His declaration was to prove eerily prescient. A few days after baking the witchcake, the girls did indeed identify three witches masquerading as marginalised members of their community. News of the outbreak of bad magic spread across the small New England settlement, and so too did seemingly supernatural incidents. More girls suffered from similar fits and convulsions, while others encountered hairy beasts at their firesides or felt themselves pinched and pricked by invisible hands.<\/p>\n

The exposed and isolated colonial settings only intensified threats posed by poor weather <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n
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The settlers\u2019 firm belief that they were being plagued by agents of Satan was swiftly followed by a desire to root out those responsible and hold them to account. In May 1692, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony established a special Court of Oyer and Terminer \u2013 meaning \u201cto hear and to determine\u201d \u2013 in Salem. Those gathered in the courtroom listened rapt to testimonies that told of flying witches, supernatural beasts and satanic Sabbaths. Suspected witches confessed to eye-raising sins, and named neighbours and family members also in league with the devil. Chaos unfolded in the courtroom as accusers shrieked and moaned, and declared themselves to be tormented or choked by the malign spirits of those on trial.<\/p>\n
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As the trials progressed, the contagion spread to Salem\u2019s neighbouring communities, but as accusations multiplied into the hundreds, and even the governor\u2019s wife became implicated, those in charge began to have doubts. Could there really be that many witches in New England? By the time the Court of Oyer and Terminer was finally disbanded and the trials fizzled out, the spectacle had dragged on for more than a year. Nineteen \u201cwitches\u201d had been hanged, at least five others had died in jail, and one man had been pressed to death with stones for refusing to enter a plea. Dozens more were accused, interrogated and imprisoned.<\/p>\n

Dont miss our brand new podcast series: Investigating the Salem witch trials<\/a>, episodes available now<\/h4>\n
Episode 1: introduction<\/a><\/li>\n
Episode 2: How events spiralled out of control<\/a><\/li>\n
Episode 3: A \u2018new Jerusalem\u2019 on the edge of a wilderness<\/a><\/li>\n
Episode 4: The pervasive power of puritanism<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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$\""Salem\"$ <\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section><\/div>\n
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So how did the strange behaviour of a couple of young girls escalate into a community-wide panic that led to the deaths of 25 people? That\u2019s the subject of our new podcast series, Salem: Investigating the Witch Trials<\/em>. With expert help, I have been uncovering a range of factors that helped fuel an outbreak of paranoia that had deadly consequences \u2013 six of which I explore overleaf. From social tensions and religious fervour to a chaotic justice system, they can help us move towards an understanding of why these seemingly inexplicable events took place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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S<\/span>alem\u2019s siege mentality<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
The perils of indigenous violence and bad harvests fostered a climate of intense paranoia<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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A good place to start when looking for reasons to explain how and why the Salem witch trials happened is the settlement of Salem itself. \u201cThis was a precarious society that felt very much under siege,\u201d says Stacy Schiff, author of The Witches: Salem, 1692<\/em>. \u201cEvery settlement in New England had its encounters with the howling wilderness. Whether wolves, Native Americans or the threat of starvation, they were always sensitive to the dangers looming close to their edges.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Salemites had justification to feel this way. \u201cThe recent history had been one of serious trauma,\u201d says Schiff. From 1675\u201376, a bitter conflict between settlers and the indigenous population, known as King Philip\u2019s or Metacom\u2019s War, had claimed the lives of around 10 per cent of New England\u2019s adult men. As Schiff puts it: \u201cAlmost everyone had known casualties, and society was still bearing scars from those years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Raids from local Native American tribes (who themselves felt under threat from the colonists) remained a danger to colonial settlements, the fear of which is hinted at in the court records from the witch trials. Under interrogation, suspected witch Mary Toothaker admitted that following nightmares about a Native American attack, she had been seduced into doing a deal with the devil because he promised to \u201cdeliver her from the Indians\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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It was not only human forces that may have exacerbated stress levels in Salem, but environmental ones too. The witch trials came at the tail end of an especially cold period of the Little Ice Age<\/a>, characterised by freezing winters and cool wet summers that led to bad harvests. Some historians have linked the hardships this caused to the explosion of witch trials in Europe. The exposed colonial settings only intensified threats posed by poor weather, and colonists would surely have been aware of other settlements suffering badly from shortages of food and resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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While these pressures cannot explain why Salemites\u2019 fears fixated on witchcraft, they can help us understand some of the underlying anxieties that may have made the community more susceptible to escalating paranoia when the first accusations emerged.<\/p>\n
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The mania for spiritual purity<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
It was the duty of all good Puritans to eliminate threats<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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First established by religious radicals in search of a New Jerusalem, Salem was a settlement founded on strong Puritan ideals. According to Professor Ronald Hutton<\/a>, author of The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present<\/em>, Puritanism offered \u201cexceptionally fertile soil for witchcraft beliefs to sprout and flourish\u201d. One aspect of its theology that played a role here was its emphasis on biblical literalism. The command in the Book of Exodus: \u201cThou shalt not suffer a witch to live,\u201d was taken as a death sentence for suspected witches, and enshrined in the Massachusetts legal code set down in 1641.<\/p>\n
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The mania for spiritual purity<\/h3>\n<\/div>\nIt was the duty of all good Puritans to eliminate threats<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Personal grudges turning deadly<\/h3>\n<\/div>\nNeighbourly disputes may have led to life-threatening accusations<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n