her mother of witchcraft after her father's death....

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we examine March 14, 1692, a pivotal and chaotic day at the Putnam household when Martha Corey—unusually, a covenanted church member—arrives at the Putnams’ invitation in an effort to prove her innocence. Using depositions and testimony, including Edward Putnam’s account, we track how Ann Putnam Jr. and Mercy Lewis report immediate fits and violent, sur...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we revisit Sunday, March 13, 1692, as Salem Village gathers at the meetinghouse and extraordinary claims disrupt worship after Samuel Parris begins his sermon, including an incident involving Bathsheba Pope and Martha Corey’s alleged specter. We also discuss the next day’s dramatic demonstration by Ann Putnam Jr. that draws attention from multiple adult...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we cover March 12, 1692, when the witch-hunt expands with an unlikely new suspect and a new accuser. Ann Putnam Jr. claims she is afflicted by Martha Corey, wife of Giles Corey, prompting Deacon Edward Putnam and Ezekiel Cheever to visit Ann and then question Martha directly. We discuss an attempted “experiment” involving what Ann could see, and we shar...

The nightmare in Salem Village is only just beginning. Join us, Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack, as we recount the chilling events of March 11, 1692 . While the first three accused women—Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne—languish in heavy iron shackles in a Boston dungeon, the terror back home hasn't faded. If anything, the "invisible specters" seem more active than ever. In this...

Welcome back to Salem Witch Trials Daily . In today’s episode, we take a breath as the legal records in Salem Village go quiet for a moment. While the "machinery" of the trials has already been set in motion, March 10th, 1692, left behind no new warrants or examinations. Instead of focusing on the quiet in the village, we are stepping back to look at the broader, often unstable colonial...

In today's episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily , we delve into the grim reality of life behind bars for those accused of witchcraft in 1692. Following their transfer to Boston just a few days ago, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne begin to experience the true misery of 17th-century imprisonment. We explore the harrowing conditions of the Boston dungeon—a place defined by darkness, overcrowding, and...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily , we explore the intersection of local government and the unfolding crisis in 1692. As Salem held its annual town meeting, the community elected leaders who would soon find themselves on opposite sides of the prisoner bars. We also look beyond the 17th century to honor International Women’s Day by discussing the ongoing global struggle against witchcraft...

For International Women's Day and Women's History Month, The Thing About Salem takes a deep look at one of the Salem witch trials' most fascinating and misrepresented figures: Tituba Indian. Who was she, and why have writers, scholars, and storytellers kept returning to her story for two centuries? Joining Josh and Sarah is Samaine Lockwood, associate professor of English at George Mas...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily , we dive into the pivotal events of March 7, 1692 , a day that marked a massive shift in the escalating crisis of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. We explore how the absence of stable leadership and a deep-seated spiritual dread created the perfect storm for the tragedies that followed. A Colony in Limbo: We discuss the long journey of Reverend Increase Ma...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we discuss Ann Putnam Jr.’s March 1692 claims that the apparition of “Goody Proctor” attacked her by choking, biting, and pinching, and that she later identified Elizabeth Proctor as the specter’s owner, alleging pressure to sign a book. We then introduce Elizabeth Proctor’s background beyond later fictional portrayals: her birth as Elizabeth Bassett in...

We cover March 5, 1692, when authorities transferred Sarah Good from the Ipswich Jail to the Salem Jail and magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin questioned her, while Tituba again repeated her confessions. We also discuss how William Allen, William Good, John Hughes, and Samuel Braybrook submitted a statement against Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, and we read from the original tex...

In this March 4th episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily , we place Salem Village in the tense aftermath of the first public examinations held March 1, 1692, noting that while March 4 is quiet with no new warrants or hearings, the legal process and accusations continue, fueled in part by Tituba’s alarming testimony about the devil, familiars, and a book of names as the three accused women remain jail...

We recount the fear people felt at the alleged sight of the specter of a 4-year-old girl. We explore what 17th-century New Englanders meant by “specters” or “shapes,” why afflicted accusers were treated as visionaries, and how invisible attacks like pinching, choking, and demands to sign the devil’s book became accepted in court. We share a vivid example involving Benjamin Hutchinson and Abigail W...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we cover the developments of March 2, 1692 in Essex County, including constable Samuel Braybrook’s report that Sarah Good escaped custody three times on the way to the Ipswich jail. Back at the Salem jail, magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin interrogated Sarah Osborne and Tituba, with Osborne maintaining her innocence while Tituba expanded on...

We cover the busy day of March 1, 1692 in Salem Village as Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba were arrested and brought to the meetinghouse for crowded examinations led by magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, with multiple people recording the proceedings. We discuss how Good and Osborne denied any pact with the devil while pressure and accusations mounted, including debate over wheth...

How did the Salem Witch Trials Start? It's early March 1692, and Salem Village is about to change forever. In this episode of The Thing About Salem, we cover the explosive first week of the Salem Witch Trials, from the very first arrests to the courtroom confessions that transformed a local crisis into a full-blown witch hunt. The episode opens with a recap of the pivotal final days of Februar...

In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we cover the events of February 28th and 29th, 1692. We discuss how heavy rains kept Governor Bradstreet from meeting, while the afflicted in Salem Village—Betty, Abigail, Ann, and Elizabeth—continued to suffer. We explore reports from the parsonage in which Tituba was visited by the devil, alleged witches, and familiars, and how these encounters escala...

In today’s Salem Witch Trials Daily episode, we discuss February 27, 1692, when Ann Putnam Jr. reported that Sarah Good’s specter tortured her and tried to force her to sign the Devil’s book, marking the first such accusation in the Salem crisis. We place this idea in its long theological context and explain how Puritans viewed the book as a set of diabolical contracts, even as descriptions of it...