onely to see you all today this day. my name is donna's the dark, chair of the history department here at salem state university. thank you all for coming today. we are all here, obviously, -- the of bridget bishop long hot summer and thaw of 1962. this is the 325th anniversary of those events. as a history professor, i am sometimes reticent to indulge in what i called "anniversary history," because i like my students to think every single day is historic. take adoes feel right to moment, take 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 of salem, kimberly jusco -- driscoll, i want to say thanks. at the end of the day, i will think all of the presenters, 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 th -- to hear my thanks, be also from the sale and, we have shelby hypes, who has a brief announcement to make about our special feature. descendent ofa someone connected to the trial and would like to dissipate and it brief informal video and have not signed up, i have the sheet. thanks. we also want to thank elizabeth peterson from the witch house. and my colleague pat baker, who will speak to you shortly, my colleague for a few more days and the salem state history department. without further do you, i would like to introduce the mayor of salem, kimberly driscoll, for brief opening remarks. [applause] thank you. and thank you to everyone who has attended. for those of us who live in salem, it feels like we have an itra response ability, and think this speaks to both the events that took place at that time and how much people still 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 our generations who pushed the boundaries to innovate and build a thriving community that values progress and growth, from the founders to the visionaries of the maritime tray that made salem famous. from the entrepreneurs who build our industrial manufacturing rays and to the workers in those boundaries, who pushed back when conditions were unfair or dangerous. from those who steadfastly rebuilt the city after the fire of 1914 to the preservationists who saved it from a different type of devastation during the urban renewal movement. and from the tragic lessons we learned collectively from 1692. it was on that day -- on this day in that year, 325 years ago that bridget bishop would become the first of many innocents to year.heir lives that earlier this week, we announced we would gather to dedicate our newest memorial to honor the memory of those unjustly accused in 1692. at noon, we will gather at proctor's ledge. 320 five years after the first of three mass executions took place at the site, when five individuals were hanged. sarah good, elizabeth powell, susannah martin, rebecca nurse, and 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, namely to never allow prejudice to conquer reason and fear to overcome courage. a salem is a special place, because we value that history. every person who lives here is an beauty with that history, whether that traces their lineage back generations or whether they are newly arrived. those of us living in salem feel it is our responsibility, 325 years later, that as he moved forward in a community, we do so reminds -- that we are so fortunate to have partners, those here at the symposium, looking forward to hearing ted and learning the work he has done, and professor vincent and her team here to make sure this important history is not lost on anyone in our community. tomorrow, we will join the salem to keepoundation again in mind these lessons. in our community and across the country, these are vital lessons that we need to make sure the next generation understands. it is places like salem that prides ourselves in our history while also having which is as our mascot and on the police car -- it is a balance. this part of history, it is important for us to pass on and to continue to fight the fear and hatred that can overcome a small community like salem or a country like the united states. so thank you for putting this together. [applause] mayor driscoll is an old friend of mine, so she is referring to me by my former name. [laughter] now i have embarrassed her. so without further undo, i want to introduce to you my colleague, emerson "tad" baker, who i think you all agree with salemthe expert on the witch trials, following the publication of his masterful book "a storm of witchcraft." we are so lucky to have him to .ive us an overview it takes a master of the craft to present an overview. i am really struggling -- he told me -- so hard to do an overview of the salem witch trials in an hour. i said, tell me about it. i have to do all of europe. [laughter] so i do not feel that sorry for him, really. [laughter] and i am sure he will do a great job. tad has been my colleague and friend over 20 years. probably well over 20 years, but let's call it 20 years. i am kind of sad to introduce him today, because i am hoping this is not his academic swansong. he is not dying -- not that bad pick he will become the interim dean of undergraduate studies here at salem state. [applause] hope, in that important position, he will have time to continue his studies. without further a do, tad. >> thanks, donna. you are being way too kind, there are soy, many experts on the salem witch trials. i never could have done my work without their work. honestly, it is wonderful that some of them could be here today. and you will hear from them as well. so how do we do this in an hour? i want to explore a couple of general points but also a couple of themes. i really want to talk about politics and religion, which i think are overlooked aspects of the witch trials, which seems hard to believe, considering witchcraft is a religious crime. but we will keep circling back to that point, because i think it is incredibly relevant, frankly, today. at the same time, i would like to start out by pointing out salem is far from unique. almost every culture under the sun, past, present, and unfortunately future, has their versions of which has -- witch hunts, witches. donna, you are right. you do have a lot more witches to deal with in europe. [laughter] [applause] there were no witches, you are right. but when you're writing a book, you cannot constantly put everything in quotes. but i will refer to people asw, but please assume i am doing this -- accused of being witches . during the great age of witch one third ofpe, people are accused, and about half of them are executed. so we do not know all of those. in the biggest outbreak in cologne, 2000 people died. so salem is not the biggest and certainly not the last. in fact, yes, some would say we are still having witchhunts. [laughter] they are in the news pretty much every day. you know, all politicians forever refer to salem and witchhunts through the first reference making fun of salem for the witchhunts was published in london in 1697. it has not stopped since. --they say, every politician last year, it was the benghazi witchhunts, for example. it is a frame of reference. we all know it is synonymous for salem, in many ways. here is the thing -- in salem, we have this thing that is by far the farthest -- largest outbreak of witchcraft in an mechanistically. at least 172 people are accused of witchcraft. there could be more -- we do not know. we have almost 1000 surviving documents from the salem trials. one reason we know so much about salem is it is so well documented. there are athat, lot of documents that do not survive. we know 156 people have legal seedings that do survive. we know that 19 were executed, starting on this day in 1692. at least five died in jail. they may have been a sixth. we are not certain. by european standards, this is unfortunately a fly speck. one of the people who died in jail was a distant relative of mine. i the same time, to hang 19 for witchcraft was a far too common and then. that raised the question of why isn't cologne a witch city? you would not even know the fact there are witch trials there. why is salem in salem alone synonymous with witchhunts, with scapegoating, rushing to judgment, fanaticism, extremism? why salem? so i want to explore that a little bit and talk about how we try to explain the events of 6092 and how do we explain witchhunts and maybe talk about those factors, particularly the religious and political factors past,ead to witchhunts present, and, unfortunately, future. unique place in american history. that was cemented long before the witch trials. salem is one of the first settlement in new england. it is originally the fishing mteague.of na the settlers here changed the name to jerusalem, or salem, as it is shortened, for city of peace. from the start, it is meant to be this beautiful christian place, this holy city. john winthrop arrives in 1630, first coming into salem. because salem is older then boston. salem is the first settlement of the colony. starts. where it all sometime in that process of sailing over, or arrival shortly afterwards, winter gives us this gives thisinthrop famous sermon, with in it has the words "we shall be as a city upon a hill and the eys of the world are upon us." ways, salem is that city on a hill. metaphorically, physically, this is it. this is 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 live in peace and harmony. i think that is maybe part of the answer as to why we remember the salem witch trials and why we will never forget that. fall of this tremendous from grace, this idea of 1630, , while people were still alive, who heard winthrop give that sermon -- daughters accusing mothers, neighbors accusing neighbors, of being witches. witch the surgeon experiment is being torn apart. i think that is a trauma we never recovered from. it is a turning point in american history. in some ways, i see this as the beginning of the end of puritanism in new england and the beginning of something much deeper -- our distrust of government. if you think last year's elections were an indication of something new in america, i would tell you it is a very old impulse, this libertarian antigovernment streak that manifests itself again. it begins with 1692, with a massive failure of the government to protect the lives of the innocent, then to try to cover up the fact. people refuse to let it be forgotten. descendents of the victims petitioned the messages -- massachusetts legislature the next 50 years, seeking pardons for the victims. people here have never forgotten that and never will. so what caused it? shameless plug for my book -- [laughter] i call my book "a storm of witchcraft" because it really took a perfect storm of forces to create even what was, in america, a large outbreak of witchcraft. to have something horrible happened, many things need to come together. in this case, there are a lot of factors. i want to run through them briefly. them, colony wide political instability, the perceived decline of puritanism, the worst extreme weather of a little ice age, economic failure, military disaster -- if it sounds like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, it is close. this went -- this was a grim time for the people to go through. a large part, the focus of action begins in just one part of that colony, and that is salem village. salem village is now actually the town of danvers, but in 1692 it was part of, shall we say, a supersized salem, which includes a number of present-day towns. salem, peabody, danvers -- a huge area where people could be up to 12 miles away from the meeting house and be expected to attend worship in what is now downtown salem on the sabbath. ironically, on the lord's day of rest, you are expected to spend half a 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 their independence and hire their own minister, to break off from salem. salem had allowed a number of communities to do this, including beverly, windham, manchester. but they were reluctant to let salem village go for a number of reasons. finally, in 1672, salem village is granted parish status. quasi-freedom. they can use their tax money to hire a minister, but they do not have political control over the community. that create all sorts of trouble and factions. why -- by 1692, they are on their fourth minister in 20 years. and that is reverence in a paris, very contentious figure who is at the heart of the problems in salem village. he certainly does nothing to improve the situation. the story of salem village and reverend parris is probably most beautifully told in the pathbreaking book published in 1974, "salem possessed." here is a rare photograph from the dust jacket, when they were young historians going out to conquer the world. they really looked at the minutia in salem village and looked at the religious and social conflict in the community. having said that, with all due respect to these amazing offers in fact, one of the facts that people do not realize is there were more people from neighboring andover accused that either salem or salem village. this is a broader issue. it is not just salem village. salem is the epicenter of the witch trials but they spread out widely. why didn't they do it? because of all of these factors and instability. this goes back to the early 16 80's when massachusetts bay loses its charter, the charter of 1629 that the grace of them self government and the right to run as a puritan colony, to make massachusetts bay and religious place, a place for the true believers, the puritans and honestly, really for nobody else. this is religious freedom for them. when they lose this charter and it is revoked, the trouble begins. we have the following, several years of turmoil. the dominion of new england under edmund andros, almost military like role where citizens lose freedom and toleration of faith is enforced which we think is great what the puritans were not big fans of. edmund andros is overthrown and replaced by the interim government of simon bradstreet was -- which is weak and ineffective. are coming92, people from england with a new charter and almost the day he arrives is the day the afflictions begin to grow and multiply in salem village because people are nervous about what it all means. all of these things are seen as signed by puritans as a sign of god's displeasure. everything in the 17th century is a sign of god dysplasia -- a displeasure. part of amed a feeling of spiritual decline in the company and at idea that something is truly wrong. abouty, let's talk and i will not spend too much time on this, from great. miller and other historians. essentially, a thought from the second half that they had strayed and they have left the straight and narrow path. miller the great perry and other historians. to joinople are willing the church and everybody must attend worship but only those sites are members of the church, the church is a spiritual body of people and not a building in new england in the 17th century. fewer members of the second and third generations are joined. an increasingly worldliness in massachusetts bay, a victim of its own success, an important economic engine where the lumber and fishing is shipped by ships built here and is part of that economy that brings riches to the england and also deeply embedded in the whole slave system as well. the perceived threats from outsiders, particularly quakers and other religious groups and we could spend as a whole day talking about quakers. my grad course will probably talk a week about quakers. to the puritans, it was all too real. and more taverns and less bible reading in the colony and the ministers were preaching the fire and brimstone jeremiah sermons saying 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 and has been unleashed by god and of to us to fight that. -- fight back. inis evidence of the turmoil 1692 recognize there are five ministers who are at least cried out upon for witchcraft and only one has charges and that is charles burroughs. are criedfar more who out upon, four other ministers. in total, there are 50 ministers and extended members who are cried out upon for witchcraft informally accused. the peoplest 1/3 of accuse. most of these ministers are ministers who have accepted the covenant which some puritan hardliners see as a watchering down. the point is people were really upsetual in turmoil and and angry and to some degree's with their ministers and the authorities of the politicians ruling and you see that in those patterns of accusation. to make it worse, economic factors and military sectors are adding to the downfall of the colony and science of god's displeasure. talking about the worst weather of the little ice age, it means the most extreme, rapid changes, hot, dry summers, horrible, legal winters. early frost, crop destruction, famine, storms of biblical proportions. frankly, like we know today, climate change is not just whether getting colder or hotter it is extreme. noted,gang barringer has it is when you have these extreme fluctuations in weather and bad weather and famine, that is when you have witch hunt. remember that as we think about extreme fluctuations in weather we see today. , there's also military disaster at the same time, a horrible war on the frontier where the english puritans are losing to the french and the native americans in a war known as king william's war. it is not just a military and political strategy but cast in a political terms of because the french are catholic, the hated enemies of the appearance is an native americans who for the most part are pagans. it seems like the agents of satan, excuse me, that is the way the puritans would have seen it. they are going to destroy the puritan experiment. those attacks take place in the 16 90's as close as andover. as close as andover. it is hard to imagine the liberty tree mall on the cutting edge of the frontier. [laughter] they were. watch out. [laughter] someone from pittsburgh, i can endorse in that. result of all of this is inflation, high taxes, economic failure and a lot of really scared i'm a angry people. -- scared, angry people. how does it translate into accusations? it is complicated and if you want a semester long version, you are not going to get that today but we will touch on a few salient points. it is a perfect storm, it is lots of different factors. we are not entirely sure but the most important answer is what was wrong with the people was they were bewitched. the good 17th century as one nation is the people were bewitched. it is hard for us to wrap around heads and accept it. witchcraft was real in the 17th century. every body, learned theologians, governors, kings, emperors new -- knew witchcraft was real. the hard part was how do you prove somebody is a witch? that is the tough part. again, i amnk and not the first to come up with this. most of what i am talking about has been said before by the historians who have studied is this. people like mary beth norton and i can spend the next hour talking about the different works. one factor seems to be what is known as mass conversion disorder which traditionally whatever you known as masses to rip which is really -- his stereo which is out -- hysteria, which is out of fashion. it is controversial and hard to diagnose even today and hard to play psychiatrist, which i am not, looking at the with 300 years ago. here is the thing. to understand what mass conversion disorder is, in your mind, it is so stressed and in so much turmoil that your mind unbeknownst to your body converts the stress into physical symptoms. we are not talking about people acting out. we are not talking about people faking their symptoms. we're talking about people terrified because they do not understand what their bodies are doing and why they are shrieking, welling him of deaf, goingblind -- wailing, deaf, dumb and blind. and worrying makes you worse. doctors now know that the most prevailing population by far our adolescent and a teenage girls. at least 70%-80% of the victims, having 2 daughters safely into to this. i can relate i wouldn't not want to be a teenage girl in america today and i can imagine it much have been much worse in the 17th century. enough, mass conversion disorder usually starts with high status teenage girls. a very famous case was in new york started out with cheerleaders, usually at or near the top of the pecking order. in 1692, who was the first to become a selected? the nice and daughter of the -- niece and daughter of the pastor. his doctors are the most important kids in the village and have the highest status so no surprise and they may be the ones to suffer from this particularly when you're angry father is marching around, storming around the parsonage giving fire and brimstone sermons convinced satan is in the midst, terrifying his children to death having to the attention to do so. i think that explains some of the initial folks who are afflicted of 1692. to the broader point, a lot of people who make out -- accusations and who are accused. i wanted to point out that witchcraft as much if you know is a gendered crime. historically, about 70% of people accused of witchcraft throughout history have been women. it is an even higher percentage, 76%, even stronger correlation to women when you realize that most of the men who are accused our family members, relatives, friends or defenders of women who were accused of witchcraft. in fact in 1692, the overwhelming majority of people who were afflicted are women, mostly the girls, the afflicted girls. it is more than that. most of them are teenagers and some in their early 20's. there are a couple of adult women in their late 30's, early 40's and at least 2 men. the slave of reverend parris and judge jonathan corwin's son. and an actual really odd pretrial hearing where the judge is saying to one of the afflicted, one of the accused, why did you afflict judge corwin's son? that tells you a different legal situation we had. having said that, it is the things you see on the specials on salem, the girls writhing on the floor which is overdramatic. in fact, most of the accusations , the more traditional accusations of witchcraft by men, by women testifying to the magic, the ability to harm people causing livestock to die, cows to stop producing the milk, run-of-the-mill things is that of debt instead of signing a covenant with satan -- instead of signing a covenant with satan. it was not just girls and the people making accusations, close to two hundred people who end up making some kind of complaint or testifying in some way. is a broad circle and people have lots of things to complain about. -- it is a broad circle and people have lots of things to complain about. the afflicted young ladies, they for the most part led tough, stressful lives. 20's, manyers, early of them are household servants. ware a few of them are refugees from the war taking place on the northern frontier in maine and new hampshire. some of them are orphans so they have suffered a lot of trauma in their family. you can see where this would put them not in the best frame of mind. the example i like it took about his mercy short. she is taken captive in a 1690 which destroys -- which is maine. and her parents are killed by native americans and french on the raid. shi'ism other neighborhood kids are marched to quebec and forced to confront to catholicism and she will be redeemed and afflicted by witchcraft. when she is canceled by kind counseled byu -- cotton mather, she says she is tempted by satan and the shape of a tawny man like an indian. clearly, she is reliving these moments when her life had been almost destroyed when she lost everything that she knew and ofcy short is a classic case what we would consider posttraumatic stress disorder. anybody who lived on the frontier in this time period probably suffered it the rest of their lives. there is another factor that comes into play particularly and many of these afflicted girls were traumatized in one way or another. if you look at the testimony of 1692, it seems clear to me that they have gone through verbal and if not physical abuse. yes, you might even be up to make the case that would suggest sexual abuse was possible in at least one case. impossible, we will never be able to prove it. the evidence is kind of tantalizing. if you look at the meddle who were accused of witchcraft, most of them have histories of violence. -- men for cues of witchcraft, most of them have histories of violence. beating the are afflicted girls, torturing them. these factors, not much of a spec thethese masters of the servant girlsters, are carrying out is the girls. it physical violence by head of the household against children or service not uncommon. there was more latitude certainly than today. it sounds like if you are a teenage servant in a household you are an orphan or a war refugee, you probably cannot do much to protect yourself. not to a master but husbands are problems. john willard who was executed, his testimony really was him beating his wife and perhaps one reason why his wife's family testifies against him. jordan burroughs, the famous minister accused an executor for wivesraft, he had lost 2 and that was not uncommon, but talked to theosts afflicted girls and said george murdered them. she is known for tremendous strength and for synchronous controlling waste -- he is known for tremendous strength and secretive ways. very strange fellow and maybe we are seeing some shades of his domestic relationship in these accusations. or take the famous man who is pressed to death. a lot of people have a lot sympathy for giles, and 80 euros man crushed to death -- 18-year-old man crushed to death. i do not have as much sympathy. he was not that nice of a guy and is accused of being an arsonist trying to set fire to his neighbors house and most hideous is is 1675 he severely beat his young, simpleminded servant to death, a boy named jacob goodell. in fact, he is find for manslaughter. they cannot proved that he murdered him. people remember this, i assure you. there was a goodell woman that was afflicted and said bad things about giles. in 1692, giles corey beat the girls with his crutch. makes one wonder about what is going on. from the crucible, john proctor did not have a sexual relationship with the young 10 year old abigail williams and she was not a household servant. and margo will tell you about the crucible that is not good history -- is that is not only good history but a good play. he did have a servant who was one of the afflicted. john was not happy with her inflictions and he publicly admit it to crushing the devil out of her to stop her afflictions. r murton's memory with to fire tongs and he admits burning her. and he called mary his jade. a worker not far from removed from sexual dalliance or even hooker. in aging the man whose young wife is pregnant in a large family and not the kind of term of endearment that you give to your serving girl. there is a really interesting bit of testimony were mary is testifying against a proctor and talks about his specter. at one point, it approaches are and mary said she grabs at the specter and pulls his specter into her lap. again, you can never prove anything, but it does make you feel kind of icky and make you wonder what is going on. , abuse, wartsd hysteria, clearly, that does not explain it all. certainly, there are fraudulent accusations, probably a lot more than we would like to admit especially from young people who would like -- like to think are not capable of lying especially if you do that, you know you will be condemned to an eternity in hell if you are a good p written. it's clearly, clearly happened. -- if you are a good puritan. what did not cause it? no, ergot poisoning was not responsible for puritan witch trials. if you do not know, the idea that was put forward in the early 1970's, they hit the divvy 1970's, youy lsd can stop there. is adea of this that there natural mold that can grow supplies of rye grain used to make bread, when it is mold grows, if you consume it, in just it, it is poisonous, it can harm you. ergot isese type of hallucinogenic type trips. it is adjusting to the afflicted girls were having a bad trip. -- it is suggesting the afflicted girls were having a bad trip. this very which is a vampire that refuses to die, it keeps on coming back even though it was debunked within weeks and has byir regularly debunked scholars ever since. here's the basic problem, the problem with ergot, we are looking for simple solutions for our society like to take, please doctor, give me one peel and with pure -- pill and would cure everything. unfortunately, life is not that simple. history is not that simple either. the problem with her got from a grain supply point of view, not out of the afflicted girls live in the same place, they live miles apart. some live in andover as some in summit inand a boston. not talking about one bad grain supply. and if everybody is eating from it, why isn't everybody becomes afflicted? why maybe one or two members? it does not make sense from a pattern. these are accusations and charges made through much of massachusetts bay colony. doctors tell us there's different types of ergot and one i am necrotizing, more like, the type of ergot, the early -- and the only type of ergot that causes side effects is basically like a dry gangrene where your arms and legs shrivel, blackened, fall off and you die. no one described anything like that in 1692. as far as we can tell, as strange as it may be, most of the afflicted girls seem to have led long, normal lives, maybe? nobody walking around as for triple amputees, it would've been kind of weird to walk around. never. i did not mean that pretty you know what -- i deny me that. talkingnow what i'm about. i do not believe in encephalitis or lyme disease or other medical issues. is it possible maybe one or two had to these? absolutely. 17th century medicine is different but does not explain the whole outbreak. the other thing i want to say is , wasn't it to get their land? four people accused by their neighbors who were jealous by friends who wanted their property? if you accuse somebody of witchcraft, you got their stuff. sounds good but not true. there is, there's a kernel of truth here. in 1692, for the one time in massachusetts history, legal convertedssachusetts to english law which includes a provision that a felon's personal possessions were seized became property of the state that includes your clothes, your cash, your livestock. furniture. but, houses, real estate, all eirs if youo your h are executed so you never lose your property. and even if your personal possessions are taken, guess what, the government is the recipient of your property, no one else. there is no finders fee. it does not mean to say that jealous neighbors cannot accuse people of witchcraft but not to profit. let's shoot that one down. again, i really sort of, generations of historians have viewed the table which trials -- a salem witch trials as a social crime. what lookedo others at witchcraft have been social historians. ivs people and was a young, new social historians in the 1970's and now i like the old social history which has morphed into the cultural history which is becoming maybe the old cultural history. most historians studying witchcraft in america have looked at it as a ocean run of neighbor accusing neighbor and a looking at the psychology behind the accusations and the tensions in the community. wantedme, in my book, i to look at the judges for maybe it is the fact i'm the first member born since the civil war .ot to join the family law firm for the lawyer one of the, i really thought it had not been explored for to me, you can have as many people accused of witchcraft as possible and to juries convict even, but why do judges sane, rational working under english law, that frankly is not all that different from what we have today? basic forms of testimonial witnesses. english justices, usually pretty fair justice where you were innocent until proven guilty. why do experienced men who have seen witchcraft trials before, why are they excepting convictions and signing death warrants? was was the piece i interested in and i would like to study this as a political crime and as a political crisis as much as anything else, recognizing that political crisis is hand-in-hand in appearance and colony with religion as well. i was intrigued to look at the judges and find out why they turned legal president on its head? by that, i mean, before 1692, if you were -- if you confessed to witchcraft, and that's usually after judicial torture, you were executed. we know that judicial torture was used in salem homage on proctor writes to the mentors complaining that his son and the carrier boys are being tied. neckheels are tied to your a you are hung upside down until blood gushes out of your nose. it won't kill you, but you know what, you think it will. and some ways, it was a form of waterboarding. and loosens the tongue. good god, maybe i am a witch after all my you are right, let's reconsider this. there was some of this going on in salem. traditionally, what happened was trial, confessed, sentence, execution within days. explain to me why and 1692, only those who refused to confess are convicted and executed? there are a few at the end who confessed that were tried and convicted at the very end but for the most part, people plead innocent and are eventually led to their deaths. meanwhile, 55 people, about over 1/3 of the people accused confessed. none of them die. that to me is the ultimate tragedy of salem, the fact that only those who were sold about that the refused to lie and say they were a witch because they knew it would be a stain on their mortal soul and other family, they refused to do it. only the truly, truly innocent died and that is the ultimate tragedy of bridget bishop and everybody else. so, why? why would the judges do this? the nine judges, i started looking, they had a lot in common. they are the wealthiest merchants, members of the government counsel, hand-picked do so. they are the leading politicians, the state senate. they are also superior court judges and county judges. a majority of them had attended harvard, at one point traced to be ministers, these are learned men. in 1692, none of them followed the path. ,hey are major landholders sawmill owners, most of them had their sawmills burned and learned -- a lost woman to be millions of dollars in investments. -- and what would be today lost millions of dollars in investments. most of them are officers in the militia. winthrop is a witchcraft judge and commander-in-chief of the massachusetts army that is badly losing the struggle against the french and the native americans. here is the thing. these men who are calling for moral reformation through the colony have to be looking for somebody to blame for the events of 1692. let's blame the government. oh, wait, that is left. let's blame the military. that is us. as dana carvey says, could it be satan? [laughter] here is the problem. if you think about it, on the surface, it is funny. human nature is a lot easier to look away, look outside to find the guilty, to find the blame from her problems rather than look within. unfortunately, these judges are seeing which is everywhere and they know satan has been set to lose by all of the things that have gone wrong and gotten to the colony and the personally. they are hanging the judges. they are also family. i determined six of the nine are actually all related by marriage. and one of the ones who is not, samuel school, make -- sewell, maybe the most honest, his wife is the cousin of parris. these are a group, they acted together. they are deferential towards one another. when one says guilty, there will not be any dissent because of that acai family, class, personal, business and military ties. it is these conditions that make the judges personal guilt. that pursue guilt part you have -- pursue guilt. -- hs hate or occur when, thorennd corwin -- hey -- why do you harm these children? it's it does not sound like an english justice i would want to be a part of. in other years, it would not have been like this for there were no lawyers in massachusetts, they were outlawed until the early 18th century. the judges really acted as prosecution and defense attorney trying to figure out the truth and normally that worked well. and this case, something had gone badly awry and this whole storm of witchcraft, this perfect storm of factors that it through the judges off of their normal behavior. many had been involved in witchcraft cases earlier that have been dismissed. things had changed in massachusetts. back, thesegh, come are all issues of religion and politics. that means we need to look at the leadership. , in ae, if you will distant galaxy, a powerful political leader who comes to office lacking any political experience whatsoever -- [laughter] as a young man, he comes to the big city to the economic center of the universe to make his fortune. he becomes one of the richest man in america by taking big risk, winning and losing, making good deals, breaking deals. incredibly famous, huge personality, larger than life. he has a lead conversion to his political cause only shortly before seeking high office. makes many members of his party suspicious of his motive. but he champions the cause of the working class is incredibly popular for that and a help to really launch him to office. stylen office, his admittedly makes people nervous even before he takes office when they know of his coming office. because he is a nonconventional communicator and does not really play by the rules. in fact, because of that, he immediately gets himself embroiled in legal issues. he shows a rational support of the mortal enemies of the state which also scares people. when you havely, lots of questions about authority, you have the cry of witch hunt. people are worried. people are looking for witches. by this time, i know you realize who i am talking about as speaking gus or william, the governor of them -- speaking of girls -- sir william, the governor who was announced at which point the afflictions were announced, people were terrified and the afflictions were full-blown. i happen to knows or william really well. -- i have to knows or william really well. i got it drawn into salem's web. sir william wasn't the first to -- -- salvage a spanish treasure galleon. it was his second try to do this. he went belly up before this trying to do it, he was a survivor. when he does, he goes back to england and is knighted and the first englishman to be knighted, and american englishmen are he he comes back to massachusetts bay and arguably the most famous englishman in america. he probably did not have to come back area he could've stayed in english -- in england. he was that famous and that wealthy. 6092 -- inme and 1692. after that, the trouble begins. that's amazing governor during the salem witch trials -- that makes him governor doing the salem witch trials. he ends them only after 19 are dead and after his wife is accused. he wrote a letter that to the crown and that, gosh, this is was also fighting against the french and indians in maine and when i came back i saw the horrible things deputy governor's doubts had done 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. he was covering himself as best he could. mess with the french. one of his successes is a military man and 6090, he leaves in 1690 and invades arcadia and captures it. they do not have enough people and he frees the french for -- french. what is governor in 1692, he defends the french in arcadia and welcomed them as emerges and traders to the waterfront of boston. other people are like, really, sir william, really, we're are at war with these people, really? he runs across one day in boston where one of these french ready -- emerges is given a hard time. for who was known for is open, so does a former expressions and bareknuckle street politics basically says, wait a second, this man is as good an englishman as you are and i will basically beat you if you do not leave him alone. the irony is we know that man was a french spy. eddie was gathering information for a planned invasion. throughout his career as governor, he is docked by charges of misbehavior. almost borderline literate from what we could tell. be called towould england to be tried for high crimes as governor, a lot of stuff trumped up that will never get to the bottom of because he dies in london of illness before he can defend himself before the king. rather a sad story to an interesting character, i cannot help but reflect on william fitz these days. [laughter] conclusion, how could they be so dumb? people believe that. how could they believe in witches? how can they execute 19 innocent people? here is the problem. as i said, which is where all too real in 16 -- witches were all too real in 1692 and our goal was to destroy our faith, our society and the problem is it is almost impossible to detect them. increased -- the leading minister the top political aide to the governor, no division of government and church says that also happens after 1692. maybe people said that there hers writes a book calling for the end and said it's hard to know if somebody is a which are not part legally, there are only two ways that you can convince people, a signed confession or testimony of 2 people saying they have seen somebody carry out a malfeasance at a black major -- black magic. since we all agree, i hope, it is not real, it's hard to people to testify to that. they tried to lean on other evident. satan is got to be here some desert somewhere. spirits of people harming people in the overreliance on that in salem and mathers says, enough is enough. people cannot say it but in the fall, some innocent people have been imprisoned, if not executed. you cannot say that because it will bring down the whole state but it's becoming clear. mathers put it this way, he's is better than 100 witches should live in one and said people should die. yes, they're probably witches out of their and we can never figure out who they are. there almost impossible to detect. they can be in one. ministers. i much at of the ministers were accused as several members of the general court -- i mentioned the ministers who were accused. people did not trust the politicians, their ministers, they were angry, they were scared. anybody could be a witch. what do you do? how do you fight this invisible threat this invisible world? how to stop them? i think we know the answer. if you swap which is in 1692 with terrorists today, you understand the problem and realize how difficult it is to try to deal with a threat we all know is alive and well and threatens us at the roots of everything we believe in. but how do we do it? how do we do it without the giving of those cherished english liberties? to me, it is the big issue we have to deal with as society today. of course, we do not believe in witches or witch hunts, do we? thank you very much. [applause] >> now, i think i have five or 10 minute to answer any questions for i will be here all day so i will be glad to take them. if you want to use the microphone so your voice can be heard. all right. >> what was the population of salem? professor baker: question on what was the population of same at that time? salem village probably had 500 or 600 people in it. the population of salem town itself here, the rest of the community maybe a couple thousand, a population of around 2500 people. if you think about that population visiting, it is ridiculously low by our modern standards. other questions? there is the microphone coming to you. do not be shy. the folksthat some of who were accused were finally 2001, whynd others in didn't they take so long? professor baker: the first pardons was called technically a reversal in 1711 against most of the people. when the laws were put in place only applied to the families who had requested them. and so, there were a lot of people who did not do have a lot of close loved ones or who had been alienated and their families were not willing to come forward. in fact, another round in the 1950's aware a man -- where a man who was a relative descendent made request that the remaining which is, if you will -- witches, if you will, have it reversed and the documents said and others. and one of my former grad students, paula deen, said a footnote, professor baker, look at a desk, i do not think the other people by massachusetts law, your name has to be mentioned for it to count and i do not think, there were five people who did not have the reversals. what should i do? should i do? i said, well, crazier things have happened but paula launched a one-woman campaign where she got our legislature involved and our delegates involved in actually got the last reversal which was signed on halloween 2001 by governor swift. i applaud governor swift and i wish she had not come to salem on halloween to do it and we all know there is connection between witchcraft and halloween. people thought they had but even then it took almost 20 years to get most of the containers reversed. great. thank you all very much. [applause] on american history tv on c-span3, we will look at 2 u.s. presidents. jennifer kennedy's life and photos -- john f. kennedy's lives in photos are chronicled the life of the 35th president. >> the wonderful thing about the kennedys is they never pushed photographers or writers away. as do not care how they were photographed or whether the tie was fixed or the cold was on, this or that. -- coat was on. they knew if they mated themselves accessible, they would be published and there was a groundswell. theuestion about it that media coverage of jfk was the first time we had ever seen anything like it. announcer: followed by looking at ronald reagan's relationship with pope john paul ii. >> john paul ii has said would reagan was announcing i am praying for you and now reagan sent a cable to the vatican i am praying for you. they give love the world was exclusive mutual prayer society. as for moscow, if they are worried about a kinship between the pope and the president, now, they have to really were real about it. tv,uncer: american history all weekend, every weekend on spanned three full -- c-span3. sunday on q&a, mark boughton of thebout his book one longest and bloodiest battles of the vietnam war. >> the battle shocked me because the tyga military command was so out of touch with the reality of what was happening in the streets that they got a lot of young americans killed because general westmoreland denied that the city had been taken and was a fat and he continued to deny it for the entire time -- and denied it for the entire time. we could never have conceived the sheer number of enemy forces that were in the city. small units of marines and troopers were being ordered to attack positions that were held by overwhelmingly superior enemy forces in entrenched positions. announcer: on c-span's q&a. on september 19, 1989, a bomb planted by libyan ages 6 -- agents exploded on uta flight 772 and the crash killed all people including seven americans. up next, attorney stuart newberger talks about his book, "the forgotten flight: terrorism, diplomacy and the pursuit of justice." he represented the families of the seven american victims and is thus is the case against the libyans date. this was hosted by the woodrow wilson center. is not onlywberger a renowned litigator. he is also a detective. i concluded as i met with him and he is a fellow member of the wilson council here, a very prestigious group, that this man has an antenna which works counter factually to find things none of us can find. today's story of finding things none of us can find is the story of an aircraft, a french uta flight 772 which went down