then margo burns talks about the legal documents used against people accused of witchcraft. later a discussion on how pop- culture and commercialism led to salem becoming known as the witch city among tourists. next, author and salem state university professor emerson baker providing an in- depth look at the history of salem, massachusetts. by exploring how it went from a simple town in 1692 to a city synonymous with witchcraft and tragedy. this hour-long presentation is part of an all-day symposium held at salem state university. >> good morning, everybody. lovely to see you all today on this day, this reverent day. my name is donna seger, i am chair of the history department here. i thank you all for coming today. we are all here obviously, because of rigid bishop and her

victims of 1692, the long hot summer and early fall of 1692. this is the 325th anniversary of those events. as a history professor i am sometimes reticent to indulge in what i call anniversary history because i like my students to think every single day is historic. it does feel like to take a moment, a day and really think about what happened. during that year. so that is what we are doing. today. that is what the city of salem is going to be doing probably all summer long. before i introduce our distinguished guest who will open up our symposium, the mayor , kimberly driscoll i will say thanks before i forget to thank

everyone at the end when we wrap up, i will thank all of the presenters for their contributions. but right now i want to thank my little committee because we have been working on this for a year. and that would include the two women downstairs who are not going to hear my thanks. also from the salem awards foundation we have shelby hypes who has a brief announcement. >> -- i have the sheet, please see me. that is it, thanks. >> we also want to thank elizabeth peterson from the witch house and my colleague

pat baker who will be speaking to you shortly. who is my colleague for a few more days. and the salem state history department, talk about that more later. without further ado, i would like to introduce the mayor of salem, kimberly driscoll for a for -- a few opening remarks. >> thank you professor vincent and everyone who attended, for those of us who live here we have an extra responsibility and by having a packed room on a beautiful saturday to talk about the salem witch trials and what it means to our community. indeed i think it speaks to the events and how much people reflect on them today. in salem we are always moving forward but never without reflecting on the road by which we came here. the examples of our past, generations who push the boundaries to innovate and build a thriving community that values progress and growth from

the settlers who laid out foundations to the visionaries of the maritime trade that made salem famous around the world. from entrepreneurs who built our industrial manufacturing base and the workers in the factories who pushed back when conditions were unfair or dangerous. from those who steadfastly rebuild the city after the devastating fire of 1914 to the preservationists who saved it from a different kind of devastation during the urban renewal movement and yes of course, from the tragic lessons we learned collectively from 1692. it was on that day, on this day in that year, 325 years ago to the day, that bridget bishop become the first of many innocents to lose their lives. today, or earlier this week we announced we will gather to dedicate our newest memorial to honor the memory of those who are unjustly executed in 1692. on july 19 at noon we will gather at proctor's ledge, the site of execution to dedicate a

memorial on that site. 325 years after the first of three mass executions took place at the site, and five individuals were hanged. sarah good, elizabeth howe, susannah martin, rebecca nurse, sarah wiles. i hope many of you will be able to join us as we honor their memory and pledge to never forget the lessons of the salem witch trials, to never allow prejudiced, to conquer reason and fear to overcome courage. salem is a special place because we value the history, every person who lives here has that history and if the family trace of the lineage back generations or if they are newly arrived, we feel those of us living here it is indeed our responsibility, 325 years later to ensure as we move forward as a committee we do so for the legacies and it is our duty to

promote awareness, understanding and empathy and support of human rights, tolerance and social justice. we are so fortunate to have partners, those here at the symposium, looking forward to hearing ted and learning from all the work he has done. and professor benson continues to make sure the history is not lost on anyone in the community. tomorrow will be fortunate to be joined by the members at the site of the memorial to keep in mind the lessons and today more than ever, in our community and across the country, these are vital lessons that we need to make sure the next generation understands and hears. in a place like salem, priding itself on history, having which is as a mascot and on our police car, it is a balance. i think this part of this history is important for us to remember and pass on to the next generation to continue to fight the fear and hatred that

can overcome a small community like salem or large country like the united states. thanks for being here to learn more and think youtube the professor for putting this together. >> the mayor is an old friend of mine, she's referring to me by my former name. now i have embarrassed her. without further ado, i want to introduce to you my colleague, emerson tad baker who i think you all agree with me is the expert. on the salem witch trials, following the publication of his masterful book a storm of witchcraft. and we are so lucky to have him to give us an overview. it takes a master of the craft to be able to present an overview. i am really struggling, he told

me it's so hard to do an overview of the salem witch trials in an hour and i said tell me about it, i have to do all of europe. so i don't feel that sorry for him, honestly. and i am sure he will do a great job. he has been my colleague and friend for 20 years but let's call it 20 years, i am sad to introduce them today because i am hoping this is is not his academic swansong. he is not dying, he is going to become the interim dean of thoracic studies. i hope in that important position he will be able to continue his scholarship. without further ado, tad. >> thanks, donna.

you are being way too kind because there really are so many experts on the salem witch trials and i never could have done my work without their work and honestly, it is wonderful that some are here today and he will hear from them as well. so, how do we do this in an hour? i want to explore a couple -- some general points but some themes we will come back to. i want to talk about politics and religion which has overlooked aspects of the witch trials. which is hard to believe considering witchcraft is a religious crime and trials are political acts. we will circle back to that point because i think it's incredibly relevant, frankly, today. at the same time i like to start out by pointing out salem is far from unique. almost every culture under the

sun, past, present and future has their versions of witchhunts. has their versions of witches and we have to look no further than -- you are right, you have a lot more which is to deal with in europe. during the great age there were no witches. you are right. at the same time when you write a book and you can't constantly put everything". i will refer to people as witches but please assume i am doing this. accused of being witches. anyhow, during the great age of witchhunts in europe 100,000 people are accused and half are executed and there are so many that we really don't know the numbers, we don't know all the names, biggest outbreak, 2000 people died.

they continue into the 18th century and in hungry alone, 800 people died in the 18th century from witch trials. salem is not the biggest, not the last and in fact, some would say they are still having witchhunts in the news, pretty much every day. all politicians of all stripes were ever refer to salem and witchhunts, the first reference making fun of salem for the witchhunts was published in london in 1697 and hasn't stopped since. as i say, every parity, politician, last year there was the benghazi witchhunt for example. it is a frame of reference when we come to take in that in many ways it's synonymous with salem. and here's the thing, and salem we have this thing that is a far the largest outbreak of witchcraft in american history. 172 people are accused of

witchcraft, there could be more, we don't know as margo will tell you later, we have almost 1000 surviving documents from the salem trials. i think one reason we know so much about salem is because it is so well-documented. having said that, a lot of documents that don't survive, we know that 156 people have legal proceedings that do survive. we know that 19 were executed starting on this day in 1692. one crashed to death in five died in jail, there might've been a sixth. by european standards, this is unfortunately -- with all due respect we will point out that one of those people who died in jail, was a distant relative of mine. at the same time, to hang 19 people for witchcraft, all too common event in europe. that raises the question as to why isn't colsn the witch city, it's a lovely cathedral, nice

people, no one even mentions the fact, you wouldn't know there were witch trials there. why is salem and salem in the -- alone was synonymous witchhunts, scapegoating, rushing to judgment, fanaticism, extremism, right? why salem? i want to explore that today and talk about how we try to explain the events of 1692 and how do we explain witchhunts and talk a little bit about those factors particularly those religious and political factors that lead to witchhunts. past, present and unfortunately future. salem has a unique place in american history and that was cemented long before the witch trials. salem is one of the first settlements in new england, it is originally a fishing village . in 1629, the settlers were idealistic, puritans, changed

the name to jerusalem or salem. for the city of peace. so from the start it is meant to be this beautiful christian place. this holy city. jon winthrop arrives in 1630, coming into salem, why because salem is older than boston, they hadn't created boston. salem was the first of the colony, it is where it all starts. and sometimes in the process of selling over or shortly afterwards, he gives his famous sermon, a model of christian charity. he has the famous words, we shall be as a city upon a hill in the eyes upon the hill are upon us. in many ways, salem is the city upon the hill. it is the shining example. metaphorically, physically, this is it, the start of the puritan experiment in

massachusetts bay. it is supposed to be a place where people walk hand-in-hand with each other and with god and live in peace and harmony. and i think maybe that is part of the answer as to why we remember the salem witch trial and why we will never forget them because think of this tremendous fall from grace from this ideal of 1630, 1692, 62 years later while people who are still alive, who heard winthrop give the sermon, daughters are accusing mothers, neighbors are accusing neighbors of being witches in the colony, the puritan experiment is being torn apart. it is a turning point in american history. in some ways i see it as the beginning of the end in new england and frankly the beginning of something much deeper and that is our distrust of government. if you think last year's elections are an indication of

something new in america, i would tell you it is a very old impulse. this libertarian antigovernment spree that manifests you against management -- american politics. it was the first massive failure of the government to protect the lives of the innocent and to try to cover up the fact. people from the gecko refused to let it be forgotten. descendents of the victims, petitioned the massachusetts legislature for the next 50 years seeking grievance, pardons, for the victims. people here have never forgotten that and indeed never will. so what caused it? shameless plug for my book, i call my book a storm of witchcraft because it really took a perfect storm of forces to create even what was in america in large outbreak of witchcraft.

to have something horrible happen you have to have many things come together and in this case, a lot of factors and i want to run through them briefly but just outline them, colony wide political instability, the perceived decline of pure tourism, the worst, most extreme weather, the ice age, inflation, high taxes, economic failure, military disasters, if it sounds like the four horsemen, it is close. this was a grand time for a people to go through. in large part, the focus of the action really begins in just one part of the colony and that is salem village. salem village is now the town of danvers but in 1692 it was what was part of a supersized salem which included a number of present-day towns, a huge

area where some people actually could be up to 12 miles away from the meeting house. and be expected to attend worship in downtown salem on the sabbath. so ironically on the puritan lord stay arrest, you are expected to spend half the day trying to get into church, imagine trying to do that in a blizzard in february. so people in outlying areas like salem village had been trying to achieve independence and hire their own minister to break off from salem. and it had allowed a number of communities to do this including beverly, when i'm, manchester, they were reluctant to let salem village go. for a number of reasons. but finally, salem village is granted parish status and it is this quasi-freedom, they are allowed to use tax money to hire a minister but they don't have political control over the community. and that creates all sorts of trouble and factions to the point where by 1692, they are

on their fourth minister in 20 years and that man is very famous, a very contentious figure who is in many ways at the heart of the problem and salem village, he certainly does nothing to improve the situation. and of course the story of salem village and the reverend is probably most beautifully told by paul boyer in the pathbreaking book on the salem witch trials published in 1974, salem possessed, here is a rare photograph you can see from the dust jacket when they were young academic pups, young turks and historians going out to conquer the world publishing a pathbreaking book in american history. they look at the minutia in salem village and the political social religious conflict in the community. but having said that with all the respect to these authors in this book, the witch trials were so much more than salem village. in fact, one of the facts that people don't realize is there

were more people from neighboring andover accused of witchcraft then there were from either salem or salem village. so this is a broader issue which isn't just salem village, admittedly it is the epicenter of the witch trials but they spread out rapidly. why do they do that? all these other factors including colony wide political instability. this goes back to the early 1680s massachusetts bay loses its treasured charter, the charter of 1629 which grants them self- government and the right to run as a puritan colony. to make massachusetts bay a unique, religious place and a place for the true believers, the puritan saints and honestly for no one else. this is religious freedom for them. when they lose this charter and it's revoked in 1684 the trouble begins, we have the following several years of turmoil, the dominion of new england, almost a military like

rule, if you will. citizens lose freedom, the toleration of faith is enforced which we think is great but the puritans were not big fans of. to the point where he is overthrown and replaced by the interim government, the old government that is weak and ineffective and trying to fight off a new war. and meanwhile, early in 1692 people here of the coming of the governor, from england with the new charter and almost the day he arrived is the day the afflictions begin to grow and multiply in salem village because people are nervous about what this means. and all of these things are seen as signs. by puritans as a sign of god's displeasure. everything in the 17th century is a sign of god's pleasure or displeasure in an age before science and reason. so in many ways these are all

part of a feeling of spiritual decline in the colony and the thing that something is truly a -- wrong. let's talk about puritan decline, i won't spend too much time with these themes from perry miller and other historians but essentially, there was this front going on in massachusetts that they strayed from the puritan experiment, they left the path in the colony was heading to ruin. there were shrinking numbers of church membership, fewer people willing to join the church, everybody must attend worship but only those left, the saints are members of the church, the church is a spiritual body of people, not a building in new england and fewer and fewer members of the second and third generation are joining. there is an increasingly -- in massachusetts bay, the victim

of its own success, being an important economic engine in the growing atlantic economy for the lumbar is shipped, on ships built here in part of the economy ringing riches to new england and also deeply embedded in the whole slave system. the perceived threats from outsiders, quakers and other religious groups coming into the colony, we could spend the whole day talking about quakers , they will talk a week about the quakers and some of these other threats that seem crazy to us but to the puritans were all too real. there are more caverns generally unless bible reading in the colony, the ministers were preaching the fire and brimstone jeremiah sermons saying that god is coming and he is terribly angry and he is going to seek vengeance and now is the time for moral reformation before it is too late. satan is in our midst, he has been unleashed by god and it is

up to us to fight back. it is evidence of the spiritual turmoil in 1692 recognize that there are five ministers who are cried out upon for witchcraft, one has charges lodged against them, he is executed. but there are far more who are cried out upon, four minister and in total, 50 ministers and members of the extended and close family who are cried out upon and formally accused in 1692. that is almost a third of the people accused. by the way most of these ministers and families are ministers who have accepted the halfway covenant which some puritan hardliners see as a watering down, part of the problem in the colony. i won't dwell on it but the point is, people were spiritually in turmoil and upset and angry and to some degree unhappy with the ministers and the authorities

and politicians and you see that in the patterns of accusation. to make it worse, economic factors and military factors are adding to the downfall of the colony and seeing the signs of god's displeasure. we are talking about the worst weather of the little ice age and that doesn't necessarily mean the coldest but most extreme, rapid changes, hot, dry summers, horrible, lethal winters, early frost in the fall, crop destruction, famine, storms of biblical proportion, frankly climate change isn't just weather getting colder or warmer but extremes and that is what was happening and as wolfgang burger has noted, it is when you have these extreme fluctuations in weather and by the rather and famine, that is when you have witchhunts. so remember that as we think

about the extreme fluctuations in the weather we see today. so, there is also military disaster going on at the same time, a horrible war on the frontier, where the english puritans are losing to the french and native americans in a war that will become as king william's war. it is not just a military and political struggle but casting religious terms because the french are catholic, the hated enemies of the puritan and alive with native americans who for the most part are pagans. or might have converted to catholicism. it seems like the agents of satan, pardon me but this is the way they would've seen it, the french and native americans are live together and going to destroying -- destroy the experiment. salem village was first on edge of the frontier, it is hard to imagine the liberty tree mall being on the cutting edge of

the frontier. but they were. want to get west of route 128, watch out. as someone from fitchburg i can endorse the sentiment. the result of all this is inflation, high taxes, economic failure and a lot of scared, angry people. how does this translate into afflictions and accusations? it is complicated and if you want the semester long version, you won't get that today but we will touch on a few points. as to what we think might have led to this. but it's a perfect storm, lots of different factors, and we are not entirely sure. the most important answer is, what was wrong with people was, they were bewitched. the good 17th century medical explanation was they were bewitched. it is hard for us to representative her heads around that and accepted but

witchcraft was real in the 17th century. everybody, all new witchcraft was real. the tough part was how do you prove someone is a witch? that is the tough part. so, i really think and again, i am not the first to come up with this, pretty much most of what i'm talking about has been set at one time or another by the legions of talented which crafters who have studied this. i could spend the next hour talking about the different works. one clear factor seems to be what is now known as mass conversion disorder which traditionally would have been known as mass hysteria which is in mass hysteria, gendered, mass conversion disorder is controversial, hard to diagnose, even today. it is hard to play psychiatrist

which i am not looking at people 300 years ago. but here's the thing. you understand were mass conversion order is, your mind is so stressed and in so much turmoil that your mind unbeknownst to your body literally converts the stress into physical symptoms. we are not talking about people acting out, we are not talking about people faking symptoms, we are talking about people who are terrified because they don't understand why their bodies are doing what they are doing. why they are shrieking, wailing, going deaf, dumb, blind and not knowing makes this worse. it makes you more worried, more mental anguish and so on. interestingly, doctors know the most prevailing population by far our adolescent and teenage girls.

at least 70-80% of the victims of mass conversion disorder, having two daughters that made it into their 20s, i can say i can relate to this. i would not want to be a teenage girl in america today. i can imagine it must've been worse in the 17th century in the stern patriarchal society that massachusetts bay was like. interestingly enough, it usually starts with high status teenage girls. a very famous case of a few years ago, started out with cheerleaders who in any high school are usually at or near the top or the pecking order. in 1692 the first become afflicted, the niece and daughter of the reverend who lived in the parsonage. the most important man in the colony, his daughters are in some of the most important kids of the village. they have the highest status. it is not surprising they might be the ones to suffer from this, particularly when you're

around and angry father who is marching around, giving fire and brimstone sermons, being convinced satan is in his midst, terrifying his children to death having no intention to do so. i think that explains some of the initial folks who are afflicted. to the broader point there were a lot of people who made accusations and 1692 an accused and i want to point out that witchcraft is a gendered crime. historically about 75% of people accused of witchcraft throughout history have been women. in a higher percentage of that in salem, 76 but that's the average. a stronger correlation to women when you realize that most of the men who were accused of witchcraft are family members, relatives, friends, defenders of women accused of witchcraft.

in 1692, the overwhelming majority of people who were afflicted are women. it is more than that because most of them are teenagers, some in their early 20s, there were a couple of adult women in their late 30s and early 40s and also two men, jon indian and judge jonathan corwin's son. and there is a prod pretrial hearing for the judge as saying to one of the afflicted or accuse, why did you afflict the judges son? that tells you a different legal situation we had in 1692. having said that, that is just the thing that you see on the specials on salem and the girls writhing on the floor, frankly overdramatic. in fact, most of the accusations

were more traditional accusations of witchcraft by men, women throughout the community. testifying to the use of puppets and image magic, the ability to harm people, kaizen -- causing livestock today, reducing milk, run-of-the-mill things than signing a covenant with seining that will -- with satan. the affliction in afflicted girls, were not just girls in the people making accusations, close to 200 people who end up making some kind of complaint or testifying in some way in 1692. it is a brought circle and people have lots of things to complain about. but focusing in on those afflicted young ladies, they for the most part led tough, stressful lives. lee teenagers,

early 20s, many are household servants. quite a few are war refugees from the war that took place on the northern frontier in maine and new hampshire. some more orphans or lost a parent. they have suffered a lot of trauma in their family and you can see where this would put them not in the best frame of mind. the example i like to talk about that we all like to talk about is mercy short. she's taken captive in 1690 and destroys present-day borough. her parents are killed on a raid by native americans and the french, she and other kids are marched north, forced to convert to catholicism and she will be redeemed in afflicted by witchcraft. and when she is counseled by cotton mather, the young minister in boston to try to heal her of her afflictions, she says she is or has in fact

been tempted by satan who is in the shape of a tawny man like an indian. and clearly when she is relieving these moments when her life had been almost destroyed when she lost everything that she knew, mercy short is a classic case of what we would consider poor's dramatic stress disorder. anyone who lived -- post dramatic stress disorder. there is another factor that comes into play, particularly in many of these afflicted girls were traumatized in one way or another. if you look closely at the testimony of 1692, she is pretty clear that they have gone through verbal if not physical abuse. and i think you might even be able to make the case to at least suggest that sexual abuse was possible in at least one case. impossible, we will never be able to prove it but the evidence is tantalizing. if you look at the men who were

accused of record -- witchcraft, most of them have histories of violence. and in fact, most of their specters, ghosts, spirits afflicting people are beating the afflicted girls. torturing them, tormenting them. the specters, not much of a leap that the specters who in many cases the masters of the serving girls, are also perhaps carrying out physical violence against the girls. in 1692, physical violence by the head of the household husband or wife against children or servants, not uncommon, more latitude than there is today. but it sounds like if you were a teenage servant in the household, an orphan or war refugee, you probably can't do much to defend yourself against the attacks of your unhappy master.

not just master but husband are problems, jon willard who was executed, there is testimony to him horribly beating his wife. perhaps one reason why his wife's family testifies against him. george burroughs, the minister accused and executed, the wives he lost, not uncommon that people die young but his wives ghosts show up and talk to the afflicted girls and tell them he murdered them. all again, he is known for his tremendous strength and secretive controlling ways, one of his wives when she tried to write letters to her brother or father, he censored them and read them first. very strange fellow and maybe we are seeing some shades of his domestic relationships in these accusations. or take charles corey, the man who is pressed to death. people have sympathy for him, i don't have quite so much, he

was a cantankerous fellow, didn't deserve to die but he certainly was not that nice a guy, accused of being in arsonists and setting fire to his neighbors house but perhaps his most hideous, he severely beat his young simpleminded service to death, dies a couple days later and in fact is fined for manslaughter, he couldn't prove anything but he is fine for it. people remember this. there was a woman who apparently was afflicted and said bad things about him. and in 1692, it is interesting that his apparition beats the girls with his staff, his crutch. makes one wonder about what's going on and perhaps the most famous, jon proctor. he did not have a sexual relationship with a young 10- year-old, she wasn't even a

household sermon and we could tell you but all the problems but it's not good history even though to wonderful play. but he did have a servant, mary warren who was one of the afflicted. and he was not happy with her afflictions and in fact he publicly admitted to crushing the devil out of her -- isn't it interesting that his specter threatens her with hot poker tongues, fire tongues and he himself admits threatening to burn the affliction out of her. or take the fact that he calls mary his jade. a word not far removed from sexual dalliance or even hooker. not the term in aged men who has a young wife who is pregnant and large family, not the term of endearment you give through your serving girl. there is this interesting bit

of testimony where mary is testifying against him and talks about his specter and at one point his specter approaches her and she says she grabs the specter and pulls the specter into her lap. again, can never prove anything but it does make you feel gross and wonder what's going on. conversion, ptsd, abuse, hysteria, clearly that does not explain it all. certainly there are some fraudulent accusations, probably a lot more than we would like to admit especially from young people. who would like to think i'm not capable of lying, especially when if you do that you know if you lie you will be condemned to an eternity in if you are a good puritan. the clearly it happened.

what didn't cause it, i will avoid the question right up front. poisoning was not responsible for these trials. if you don't know, the idea that was put forth in the early 70s and the hippie dippy timothy leary lsd 1970s should stop there. but the idea of this -- that there is a mold that can grow on rye grain which was used to make bread in salem village and other places, when this mold grows if you consume it, you ingested, it is poisonous and can harm you. well, one of the side effects, one of these types is hallucinogenic like trips. the suggestions that they were having a bad trip, there is a

number of problems with this in this theory which is like a vampire that refuses to die even if you drive a stake through his heart. it keeps coming back even though it was debunked within weeks of when it first came out and has been regularly debunked by psychiatrists, mds and scholars ever since. here is the basic problem, we are looking for a simple solution, society likes to take that please dr. give me one pill that will cure all my ills and by the way that would cure everything that is wrong with society in my life, as well. unfortunately life isn't that simple. i wish it were. history isn't that simple, either. the problem with ergot from a grain supply point of view, not all the afflicted girls live in the same place, they live miles apart, some live in andover, people in boston, we are not talking about one bad grain supply. and also, if everyone else is

eating from the one bad grain supply, why is and everybody coming afflicted? 1-2 members of the family? it doesn't make sense from a pattern because these are accusations and charges made throughout much of massachusetts bay colony. beyond that, doctors tell us there are different types and one type, the only type of ergot that causes hallucinogenic side effects is like a dry rot or gangrene which your arms and legs and limbs shrivel, blackened, fall off and you die. no one described anything like this in 1692. as far as we can tell, strange as it may sound most of the girls appeared to have led long, normal, healthy lives? we don't know much about them but certainly no one walking around his quadruple amputee. didn't mean that.

you get what i'm talking about. it just doesn't work. and frankly, i don't believe in encephalitis, lyme disease or these other medical conditions. is a possible 1-2 had one of these? yes. absolutely. 17th-century medicine is different but it doesn't explain the whole outbreak. the thing i want to say is it was to get their land, wasn't it? want people accused, neighbors who were jealous, people who wanted their land and property, if you accuse someone of witchcraft he got there stuff. sounds good. but not true. there is a kernel of truth, in 1692 for the one time in massachusetts history for reasons i won't go into but legal reasons regarding the charter, massachusetts reverted to english law that included a provision that a felons personal possessions were

seized and became property of the state. that includes your clothes, cash, livestock, furniture but, houses, real estate, all land goes to your errors if you are executed for a high crime. you never lose your property. even if your personal possessions are taken, guess what, then and now the state wins. the government is the recipient of your property, no one else. that doesn't mean to say that joe's neighbors didn't accuse people of witchcraft and not to profit. let's shoot that on. to me though, generations have viewed the trials in large part as a social crime. most of this goes back who

looked at it traditionally and then social historians. i was inspired by these people as a young new, social historian in the 1970s and now it's like the old social history which is now morphed into the cultural history which is becoming maybe the old cultural history. be that as it may, most historians studying witchcraft have looked at it as a social crime, some psychology behind the accusations and tensions in the community. but to me, i wanted to look at the judges. maybe this is a fact that i'm the first member of my family born since the civil war not to join the family law firm in fitchburg. the lawyer want to be. i thought it hadn't been explored. to me it was a critical question you can have as many people accuse people of witchcraft as possible, juries convict them, why do judges sane, rational

justices working under english law that frankly isn't all that different than what we have today. basic forms of testimony witnesses, few irregularities like you one here testimony from your sons afflict her but good english justice. innocent until proven guilty. why do these judges experience men who have all seen witchcraft cases before, why are they accepting convictions and signing death warrants? that was the piece that was interesting and i would like to study this as a political crime and political crisis as much as anything else. recognizing the political prices , and a puritan colony with religion, as well. i was intrigued to look at the judges to try to figure out why they turned legal precedents on its head.

and by that i mean before 1692. if you confessed to witchcraft and by the way that is usually after judicial torture, you are executed. we know that judicial torture was used in salem, jon proctor, the minister complained his son and the carrier boys are being tied and heels, that is your heels are tied to your neck and your hung upside down, head down until blood gushes out of your nose. it won't kill you but you think it will. in some ways i consider it 17th- century equivalent of waterboarding. it also loosens the tongue, maybe i am a which after all, you are right let's reconsider this. some of this going on in salem in 1692 and traditionally what happened after that, trial,

confess, sentence, execution. within days. explain to me why in 1692, only those who refuse to meanwhile 55 people, that's about over a third of the people who were accused confessed. none of them died. that to me is the ultimate tragedy of salem, the fact that only those who were so devout that they refused to lie and say that they were a witch because they knew it would be a stain on their immortal soul, a stain on their family, they refused to do it, only the truly, truly innocent died, and that is the

ultimate tragedy of bridget bishop and everyone else. so why, why would the judges do this? well, the nine judges i started looking at closely and they have a lot in common. they are the wealthiest merchants in the colony, handpicked by the king to do so. so that means they're the leading politicians in the land, today what we call the state senate. they're also superior court judges by definition of that appointment and county judges. a majority of them had attended harvard, at one point trained to be ministers as well. so these are learned men. yet in 1692, none of them had followed that path. they are major land holders of frontier land, sawmill owners on the main frontier where most of them have had their sawmills burned and they lost what may be the equivalent of millions of dollars of investments. they are the military leaders of the colony, by the way, too.

most of them are officers in the militia, judge winthrop, the grandson of the great john winthrop is actually a witchcraft judge and at the same time is command are in chief of the massachusetts army that is badly losing the struggle against the french and the native americans. so here's the thing, these men, these devout puritans, who are also calling for moral reformation throughout the colony have to be looking for someone to blame for the events of 1692. let's blame the government. oh, wait, that's us. let's blame the military. that's us, too. as dana carvy says, could it be satan? that's funny, but human nature, it's a lot easier to look away, look outside to find the guilty, find the blame for our problems

rather than to look within, right? unfortunately, these judges are seeing witches everywhere. they know that satan has been set loose by all the things that have gone wrong in the colony and by them personally and they're hanging judges. intriguingly enough, they were also a family. in my research i determined that six of the nine are actually all related by marriage. one of the ones who isn't, samuel sowell, who may be the most honest man in the crowd, the one i really admire, his wife is the first cousin of paris of salem village. another interesting look. this group acts together, they're deferential against each other and when one says guilty, there's not going to be any dissent because they have the same family, class, military, political interests. right? so it's these conditions that make the judges presume guilt from the start that satan is loose in massachusetts. and you look no further than the first

day of pretrial hearings when judges haythorn and erwin question sara good, and judge hey thorn asks her, who evil conspirators have you familiarity with? have you made no contract with the devil? why do you harm these children? doesn't sound like history that i want to be a part of. that's the point. in other years, it wouldn't have been like this. there were no lawyers in massachusetts in 1692. they were actually outlawed until the early 18th century. the judge acts as prosecutor and defense attorney trying to ferret out the truth. normally that worked well, but in this case something had badly gone awry, this whole storm that threw the judges off their normal behavior. these judges had been involved in the

witchcraft cases in the 1680s that had been dismissed, but things had changed in massachusetts. so we come back to the scene. again, these are all sort of issues of religion and politics, and that means we really need to look at the leadership. so imagine, if you will, in a far-off time in a distant galaxy, a powerful political leader who comes to office lacking any political experience whatsoever. as a young man, he comes to the big city, the center of the universe, to make his fortune. he becomes one of the biggest men in america by taking big risks, winning and losing, making deals, breaking deals. incredibly famous, huge personality. larger than life. he has a late conversion to his political cause, only shortly before seeking high office.

makes many members of his party suspicious at his motives. but he champions the cause of the working class as an incredibly popular for that, and that helps launch him into office. once in office, his style immediately makes people nervous, even before he takes office when they know of his coming office. part of the reason is he's an unconventional communicator, doesn't play by the rules. he quickly almost immediately gets himself embroiled in legal issues. he shows irrational support for the mortgageal enemies of the state -- mortal enemies of the state, which also worries people. people are

worried. people are looking for witches. now, by this time i know you all realize i'm talking about sir william phippps, the governor of the massachusetts baycolony, announced in 1692, and people are terrified about him. the affliction is full blown. i happen to know him really well. i co-authored the biography of him a number of years ago. that's how i got drawn into this because the whole book could have been about witchcraft. sir william was the first, the patron saint of treasure hunters, became immediately famous and developed a fortune through this. it was his second try to do this. he basically went belly up for this trying to do it.

so he was a survivor. but he was the first englishman to be knighted, an american englishman, that is, to be knighted by the king of england. he comes back to massachusetts bay, arguably the most famous englishman in america. he could have stayed every night and someone would have bought him dinner to hear his stories. he was that famous. he was that wealthy, too. he comes home in 1692 as the first world governor of massachusetts bay under a new charter. and after that, the trouble begins. that makes him, of course, governor during the salem witch trials. he ends them only after 19 are dead and really only after his wife is accused of being a witch. about that time he writes a letter back to the crown and he says, basically says, gosh, you know, this is horrible. i was off all summer and fall fighting against

the french and the indians in maine. when i came back, i saw the horrible things the deputy governor did, and i was mortified and i brought it to an end immediately. liar, liar, pants on fire. he was in the colony almost all of that time. fake news. he knew exactly what was going on and was covering, covering himself as best he could. he gets into a mess with the french. he leads briefly invadingport royal, and captures it. they don't have enough to occupy the area. but phips thinks it is real, and when he is governor in 1692, he defends the french in akayedya. he welcomes them to the water front

of boston. and other people are like, really, sir william? really? we're at war with these people. really? and he runs across a scene in boston, and phips, who was known for his very open, sometimes even vulgar expressions and bare knuckle street politics says basically, hey, wait a minute. this man is as good as englishman as you are and i'll basically beat you if you don't leave him alone. the irony is that we now know that man was actually a french spy and he was gathering information for a planned invasion of new england and boston. throughout his career as governor, phips is dogged by charges of misbehavior, actually only borderline literate, as far as we can tell, and in 1694, be recalled to england to answer for alleged high crimes as

governor. a lot of stuff was trumped up, just a lot of stuff that we'll never get to the bottom of because unfortunately he dies of illness before he can defend himself before the king. so a sad story for a rather interesting character. but i just can't help reflect on william phips these days. so in conclusion, how could they be so dumb? people always ask me this. how could they believe in witches? how could they execute 19 innocent people? well, here's the problem, folks. as i said, witches were all too real in 1692, and their goal was to destroy our faith, our society, and the problem is, it is almost impossible to detect them. all right? mather, the leading minister of the colony, the top political

aid, interesting combination to governor phips, no division of church and state. that's another thing that started to happen after 1692, maybe the governor's top aids shouldn't be the ministers. maybe we need some space there. and in a book, it said it's hard to tell if someone someone is a witch or not. legally there's two ways you can convict somebody of witchcraft. signed confession or the testimony of two people saying that they have seen someone carrying out a malfeesant act of black magic in league with satan. since we all hope that that's not real, it's hard to get people to testify to that. so instead they start to lean on other evidence. you know, satan has got to be here somewhere, right? that's when we start looking at spec tral evidence, the fear in people. and finally mather says, you know what? enough is enough. people can't say this too loudly, but by the

fall of 1692, it's clear that at least some innocent people have been imprisoned if not executed. so mather puts it this way, better that a hundred witches should live than one innocent person should die. thus there are probably witches out there, we're never going to be able to figure out who they are. they're almost impossible to detect. witches can be anyone, families, friends, loved ones, neighbors, heck, ministers. i mentioned all the ministers and families accused. members of the general court, the massachusetts legislature who were accused. people didn't trust their politicians, didn't trust their ministers. they were angry, scared. anybody could be a witch. so what do you do? how do you fight this invisible threat, this invisible world? how do you stop them? i think we know the answer,

folks. if you swap witches in 1692 with terrorists today, you really probably understand the problem and realize how difficult it is to try to deal with a threat that we all know is alive and well and threatens us at the roots of everything we believe in, but how do we do it? particularly, how do we do it without giving up those cherished english liberties, right? to me it's the big issue that we have to deal with as a society today. but, of course, we don't believe in witches or witch hunts, do we? thank you very much. mrauz mrauz [ applause ] now i think i have maybe five, ten minutes to answer any questions. i'm going to be here all day, so i'll be glad to take them. if you want to go up and use the microphone so your voice can be heard.

>> what was the population of salem at the time? >> okay. the question was, what was the population of salem at that time? >> salem village danvers had maybe 500 or 600 people in it. the population of salem town itself here, sort of the neck of the rest of the community, maybe a couple thousand. so you're dealing with a population, very roughly, maybe about 2,500 people. when you think about that, population density is ridiculously low by our modern standards. other questions? yes. hang on. there's the mike. don't be shy. >> so i read that some of the folks who were accused were finally pardoned in the #50z and others in 2001. why did it take so long? >> the early ones were a general

reversal, against most of the people, but those only applied to those families who had requested them. and so maybe they didn't have a lot of close loved ones or maybe had been alienated from their families and didn't come forward and request that the names be exonerated. so there was another round in the 1950s where a man who was actually a relative, a descendant, asked that it be reversed and the document said ann patter and others. and one of my former grad students, paula keen in my witchcraft class said, professor baker, look at this. i don't think those other people's names have to be mentioned by name for it to count. there's five other people who haven't been named.

should i try to do something about it? and she reminds me i said at the time, well, crazier things have happened. but paula launched a one-woman campaign where she got our legislature involved, got our delegates involved, and actually got the last reversal of attainer which was signed on halloween 2001 by governor swift. i wish she hadn't done it on halloween because as we all know, there are no connections between witchcraft and halloween. so that's why it took so long. people kind of thought they had, but even then it took almost 20 years to get most of it reversed. any other questions? thank you all very much. [applause] thursday night we look at the life and legacy -- at 10 a.m. a discussion of election challenges facing states in the

midterms and beyond. then more live debates, west virginia senator joe mansion meeting republican candidate at 7 p.m. on c-span. in new york's 20th congressional district, republican incumbent tenny facing the democrat. larry kudlow on small business issues is live at 9:30. in the afternoon the focus is on minority voter turnout expected in the elections next week. president trump is in columbia, missouri, to campaign for republican candidates live at 7:30 p.m. our coverage of the u.s. policymakers conference continues on c-span3 at 1:30 following khashoggi's death, and impacting issues with oil prices. this weekend on american

history tv, saturday at 6 p.m. eastern on the civil war, historian peter carmichael talks about public reaction to photographs of the dead at the 1862 battle of antidem and the soldier's perspective by letters from home. >> it the people were chained by a strange spell that dwells in the dead, the eyes of dead men. he said this was a terrible fascination that these people had with death and he said that these photographs in the end, all that they really did was satisfy this morbid satisfaction. and arizona state university professor on the vietnam war in 1968. >> here is one of the most powerful presidents in american history that has transformed the country, for better or for worse, giving up power, the search for peace. that's pretty big. major step. and it all relates to

what? what's the issue? vietnam. and sunday at 8 p.m. eastern on the presidency, ronald reagan's attorney general edwin meese, talks about communeism and his relationship with pope john paul ii. >> you had two leaders, one in the secular world and one in the religious world with parallel interests. and when the interests are obvious as what happened in poland when they were under attack, if you will, then ronald reagan, particularly with his ideas about defeating commune nichl. >> the world war i centennial, american history airs every weekend on c-span3. >> between 1692 and 1693, men

and women suspected of witchcraft were jailed, put on trial and executed in salem, massachusetts. next margot burns talks about a book she wrote titled records of the salem witch hunt. people worked for ten years to complete the book, a chronological record from the trials, many transcribed by linguists. this is an hour and 20 minutes. >> welcome back. i'm tab baker. this should be a really interesting session. i'd like to introduce margot burns. she was one of the leading researchers of the salem witch hunt, and she has probably forgotten more about the original documents than i'll ever know. we asked