In 1692, an enslaved woman named Tituba told a Salem courtroom that the Devil had come to her and bid her serve him. Her confession lit the fuse that would become known as the infamous Salem witch trials, the deadliest witch hunt in American history.
Within months, more than a third of Salem Village had been accused, imprisoned and were awaiting trial. Nineteen people were hanged. One man was pressed to death under stones for refusing to plead. And a four-year-old girl sat in custom-made shackles while her accusers watched.
But this is not really a story about witches. It is a story about mass hysteria, and how a Puritan community primed by centuries of European witch hunting, religious paranoia and moral surveillance convinced itself to kill its own neighbours on the strength of spectral evidence: testimony that someone's ghost attacked you in the night.
We trace the strange true story from Cotton Mather's witchcraft playbook to the witch cake, the Devil's book, the confessions that saved lives, and the moment the accusations reached the governor's wife and the whole thing collapsed. Plus the surprising link between Salem and our home town of Norwich.
Topics Included
- what caused the Salem witch trials
- Tituba's confession and why it changed everything
- spectral evidence and why no alibi could save you
- the witch cake ritual and the first three accused
- the arrest of four-year-old Dorothy Good
- Giles Corey's death by pressing and his final strategy
- how the accusations reached the governor's wife and ended the trials
- the 330-year fight to clear every victim's name
- the Norwich connection to Bridget Bishop
Resources and Further Reading
- Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions - Cotton Mather, 1689,
- Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, Massachusetts - Memorial site opened 1992
- Salem witch trials - Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The last Salem witch has been exonerated - CNN
Host & Show Info
- Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
- Editor: Giordanno Bottezini
- Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
Community & Calls to Action
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- Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
- Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
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- Suggest a Topic: Freaky Register
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