I thank you all for coming today. We are all here, obviously, because of rigid ship. The long hot summer and early fall of 1692. As a history professor, i am inetimes reticent to indulge anniversary history because i like my students to think that every single day is historic. To take as feel right moment, take it day and really think about what happened. That is what we are doing today. That is with the city of salem is going to be doing all summer long. Before i introduce our distinguished guest who will , i want to symposium say thanks before i forget to thank everybody. While we are wrapping up this day am going to think all of the presenters contributions. 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 Award Foundation we have shelby, who has a brief announcement to make about our special feature. [indiscernible] and would like to participate in a brief informal video interview , i have the sheet. Please see me, tanks. We want to thank Elizabeth Peterson from the witch house and my colleague, who will be speaking to you shortly. Without frederick do i would like to introduce the mayor of salem for a brief opening remark. [applause] whosnk you to everyone attending. For those of us who live in salem it feels like you have an extra responsibility. Indeed i think it speaks to both the events that took place and how much people reflect on them today. 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. From the settlers who laid out foundations to the visionaries of the maritime trade. From the entrepreneurs who built our industrial Manufacturing Base and the factories who pushed back when conditions were unfair or dangerous. For those who rebuild the city after the devastating fire of 1914 to the preservation who saved it from a different kind of devastation. Frome learn collectively the tragic lessons of 1692. The editor five years ago to the day that they would become the first of many innocents to lose their lives that here. We officially announce we will gather to dedicate our newest memorial to honor the memory of those who were unjustly executed. At noon we will gather at proctors ledge, the site of the execution to dedicate a memorial on that site. 325 years after the first of three mass executions when five individuals were hanging. I hope many of you in this room 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 let prejudice overcome reason. Salem is a special place because we value that history. Every person who lives here is imbued with that history. And whether or not their family traces their lineage back generations or whether they were newly arrived, we yielded his our responsibility 325 years later to ensure we move forward as a community. We do so in a way that reminds us all of the witch trials. We are so fortunate to have symposium,oth at the looking for to hearing ted again and all the work he has done. Sure thisuing to make important history is not lost on anybody in our community. Tomorrow we will be fortunate to join to be joined by members of the to keep in mind these lessons. In our community and across these countries across this country these are vital lessons we need to make sure this generation here is. While also having which is as a mask at mascot and on our police car. I think this part of this important tos remember and to pass on to the next generation to continue to fight. The fear and the hatred that can overcome a Small Community like salem or a large country like the united states. Thank you to professor vinson and her team for putting this together. [laughter] [applause] the mayor is an old friend of mine. She is referring to me by a former name and now i have embarrassed her. I want to introduce you to my colleague, emerson had baker, who i think you will all agree with me is the expert on the salem witch trials, following of his masterful book a storm of witchcraft. We are so lucky to have him give us an overview. It takes a real master of the craft be able to present an overview. He told me it is just so hard to do an overview of the salem witch trial in an hour. I said tell me about it, i have to do all of europe. [laughter] so i dont feel that sorry for him, really. [laughter] and im sure he will do a great job. Colleague and friend for almost 20 years. Lets call it 20 years. Im sad to introduce him today because i hope this is not his academic swansong. O he is not dying i hope, in that important position, he will have time to scholarship because he is our expert. Without further ado, tad. Thanks, donna. You are being way too kind, because really, there are so 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. Trials are by their very definition a political act. 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 witch hunts, witches. We have to look not further,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 youre writing a book, you cannot constantly put everything in quotes. But i will refer to people as witches, but please assume i am doing this accused of being witches. During the great age of witchhunts in europe, one third 100,000 people are accused, and about half of them are executed. We cannot know all of the name. In the biggest outbreak in cologne, 2000 people died. They continue into the 18th manyry and in hungary, people died from being accused of witchcraft. 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. The first reference making fun of salem for the witchhunts was published in london in 1697. It has not stopped since. As 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 largest outbreak of rich witchcraft in American History. 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. Having said that, there are a lot of documents that do not survive. We know 156 people have Legal Proceedings that do survive. We know that 19 were executed, starting on this day in 1692. One pressed to death and at least five died in jail. There 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. At the same time, to hang 19 people for witchcraft was a far too common event. That raised the question of why isnt cologne a witch city . Lovely cathedral, nice people. You would not even know the fact there are witch trials there. Why is salem, and 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 1692 and how do we explain witchhunts and maybe talk about those factors, particularly the religious and political factors that lead to witchhunts past, present, and, unfortunately, future. Salem has a unique place in American History. That was cemented long before the witch trials. Salem is one of the first settlements in new england. It is originally the fishing village of naumkeag. The native american word for fishing place. 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 than boston. Salem is the first settlement of the colony. Salem is where it all starts. Sometime in that process of sailing over, or arrival shortly afterwards, winthrop gives this famous sermon, within it has the words we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. In many 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. Think of this tremendous fall from grace, this idea of 1630, 1692, while people were still alive, who heard winthrop give that sermon daughters accusing mothers, neighbors accusing neighbors, of being witches. The puritan experiment 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 years 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 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 happen, many things need to come together. In this case, there are a lot of factors. I want to run through them briefly. To outline 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 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 presentday 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 lords day of rest, you are expected to spend half a day trying to get to 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. Quasifreedom. 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. By 1692, they are on their fourth minister in 20 years. And that is reverend samuel parris, 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 authors, the witch trials were so much more than Salem Village. And this amazing book, the witch trials were so much more than same village. 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 didnt they do it . Why did they do that . Because of all of these factors and instability. This goes back to the early 16 80s 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. Early in 1692, people are coming 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 signs by puritans as a sign of gods displeasure. Everything in the 17th century is a sign of gods displeasure or pleasure because it is before the age of reason. It all seemed a part of a feeling of spiritual decline in the company and at idea that something is truly wrong. Lets talk about. Can declension or puritan decline. Puritan declension or puritan decline. Briefly, lets talk about puritan decline and i will not spend too much time on this, from great perry miller and other historians. Essentially, a thought from the second half that they had strayed and they have left the straight and narrow path. Fewer people are willing to join the church and everybody must attend worship but only those saints 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. There is an increasingly wealth and worldliness in Massachusetts Bay a victim of its own success, an important economic engine where the lumber and fishing is world byo the atlantic ships built here 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. More taverns and less bible reading in the colonies and the ministers were preaching the brimstone 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 and up to us to fight back. It is evidence of the turmoil in 1692 recognize there are five ministers who are at least cried out upon for witchcraft and only one has charges formally launched against him and that is charles burroughs. He is executed. There are far more who are cried out upon, four other ministers. In total, there are 50 ministers and members of their extended and close family who are cried out upon for witchcraft, informally accused as of 1692. Thats almost 1 3 of the people accused. Most of these ministers are ministers who have accepted the covenant which some puritan hardliners see as a watering down. The point is people were really spiritual in turmoil and upset and angry and to some degree unhappy 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 gods 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. Weather getting colder or extremes. Is as Wolfgang Barringer has noted, 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. So, theres 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 Williams war. It is not just a military and political strategy but cast in a it is not just a military and political strategy but it is cast in religious terms because the french are catholic, hated enemies of the. In and the native americans are pagans. It seems like the agents of satan, excuse me, that is the way the puritans would have seen it. Salem village is perched on the edge of this frontier. What you give rest of read 128, those attacks take place in the 1690s 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. The result of all of this is inflation, high taxes, economic failure and a lot of really 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 the good 17th century medical explanation is these people were bewitched. Witchcraft is real in the 17th century. Everyone, governors, kings, emperors believed rich crafters will witchcraft was real. The problem was, how do you prove someone is a witch, that is the tough part. I really think and again, i am 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 who have studied 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 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 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. Were talking about people terrified because they do not understand what their bodies are doing and why they are shrieking, wailing, going 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 the 20s, i can relate to this. I wouldnt not want to be a teenage girl in America Today and i can imagine it much have been much worse in the 17th century. Interestingly 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 afflicted, niece and daughter of the pastor. He is the most important man in the colony, his daughters are the highest status so it is not surprising that they might be the ones to suffer from this, particularly when youre angry father is marching around, storming around the parsonage giving fire and brimstone sermons, being convinced satan is in the midst, terrifying his children to death having no intention to do so. I think that explains some of the initial folks who are afflicted of 1692. A lot of people who make accusations in and who are 1692 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 are 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 20s. There are a couple of adult women in their late 30s, early 40s and at least 2 men. The slave of reverend parris and judge jonathan corwins son. And there is a really odd Pretrial Hearing where the judge is saying to one of the afflicted, one of the accused, why did you afflict judge corwins 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 from throughout the community testifying to the use of image magic, the ability to harm people, causing livestock to die, cows to stop producing the milk, runofthemill things is rather than signing a covenant with satan. The affliction and the afflicted girls were not just girls and the people making accusations, 200 people end up making some kind of complaint or testifying in some way. It is a broad circle. People have lots of things to complain about. The afflicted young ladies, they for the most part led tough, stressful lives. Late teenagers, early 20s, many of them are household servants. Quite a few of them are war 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. Example i like to talk about is mercy short. She is taken captive in a 1690 here her parents are killed by native americans and french on the raid. She and other neighborhood kids are marched to quebec and forced to convert to catholicism and she will be redeemed and afflicted by witchcraft. When she is counseled by 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 mercy short is a classic case of 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 men who were accused of witchcraft, most of them have histories of violence. Most of them are beating the afflicted girls, torturing them. 1692,t of the spectors of most of them are beating the afflicted girls, torturing them. These spectors, not much of a leap that these specters, the masters of the servant girls, are carrying out physical abuse it is the girls. 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 just master but husbands are problems. John willard who was executed, his testimony really was him beating his wife and perhaps one reason why his wifes family testifies against him. Jordan burroughs, the famous minister accused an executor for accused a executed for witchcraft, he had lost 2 wives and that was not uncommon, but his wives ghosts talked to the afflicted girls and said george murdered them. George burroughs is known for tremendous strength and secretive, controlling ways. When his wife would write to her brother or father, he would censor them or read them first. 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 80yearold man crushed to death. He was a container is fellow, 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 offense is 1675 he severely beat his young, simpleminded servant to death, a boy named jacob goodell. You guys a couple of days later. He guydies a couple of days later. In fact, he is fined 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. Perhaps 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 problems with the crucible 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 affliction and he publicly admitted to crushing the devil out of her to stop her afflictions. Inspector threatens her with hot fire tongs and he admits to burning her. And he called mary his jade. A word not far removed from sexual dalliance or even hooker. Not the term an 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. Conversion ptsd, abuse, war 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 we would 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 puritan. Its clearly, clearly happened. 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 1970s, they hit the divvy Timothy Leary lsd 1970s, you can stop there. The idea of this that there is a 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. One of the side effects of one of these types of ergot is hallucinogenic type trips. It is suggested that the afflicted girls were having a bad trip. Is a vampirehich that refuses to die, it keeps on coming back even though it was debunked within weeks and has been regularly debunked by scholars ever since. Heres the basic problem, the problem with ergot, we are looking for a simple solution. Our society like that give me , one pill and would cure everything. Unfortunately, life is not that simple. History is not that simple either. The problem with ergot from a grain supply point of view, not all of the afflicted girls live in the same place, they live miles apart. Some live in andover and some in boston. Not talking about one bad grain supply. And if everybody is eating from it, why isnt everybody becomes becoming afflicted . Why is it only one or two members of a family . It does not make sense from a pattern. These are accusations and charges made through much of Massachusetts Bay colony. Beyond that doctors tell us , theres different types of ergot and one i am necrotizing, more like, the type of ergot, 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 . We dont know much about them. Nobody Walking Around as for triple amputees, it wouldve been kind of weird to walk around. I did not mean that. You know what im talking about. I do not believe in encephalitis or lyme disease or other medical issues. Is it possible maybe one or two had one of these conditions, yes. Absolutely. 17th century medicine is different than today but does not explain the whole outbreak. The other thing i want to say is, wasnt 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, theres a kernel of truth here. In 1692, for the one time in massachusetts history, legal reasons regarding the new charter, massachusetts converted to english law which includes a provision that a felons personal possessions were seized became property of the state , that includes your clothes, your cash, your livestock. Furniture. But, houses, real estate, all land goes to your heirs if you 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. Lets shoot that one down. To me, again, i really sort of, generations of historians have viewed the salem witch trials as a social crime. Going back to others what looked at witchcraft have been social historians. I was inspired ivs people and was a young, new social historians in the 1970s 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 as a social crime of neighbor accusing neighbor and a looking at the psychology behind the accusations and the tensions in the community. But to me, in my book, i wanted to look at the judges for maybe it is the fact im the first member born since the civil war not to join the family law firm. For the lawyer wannabe, 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 judges working under english law, that frankly is not all that different from what we have today . Basic forms of testimonial witnesses. A few irregularities but pretty good english justices, usually pretty fair justice where you were innocent until proven guilty. Why do these judges, experienced men who have seen witchcraft trials before, why are they excepting convictions and signing death warrants . That was the piece i was 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 handinhand in a puritan colony with religious 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 confessed to witchcraft, and thats usually after judicial torture, you were executed. We know that judicial torture was used in salem. Proctor writes to the mentors complaining that his son and the carrier boys are being tied. Your heels are tied to your neck and you are hung upside down until blood gushes out of your nose. It wont 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, you are right, lets 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 in 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 whoho were those about they refusedt that 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 in the quality members , of the government counsel, handpicked by the king. They are the leading politicians, the state senate. They are also superior court judges and county judges. I judges and county judges. A majority of them had attended harvard, at one point traced to pointrade at one trained to be ministers, these are learned men. In 1692, none of them followed the path. They are major landholders, sawmill owners, most of them had their sawmills burned and lost what would be today lost millions of dollars in investments. They are military leaders in the colony. Most of them are officers in the militia. Judge winthrop is a witchcraft judge and commanderinchief of the Massachusetts Army that is badly losing the struggle against the french and the native americans. Here is the thing. These about here is that these these men who are calling for moral reformation through the colony have to be looking for somebody to blame for the events of 1692. Lets blame the government. Oh wait, that is us. Lets 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 for our problems rather than look within. Unfortunately, these judges are seeing which is seeing wi tches everywhere. 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 sewell, maybe the most honest, his wife is the cousin of the reverend of Salem Village. 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 these people have the same class, personal, business and military ties. It is these conditions that make the judges presumed guilt from the start. On the first day of pretrial , he asked sarah goode, judge hathorne, why do you harm these children . Its 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 1692 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. Lastly, though, come back, these are all issues of religion and politics. That means we need to look at the leadership. Imagine, if you will, in a 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 late 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. Once in office, his style admittedly makes people nervous even before he takes office when they know of his coming office. Probably 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. He shows you rational support of the mortal enemies of the state which also scares people. Not surprisingly, when you have 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 is sir william, the governor who was announced at which point the afflictions were announced, people were terrified and the afflictions were fullblown. I happen to know sir william really well. I got it drawn into salems web. I read a biography of him three years ago and that is when i got drawn into salems web. Sir william was the first to salvage a spanish treasure galleon. He is the patron saint of treasure hunters. 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 englishman to be nice by the king of england. He comes back to Massachusetts Bay and arguably the most famous englishman in america. He probably did not have to come back. He couldve stayed in england. He was that famous and that wealthy. He comes home in 1692. After that, the trouble begins. That makes him governor doing governor during the salem witch trials. He ends them only after 19 are dead and after his wife is accused. About that time, he wrote a letter back to the crown and that, gosh, this is horrible, i i was off all summer and fall fighting against the french and indians in maine and when i came back i saw the horrible things deputy governors 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. He gets into a mess with the french. One of his successes is a military man in 1690, he leaves in 1690 and invades arcadia and captures it. They do not have enough people to occupy the territory. When he is governor in 1692, he defends the french in arcadia and welcomed them as emerges and as merchants and traders to the waterfront of boston. Other people are like, really, sir william, really, were at war with these people, really . He runs across one day in boston where one of these french akkadian merchants is given a hard time. Fitz who was known for is for open, sometimes even older expression 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. And he was gathering information for a planned invasion. Throughout his career as governor, he is dogged by charges of misbehavior. Almost borderline literate from what we could tell. And 1694, he would be called to england to answer for alleged 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] in 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, witches were all too real in 1692 and our goal was to their goal was to destroy our faith, our society and the problem is it is almost impossible to detect them. Increase mather, 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 maybe people said the governors top aide should not be the judge. Mathers writes a book calling for the end and said its 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 act of black magic. Since we all agree, i hope, it is not real, its hard to people to testify to that. They tried to lean on other evidence. Satan is got to be here some place, right. We look at the 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 of 1692, it is clear some innocent people have been imprisoned, if not executed. You cannot say that because it will bring down the whole state but it is becoming painfully clear that this has happened. Mathers put it this way, hes is that it is better than that 100 witches should live in one live it one innocent should die. Yes, theyre probably witches out there and we can never figure out who they are. They are almost impossible to did act. They can be in one. Ministers. 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 witches 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 without giving up 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, 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 density it is , ridiculously low by our modern standards. Other questions . There is the microphone coming to you. Do not be shy. I read that some of the folks who were accused were finally pardoned and others in 2001, why did they take so long . Professor baker the first pardon was called technically a reversal of attainder in 1711 against most of the people. The laws that were put through only applies 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 1950s where a man who was a descendent made request that the remaining witches, if you will, reversed. Attainders and one of my former grad students, paula deen, said a footnote, professor baker, look at this 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 . I said, well, crazier things have happened but paula launched a onewoman campaign where she got our legislature involved and our delegates involved and actually got the last reversal of attainder 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. That is why it took so long. People thought they had but even then it took almost 20 years to get most of the containers most of the painters reversed. Attainders reversed. Great. Thank you all very much. [applause] announcer youre watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. Announcer American History tv is on cspan3 every weekend featuring museum tours, archival film and programs on the president the civil war and more. Here is a clip from a recent program. By the time the armistice is finally signed on july 20 1953, the guests include 30,000 americans, 5000 from other u. N. Countries and more than 400,000 but military and civilian. Survivors,h korean countless thousands are starting, homeless refugees. Starving, homeless refugees. Republics largest city lies in ruins. Destroyed. 0 despairr, poverty and seem neighbors among these ravaged streets. 1953. At was korea today seems like a very distant relative to that once war ravaged land. It is from the people the nation from acharacter and straggling band of the more lives refugees, the people have become an energetic nation. Russian trucks abandoned in the communist retreat to the north, still calling the freight even though the home office seems reluctant to send replacement. If the man who invented the bicycle is what use his toy has been put in the congress of korea, he might conclude with justification that his place in history is a short alongside the man who invented the wheel. You can watch this and other american is reprogrammed on our website American History program on our website, cspan. Org history. Professor hawking gore discusses the cold war relationship between president Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul ii. He is author of hope and president , john paul ii, Ronald Reagan and the extraordinary untold story of the 20th entry. The institute of World Politics paul hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today, you will be blessed because we will talk about god and Ronald Reagan. [laughter] for some, Ronald Reagan was god, with a lowercase g. Person to better pontificate about reagan, his faith, and about the roman pontiff than paul kenger. Paul is a force of nature
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