A trembling girl stands at the edge of the ocean shore, looking past the dark waves and willing her heart to be quiet and slow. It’s nighttime, and the hem of her long petticoat is wet with seawater.
Behind her, the black woods loom. Twigs snap and leaves rustle, whispering threats in a language she doesn’t know. The forest is thick with angry Indians, and it’s too late, too dark, too dangerous to walk home through the trees.
Before her, through the waves and across the ocean, is her grandfather’s home in England, its warm hearth waiting. But it’s impossibly far away. There’s no step forward, no calling for help, no safety to be had. Trapped between the woods and the water, all she has is prayer.
“Dark” is perhaps the best way to describe the Salem witchcraft trials. Hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft, and most of them were jailed. In the course of four months, nineteen people were hanged, one was tortured to death, and several died in prison. Even two dogs gave their lives.
But if the trials were the black heart of Salem, the Village itself was also surrounded by darkness and fear.
A deadly smallpox epidemic had recently swept through the area, leaving a trail of grief for nearly every family.
Traumatized refugees were arriving with terrifying stories of savage Indian attacks, part of a larger and never-ending war between France, England, and various feuding tribes.
Winters were brutally cold during this period as well; in fact, the Massachusetts colony was founded at the end of what today we call “The Little Ice Age.” In Salem, the winter at the start of the trials was especially harsh. Bread froze on the communion plates; likewise ink in pens and sap in fireplaces.
What could explain it? How do you find safety in such a terrifying world? The Puritan Church, the dominant religion in Salem, held that God actively punished people – or families, or villages, or continents – when they’d sinned. With no germ theory to explain the smallpox, no way to predict Indian attacks, and no science to forecast the severe weather, the harsh and even deadly realities of life could only be signs of God’s displeasure. They must have sinned, and their job was to figure out what they’d done, then repent and excise the evil.
Witches didn’t stand a chance.
Over the next eight months, Today in Salem will tell the story of the Salem Witchcraft Trials as they occurred, unfolding in real time. Each post will provide a historically researched snapshot of what happened on that day, and the real people who were part of it. Put together, they’ll tell the evolving story of a human-inspired tragedy, while showing that history is more than just names and dates on a calendar.