The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials

Before Salem: Boston’s Forgotten Witchcraft Victims and the Push for Exoneration

We open with a 1692 London story involving Increase and Samuel Mather and a warning that supposed ghosts could be devils deceiving the grieving. Then we share an update on Massachusetts bill H.1927 to exonerate people accused of witchcraft in Boston and elsewhere: it has been favorably reported out of the Judiciary Committee, is headed to the full House, and has technical language changes with a new bill number pending. We explain that Salem wasn’t the start of witch-hunting in Massachusetts, highlighting earlier Boston-area cases—including those executed and others convicted but not executed—that helped establish the fears, evidence, and methods later seen in 1692. We close with clear calls to action: sign the petition at change.org/witchtrials, contact your Massachusetts representative and senator to urge support, share the episode, and encourage people in Massachusetts to get involved as the bill moves forward.

00:00 Ghosts and Devils

01:01 Bill H 1927 Update

02:06 Boston Before Salem

02:48 Margaret Jones 1648

03:53 Kendall and Lake

04:37 Anne Hibbens 1656

05:05 Goody Glover 1688

05:44 Other Convictions

06:15 Eunice Cole Fight

07:14 Elizabeth Morse Case

07:55 Take Action Now

Sign the petition to exonerate

Find My Massachusetts Legislators

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026

⁠The Thing About Salem

The Thing About Witch Hunts

Eight Survival Strategies in the Salem Witch Trials

We look at how accused people tried to stay alive during the 1692 Salem witch panic, when witchcraft convictions often led to the gallows. We outline eight strategies that were used to delay or avoid execution—ranging from confession and pregnancy to seeking spiritual reprieves, accusing others, presenting as afflicted, and leaning on petitions and character witnesses. We also discuss why fleeing could be the most effective option, and how timing and luck often mattered more than justice, as many still died by hanging, pressing, or harsh jail conditions.

00:00 Welcome & the brutal reality of 1692 accusations

00:54 Strategy #1: Confess to buy time (and why it worked)

01:59 Strategy #2: “Plead the belly” — pregnancy as a legal delay

02:46 Strategy #3: A minister’s petition for time to repent (Dorcas Hoar)

03:22 Strategy #4: Accuse others first — even your own family

04:13 Strategy #5: Become “afflicted” to avoid being the witch

04:56 Strategies #6–7: Petitions & character witnesses from the community

05:44 Strategy #8: Run away — the most effective way to survive

06:37 Conclusion: Luck, late timing, and the true death toll

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

The Putnam Family's Role in the Salem Witch Trials

No family is more associated with the Salem Witch Trials than the Putnams. And for good reason. One man in this family filed complaints against 35 people. His wife, his daughter, and their maid were all among the afflicted. The depositions, the courtroom drama, the relentless momentum of accusation after accusation. The Putnams were not bystanders to any of it.

So it would be easy to close the book on them there. Villains. Next chapter.

Except the same family also signed the petition defending Rebecca Nurse. Some members testified against the accused in the morning and put their names on her defense in the afternoon. One branch quietly took in Dorothy Good in the years after the trials, when almost no one else would. And one Putnam kept his horse saddled for months, ready to ride at a moment's notice, because he was openly opposing the trials and he knew what that could cost him.

In This Episode

Three branches of the Putnam family, three generations, and a cast of individual’s history has flattened into footnotes. Josh and Sarah trace who accused, who defended, who did both, and who walked a quieter path that history almost forgot. The story of Ann Putnam Jr. and the only public apology to come out of the entire crisis. The Putnam descendants who shaped American history long after 1692. And the harder question underneath all of it: when a community turns on itself, what does it take to be one of the people who helped it happen, and what does it take to be one of the people who doesn't?

About The Thing About Salem

The Thing About Salem takes the Salem Witch Trials seriously as history. That means going beyond the names everyone knows, sitting with the complexity, and treating the people involved as real human beings rather than symbols. Hosted by Sarah Jack and Josh Hutchinson, the podcast draws on decades of research, firsthand expertise, and a genuine commitment to getting it from the records. New episodes every week.

Links

Salem Witch Trials Daily Videos & Course

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing on YouTube⁠!

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

Sign the Petition: MA Witch Hunt Justice Project

www.massachusettswitchtrials.org

Support the nonprofit End Witch Hunts Podcasts and Projects

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

We look back to May 1690, two years before the Salem witch trials, to examine the fall of Falmouth and Fort Loyal and how it helped fuel an atmosphere of fear in New England. We trace Boston’s wartime strategy in King William’s War, including plans for offensives against Port Royal and Montreal, and the council’s tendency to blame frontier settlers for raids. We follow John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin’s inspection of Maine’s defenses and the decision that led to Captain Simon Willard’s 60 soldiers being withdrawn from Fort Loyal—just before a large Wabanaki and French force attacked, besieged the settlement, and devastated the captives after surrender. We also cover the shockwaves that followed, the refugee crisis and abandoned settlements, and the stark contrast between frontier catastrophe and Boston’s celebration of Phips’ successful raid, setting a grim prelude to 1692.

00:00 Welcome & Why 1690 Matters Before Salem

00:54 Boston’s Big Offensive Plans in King William’s War

01:24 Victim-Blaming the Frontier: ‘Negligence’ as Policy

01:59 New York Talks: Promising Troops for Montreal

02:32 Hathorne & Corwin Inspect Maine—and Make a Fateful Call

03:39 Fort Loyal Emptied: The Catastrophic Withdrawal

03:54 The Fall of Falmouth: Siege, Surrender, and Massacre

04:39 Shockwaves Across New England—and Boston’s Mixed Reaction

05:16 From Falmouth to 1692: How Trauma Followed Salem

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

We discuss how Maine, then part of Massachusetts, was a war-torn frontier during the years surrounding the Salem Witch Trials and show that refugee movements, fear, and trauma from frontier conflict contributed to the Salem panic. The hosts focus on Salem figures connected to Falmouth (now Portland), including minister George Burroughs, afflicted witness Mercy Lewis, and confessor Abigail Hobbs, emphasizing how their experiences in Maine intersected with events and testimony in 1692. It ends by noting that magistrates Hathorne and Corwin also had a connection to the fall of Falmouth.

Links

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

This episode explores an often-overlooked driver of the 1692 Salem witch trials: the fear and instability radiating from the Maine and New Hampshire frontier. Against the backdrop of war, raids, refugees, and political turmoil, the hosts trace how frontier experiences and beliefs seeped into Essex County and helped intensify the witch-hunt—connecting key Salem figures to events and accusations rooted far to the north.

00:00 1692 Orders to Secure Maine: Hutchinson’s Mission Begins

00:55 Welcome & Why the Northern Frontier Matters to Salem

01:27 King William’s War: Refugees, Trauma, and Rising Panic

01:58 Mercy Lewis: Frontier Orphanhood and the Afflictions

02:30 George Burroughs: From Maine Settlements to Salem’s Gallows

03:00 “The Eastward” and the Devil in the Woods: Abigail Hobbs’ Confession

03:27 New Hampshire’s Political Upheaval and Early Witchcraft Cases

04:17 Goody Cole: Repeated Accusations and a 1938 Public Rehabilitation

04:59 The Stone-Throwing Devil: Great Island’s Lithobolia Mystery

05:35 Frontier Fear Converges: How War and Wilderness Fueled Salem

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

We recount John Proctor’s role in the Salem witch trials, from his defense of his wife Elizabeth after she was accused in 1692 to his own arrest and conviction. We describe his criticism of the proceedings, petitions arguing the trials were unfair, and his execution on August 19, 1692 after being denied a final prayer because he would not falsely confess. Elizabeth survived due to pregnancy, later received a reprieve, and the family suffered property seizure and lasting legal and financial damage before later reversal of the attainder and restitution.

00:00 John Proctor’s Final Morning: A Prayer Refused (Aug 19, 1692)

00:36 Who Was John Proctor? Early Life, Family, and Reputation

01:46 Elizabeth Proctor Accused: The April 11 Examination

02:24 John Speaks Out—and Becomes the First Male Arrested

03:10 Prison Petitions & Community Support Against the Trials

03:49 Conviction and Execution: The Gallows on August 19

04:09 Elizabeth Survives: Pregnancy, Prison Birth, and Reprieve

04:28 Aftermath: Family Ruin, Property Seizure, and Burial Legends

05:04 Restoring Rights: Estate Battles, Remarriage, and Restitution

05:34 Myth vs. History: Debunking The Crucible’s Proctor Story

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

The episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily profiles the influential Putnam family of Salem Village and their mixed roles during the 1692 witchcraft crisis. It traces the family’s origins and three main branches, highlighting that some Putnams were major accusers while others supported the accused, including signing a petition for Rebecca Nurse. The hosts also note a prominent Putnam opponent of the trials and concludes that people in Salem often played shifting and contradictory roles over time.

00:00 Welcome + Why the Putnams Matter in 1692

00:48 Origins of the Putnam Dynasty & the Three Branches

01:03 Branch 1: Captain John Putnam Sr. & Lt. Nathaniel—Accusations and the Rebecca Nurse Petition

01:54 Aftermath Connections: Benjamin Putnam Takes in Dorothy Good

02:26 Branch 2: The Thomas Putnam Line—The Accusation Powerhouse

03:13 Ann Putnam Jr. in Court & Her 1706 Public Apology

03:39 Family Crosscurrents: Supporters, Step-Relations, and the Afflicted Circle

04:16 The Dissenter: Joseph Putnam Opposes the Trials (and Israel Putnam’s Legacy)

04:54 Wrap-Up: Salem’s Complexity—Accusers, Defenders, and Changing Minds

George Francis Dow: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Sidney Perley: The History of Salem, Massachusetts

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692

We discuss colonial physicians in the Salem area and their role in shifting unexplained illness from a medical issue to a spiritual and legal crisis. On February 16, 1692, physician William Griggs Sr. bought a home and land in Salem Village for 71 pounds, where he lived with his wife and his niece Elizabeth Hubbard, who became afflicted on February 25. Griggs is widely believed to have diagnosed Betty Parris and Abigail Williams as being under an “evil hand,” though the source does not name the physician, leaving open the possibility another doctor made the diagnosis. We compare Salem to Boston’s medical scene, highlighting Dr. Thomas Oakes’s 1688 diagnosis of the Goodwin children as afflicted by “hellish witchcraft,” a precedent connected to the Goody Glover case. Finally, we describe remedies recorded from Salem physician Zerubabel Endicott’s papers, including dried stone horse liver for bloody flux and a childbirth prescription using a lock of a virgin’s hair.

00:00 Welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily: Doctors Enter the Story

00:22 Feb 16, 1692: Dr. William Griggs Buys Land in Salem Village

00:56 Elizabeth Hubbard & the First Afflictions Begin

01:11 “Under an Evil Hand”: When Medicine Turns to Witchcraft

01:43 Colonial Medicine’s Power Families: Endicott & the Winthrops

02:27 Salem’s Medical Roster & the Swinnerton Family Web

03:33 Medicine in the Courtroom: Judge Gedney’s Drugs and Ointments

04:02 Was It Really Griggs? Doubts About the Famous Diagnosis

04:43 Boston’s Precedent: Dr. Thomas Oakes, the Goodwin Children & Goody Glover

05:55 What Did They Prescribe? Zerubabel Endicott’s Wild Remedies

07:50 From Horse Livers to “Evil Hands”: Why the Supernatural Won Out (Conclusion)

George Francis Dow: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Sidney Perley: The History of Salem, Massachusetts

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channe

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection:

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781594164378

Martha Carrier was dubbed the “Queen in Hell.” We trace how her 1692 witchcraft case expanded into a royal family saga. The episode outlines her arrest, trial, and execution, then follows the accusations and confessions that swept through multiple connected relatives and in-laws in the Allen, Ingalls, Toothaker, Carrier, Dane, and Johnson branches, showing how family ties and reputation intensified the crisis in Andover.

00:00 Welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily + Today’s focus: Martha Carrier

00:37 From Billerica to Andover: Outsiders, smallpox blame, and suspicion

01:03 Accusation to execution: warrants, “Queen in Hell,” and the trial timeline

01:51 The Ingalls family web: a dynasty of accusations (and a surprising descendant)

02:19 Immediate circle: Toothakers, testimony, and family turning on family

02:47 Martha’s children arrested: coerced confessions and brutal pressure

03:13 The Dane connection: Reverend Francis Dane and the Johnson/Faulkner cases

04:32 Not just one “Queen in Hell”: how kinship networks were dismantled

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692