Colonial America: The Salem Witch Trials | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU

No episode in early American history is more infamous or misunderstood than the Salem witch trials of 1692. Before they were over, 19 people, five men and 14 women, were convicted of engaging in witchcraft and were subsequently executed by hanging. One other was pressed to death with heavy stones. Still more died in prison awaiting trial and many more would have died if cooler heads had not finally prevailed. From a contemporary perspective, it's hard to understand why the trials happened at all. But for the people living in Salem at the end of the 17th century, there was no such mystery. Puritan New England was a profoundly Bible-based society. So when the Old Testament denounced witchcraft and sorcery, they took it seriously. Massachusetts law mandated that if any man or woman be a witch, they shall be put to death. But why did witch trials happen in Salem when they did? What was the precipitating cause? After all, the Massachusetts colony had existed for 62 years without similar upheaval. Why now? Many theories have been offered, and none are fully satisfying. All we know for sure was that it was a period of deep instability socially, economically, and religiously. First, there was uncertainty as to where the colony stood with England, the mother country. In 1684, in a move to assert the crown's authority and thereby curtail Massachusetts ability to rule itself, King Charles II revoked the colony's founding charter. That itself was traumatic. Then, in 1690, things got much worse. In response to French and Indian raids, Massachusetts authorities ordered an attack against French forces at Quebec. It was a complete route. This devastating loss to French Catholics led the Puritans to wonder why, in the words of one of their leaders, God had spit in our face. All this turmoil made Massachusetts ripe for a panic. That panic ignited when a group of teenage girls began to suffer from inexplicable fits and convulsions. The young women claimed they had been afflicted by demons. They accused a slave named Titcha, who was owned by one of Salem's ministers, of being a witch. Under duress, Titcha offered a confession. She went on to suggest that there were other witches operating in and around the town. Soon the accusations began to multiply into the dozens, then hundreds. Most of those accused were older women, often widows and social outcasts. They appeared, so it was charged, as specters or spirits, who urged their victims to sign a covenant with the devil. This spectral evidence was all the hastily convened special court needed to pronounce a guilty verdict. In the calculus of the moment, anyone who confessed was spared execution. Only those who maintained their innocence were punished without mercy. Before long, the accused included prominent figures in Massachusetts society, and the trials became increasingly problematic. The judges and pastors started to have second thoughts. The influential Boston minister increase Mather saw something more sinister. Not only had the judges gotten it wrong, he asserted they had been led to their perverse conclusion by Satan himself. The devil is in it, he wrote. All superstition is from him. And when secret things are discovered by superstitious practices, some compact in communion with the devil is the cause of it. Mather highlighted the consequences of such thinking in what became the most famous quote of the whole shameful affair. It were better that 10 suspected witches should escape than that one innocent person should be condemned. The trials ended as suddenly as they began. Those who were still in prison were released. They and the families of the victims were compensated. The psychological toll, however, reverberated for years. Some of the judges were racked with guilt, knowing that they had lost themselves in the madness and sent innocent people to their deaths. The witch trials were indeed one of the darkest moments in American history. But there's another aspect of the story, one that's too often ignored. The people of Salem openly acknowledged what they did and tried to atone for it. This willingness to recognize mistakes and rectify them became a defining feature of the emerging American character. Every country has serious flaws, but none have done more to correct them than America. The popular narrative today is that when so-called religious fanatics like the Puritans take control of government, travesties like the Salem witch trials inevitably result. But America has been and remains the most Judeo-Christian democracy in the world. From the founding to abolitionism to the civil rights movement, religious Americans have created the most tolerant society in history. I'm Thomas Kidd, author of American History Volumes 1 and two for Prager University. Thank you for watching this video. To keep PragerU videos free, please consider making a taxdeductible donation.