More than 150 people were accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Had the Court of Oyer and Terminer tried them all, they may all have been hanged.

They sat chained in dungeons to prevent their specters from roaming. They watched as friends and neighbors were dragged to the gallows. As the body count rose, the terror must have reached unimaginable levels. And yet the accusations kept coming.

How did an entire community participate in its own destruction?

In this essential introduction to The Thing About Salem, hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack explore what made Salem different from every other witch hunt in American history. The mystery isn’t what ailed the afflicted girls. Why were people at the highest levels of society accused right alongside the usual suspects?

This episode reveals the forces that turned Salem Village into America’s deadliest witch hunt: warfare closing in on Massachusetts settlements, economic devastation, the collapse of political and religious certainty, and the kind of existential terror that makes the unthinkable seem reasonable.

**Length:** 15 minutes

## What You’ll Learn

• Why 150+ people faced execution when typical New England witch hunts involved 2 to 3 accusations

• What conditions make rational people accept supernatural explanations for their suffering

• How fear and crisis override legal safeguards and community bonds

• Why focusing on the accusers matters more than diagnosing the afflicted

## Key Stats

• 150+ people accused in Salem

• 30 convictions (vs. 4 in Hartford’s 1662 witch panic)

• Only 1 witch hanged in Massachusetts in the 36 years before Salem

• People at the highest levels of society were named as witches

## Topics Covered

• The terror of Salem’s dungeons and the rising panic

• What made Salem different from other colonial witch hunts

• The perfect storm: war, disease, political collapse, and religious crisis

• Why popular theories like ergotism miss the point

• What Salem reveals about fear, judgment, and human nature

The Thing About Salem on YouTube

The Thing About Witch Hunts Website

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

Sign the Petition: MA Witch Hunt Justice Project

Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project

When a seventh grader reached out with questions for their National History Day documentary, podcast hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack knew they'd been asked something special. The student's thoughtful inquiries became the foundation for this episode of The Thing About Salem.

This wasn't just another school assignment. The questions this student asked revealed a depth of engagement that many adults never reach when studying 1692. They saw past the surface story to the human complexity underneath, the kind of questions that don't have easy answers but force you to truly reckon with what happened in Salem.

We knew immediately these questions needed to be shared. They're the kind that make history stop being about memorizing events and start being about understanding people, choices, and consequences that still echo today.

Sometimes the best teachers are the ones still in school.

Keywords: Salem Witch Trials, National History Day, student history project, Rebecca Nurse, Joseph Hutchinson, Bridget Bishop, family history research, witch trial education, historical questions, Salem descendants, Tituba, Abigail Williams

National History Day Website

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer Documents, ⁠The Salem Witch Trials Collection, Peabody Essex Museum

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Salem Website

⁠The Thing About Salem YouTube

⁠The Thing About Salem Patreon

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts 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

In May 1692, one of Boston's most respected citizens walked into a Salem courtroom—and the accusers couldn't even identify him. Captain John Alden Jr., son of Mayflower passengers and decorated war hero, seemed an unlikely target for witchcraft accusations. But his connections to Native Americans and the French made him dangerous in the eyes of wartime Massachusetts.

What happened when Salem's witch hunt reached beyond the village to pull in a prominent Bostonian with impeccable colonial credentials? This episode examines how Captain Alden's examination revealed the absurdity and danger of the spectral evidence system and how his escape became one of the trial period's most dramatic moments.

From his parents' legendary Plymouth courtship to his own flight from justice, Captain Alden's story shows us who could be accused, who could survive, and what it took to navigate Salem's machinery of suspicion.

Episode Highlights:

• John Alden Sr. and Priscilla: The last surviving Mayflower passenger and the marriage that inspired Longfellow

• Captain Alden's controversial fur trading and the rumors that made him a target

• The chaotic May 31st examination where accusers needed prompting

• The touch test, the sword, and the claims of "Indian Papooses"

• His September escape to Duxbury and surprising return

Key Figures: Captain John Alden Jr., John & Priscilla Alden, Judges Bartholomew Gedney and John Richards, Rev. Samuel Willard, Robert Calef

The Thing About Salem examines the people, places, and events of the 1692 Salem witch trials. New episodes weekly.

Links

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTube⁠

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

The Thing About Salem website