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Since the first European settlers took unsteady steps on its alien shores, America has been haunted by the Devil. Fears of Satan and his human confederates have long since lurked in our psyche, and played an overlooked role in the cultural and political development of the United States. In this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam descend into the blackest reaches of American and European folklore to see how our forbearers understood the unspeakable.

This episode explores the development of satanic conceptions and imagery in American life, beginning with the emergence of the demonic beings in ancient Jewish cosmology through the spread of Christianity and the settlement of the New World. Medieval and Early Modern Europeans saw Satan everywhere, guiding the hands of sinners and unbelievers to tempt mankind and doom souls to Hell. The devil was understood to be the real ruler of this sinful earth, as proven by the encirclement of Christendom by kingdoms of heretics and heathens. European explorers in America, Africa, and Asia believed the religions they encountered were expressions of Satanism, and used this belief to justify colonial institutions of violence and subjugation. Even within Christian lands, Satan held sway through the power of his followers, the secret legions of witches.

This diabolical worldview had real implications on early American society, most notoriously in the New England Witch Trials in which hundreds of Puritans were accused of being willing agents of Satan. Though belief in witches faded across the 18th and 19th centuries, Americans still understood the Devil to be clawing at their back. In all of these periods, it was also understood that Old Scratch could be defeated at his own games. This motif is exceptionally common in American folk tales and especially folk songs, even making its way into William Dieterle's iconic 1941 film THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER.

Though most Americans no longer believe in the devil in a literal monstrous sense, more metaphysical attitudes toward Satan survive. We continue to understand evil in terms of external corruption, as a deviation from our humanity rather than the result of our lowest impulses. And across the 20th and 21st centuries, periods of distrust and paranoia have allowed true belief Satan and his witches to re-emerge in our discourse. Despite how modern and rational contemporary Americans imagine ourselves to be, the Devil has us in his clutches.