Where Can I Learn More About the Salem Witch Trials?

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Josh Hutchinson.
And I'm Sarah Jack, welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily YouTube
course. You're about to embark on
something unique. We've spent years researching
the Salem Witch Trials from primary sources, and now we're
bringing you the story day by day in a video course that
follows the actual timeline of the 1692 and 1693 history.

(00:25):
Each daily video is bite sized, just a few minutes covering what
happened on that day or exploring key topics that help
you understand the context. You can watch as we release them
or binge a full week at once. Here's what makes this
different. We've built a full course around
these videos that will grow yourexpertise.

(00:46):
Whether you want to just watch casually or dive deep with
assignments and activities, you can engage at whatever level
works for you. Every week we release Standard
Edition and Student Edition workbooks and A blog post on
aboutsalem.com. The blog recaps the week's
content and gives you the big picture.
The workbook is where the real learning happens if you want to

(01:09):
go deeper. The workbook has fill in the
blank summaries, reflection questions, vocabulary building,
quote, scavenger hunts, and fourweekly challenges.
You'll make predictions, practice citing evidence, write
character journals, and share what you've learned.
We also have a weekly podcast, The Thing About Salem, that

(01:31):
explores topics beyond the dailytimeline.
The workbook includes optional activities for the podcast.
Episode 2. As you progress, you are an
achievement. Badges you can share on social
media Start with Hashtag Salem Daily Student, track your weekly
progress with Hashtag Salem Week1, Hashtag Salem Week 2, and

(01:53):
work toward mid course badges like Salem Daily Researcher and
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And here's something special. If you're descended from someone
involved in the Salem Witch Trials like we are, we have a
parallel descendant track with its own badges and recognitions.
You can honor your family's connection while learning the

(02:13):
history. No matter when you're watching
this, you can start any time andwork at your own pace.
All the published videos, blogs and workbooks are always
available. We're releasing them weekly,
following the 1692 timeline during 2026 to 2027.
But you don't have to keep up. Go at your own speed.

(02:36):
Head to aboutsalem.com to download this week's workbook
and read the blog. All the resources, recommended
books, and ways to support this nonprofit work are linked there.
This is a 75 week journey covering all of 1692 and 1693.
Whether you're doing the full course or just following along,

(02:57):
you're part of the community exploring this history together.
So welcome. We're glad you're here.
Let's dive into the Salem Witch Trials together.
The Salem Witch trials produced at least 156 formal accusations,
30 convictions and 20 executions.
Some sources suggest accusers named more than 200 people as

(03:21):
witches, though not all were prosecuted.
It all started in mid January 1692 in the household of Salem
Village Minister Samuel Barris. His nine year old daughter
Betty, an 11 year old niece, Abigail Williams, began behaving
strangely. They barked like dogs, quacked
like ducks and flapped around like geese pretending to fly.

(03:45):
And doctors couldn't diagnose what was wrong.
And strangely as well, Betty andAbigail were the only ones in
the household of eight people toexhibit these symptoms.
The parents never got sick. Betty's siblings didn't get
sick. One of the enslaved individuals

(04:07):
in the household, John Indian, did eventually show symptoms,
but not right away. So this mysterious illness in
the minister's house would go onto spark a panic that consumed
the colony. And we have a lot of great
content coming up on future episodes of Salem Witch Trials

(04:28):
Daily. We'll be going into a lot of the
different factors that created the perfect storm that allowed
the witch trials to happen. You're going to learn about the
events as they unfolded. The daily videos follow the
chronological timetable of the witch hunt.

(04:52):
This helps to understand the scope of the witch trials and
the context of how and why they happened as they did.
You will experience the stories of the real people involved in
the trials. Are they your ancestors?
We'll investigate the unparalleled conviction rate in

(05:14):
the Salem Witch Trials. In 169227 out of 27 individuals
tried were convicted. We'll go through the records of
the Salem Witch Trials as they were created, the dates that the
events happened. We'll walk through all the legal

(05:34):
records, which the first document was February 29th.
The warrant for the arrest of Sarah Goode and the warrant for
Sarah Osborne and Tichibo was also that day.
And then the trials actually didn't start until June of 1692
and lasted all the way through May of 1693, an entire year of

(06:01):
trials. This isn't just a video series,
it's a comprehensive course research from primary sources by
Josh and I. And along with these videos,
students get weekly workbooks with activities, exercises and
challenges. We have the standard edition and

(06:22):
the student edition. So everyone can watch the daily
videos, they're available on YouTube, available on where you
get your podcasts. You can read the weekly blogs
and just follow along at your own pace.
There's no timetable to any of this course.

(06:44):
You aren't going to be graded. Whether you dive deep or follow
casually, you're welcome here. Reach out and tell us how it's
going with your learning. Here's a taste of Salem witch
trials daily. So we've been podcasting about
witch trials for about 3 1/2 years now, and people are always

(07:06):
asking what caused the witch trials, particularly the Salem
witch trials. Was it this ergot poisoning that
we hear about with the LSD like substance or did everybody catch
hysteria and just lose their minds?
We'll discuss some of the key reasons in today's episode of

(07:27):
Salem Witch Trials Daily. I'm Josh Hutchinson.
And I'm Sarah Jack. As of January 2nd, 1692, the
Salem Witch Trials were not yet underway, so we'll be bringing
you topical episodes until the action picks up.
To set the stage for when the trials do happen, here are five

(07:50):
of the most significant factors that led to these saga.
The belief in witchcraft was nearly universal.
Even trial critics did not refute the existence of witches.
Those defending accused witches believed in witchcraft.

(08:13):
They did. And I want to point out here
too, that this belief in witchcraft was not just limited
to people in Massachusetts. It wasn't limited to Puritans.
It was nearly universal in all of Europe at the time that this
was happening, regardless of which denomination the people

(08:35):
involved were then. The second factor that led to
the witch trials were contributed to the rise and
spread of the witch trials was war and the accompanying
sickness that came along with it.
King Philip's War had been fought in the 1670s and was the

(08:56):
deadliest war per capita in the history of what is now the
United States, and King William's War was now being
fought in 1690s, primarily in northern New England.
So that was the experience of those that were involved in
witch trials, these wars. These wars and King William's

(09:18):
war was when a large smallpox outbreak occurred, started with
soldiers who were trying to invade Quebec, and they came
home, hundreds of them sick withsmallpox.
And we'll see later down the road that that smallpox did
contribute to some witchcraft accusations.

(09:40):
Andover. And.
The economy is the third factor we're going to talk about.
Yeah, the economy was ravaged bycolonial debt because these wars
were so expensive. They literally had to start
printing money for the first time in Massachusetts to pay for

(10:05):
this debt. So the taxes were very high.
There's a high burden on the residents, and residents and the
colony itself had suffered direct financial losses heavily
due to these wars. You think about the destruction
of property, the loss of income.Loss really seems to contribute

(10:29):
to witchcraft accusations. Indeed, the 4th factor we want
to talk about today is social tensions.
Of course, you have the usual tensions between neighbors, but
these were heightened by the anxieties being felt at the
economically precarious time. It was a precarious time in

(10:52):
general for the colony. We'll talk about that more in
later episodes. Why?
The colony itself was on edge, and there were increased social
tensions because war refugees had moved to Massachusetts,
mostly to Essex County, which isthe northernmost county in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, and that's where Salem is.

(11:16):
So they had all this influx of people come down to Salem and
surrounding towns. The last factor that we're going
to touch on today is religious anxieties.
A feeling had been growing amongmany of the Massachusetts
ministers that the colony and its residents were backsliding

(11:40):
on Christianity, that they didn't have the faith of the
founders who had first settled in the 1620s and 30s.
That this generation, by 1692, it's the third generation of
people, some people are even 4thgenerations being born.
And the ministers just thought that these aren't the men that

(12:05):
founded this colony that we revered because their faith was
so strong. We feel like the faith is
crumbling away. So that was big source of
religious anxiety throughout thecolony.
And then locally in Salem Village, there was intense
controversy over the minister. For two decades, they squabbled

(12:28):
over who to be minister. Nobody lasted more than a few
years. And in 1692, Samuel Parris was
the minister. And it seemed like at least half
of the community was against him.
And these five factors that we've talked about today aren't
the only things that were contributing to fueling the

(12:51):
witch trials. There was this anxiety I alluded
to minute ago that was politicalin nature because the status of
the colony was up in the air. Salem Witch Trials Daily is
presented by The Thing About Salem and The Thing About Witch
Hunts podcasts.

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