The Salem Witch Trials of 1692


Salem Witch Trials PBS 1692

Welcome to “THE” website about the Salem Witch Trials. We are not selling trinkets nor Halloween costumes or advancing paganism or voodoo superstitions and myths. You won't find "Toto" here.  We are interested only in presenting for review and study, one of the most troubling yet compelling episodes in early American history.  The accusing and subsequent execution by hanging of innocent people deemed to be “witches.”


The year was 1692 - Salem Towne.  A transition year in American history.  Scholastically, it’s called “Period Two.” 


It was a transitional timeline where clothes were slowly being modified and re-designed from the Puritan black and white universal drapery “code.“ Morays also were slowly changing, being modified by intuitive impulse rather than the demand of day-to-day circumstance.   But the outpost religious settlement was still encumbered and shackled in its development.  The Puritans fled religious persecution in a motherland and found themselves supplanted in a sanctuary of their own discovery with  newfound religious persecution they concocted with their own hands.   

First. It was a settlement away from the “home“ country – England.  There was no assigned governor or overseer in the colonies at the time.  No rule of law.  They were literally “adrift” in a world God created but gave no insight into - just outposts of isolated villages, scattered hither and yon. 


Second.  To the very distant East lay a discriminatory homeland and the tertiary security of the United Kingdom.   Britain.  To the wicked West?  No one really knew at that time what was out there. Savages, to most minds, occupied that uncharted and endless tract of land.  


These isolated Puritan villagers and their fellow wanderers had little power over anything except what was immediately around them.  And what was around them was breathtakingly beautiful, imminent dangerous that took dead aim at their children and unendingly vastness fraught with questioning challenges.  A man could expect only to live to a ripe old age of 40 years - if God so willed it.  His wife?  45.  At least half of their many children would likely die in childhood.  That was understood.


The Calvinist faith, which united them and crystallized their mass migration West, to begin with, was put to the ultimate challenge.  Last test of faith?  Regardless of that faith and determination, starvation constantly tempered the stewing pot.


Think about it.  This was the formation of our country and the setting for a tragic sequence in American history called the Salem Witch Hysteria.   


Perhaps it was all inevitable.


So, in this vortex, domestic disputes broke out amongst family, neighbors and even church members and their children.  Paranoia? Insecurities? Self-doubt?  A need for validation?  A need for an omnipotent ruler? Perhaps all of these factors played a role.


What little security the Puritans had at the time was compromised by the vastness of it all and the stringent constraints of the Calvinist doctrine they all signed up for.   They were involved in the ultimate test.  They laid in the bed of their own making and they had no choice otherwise.


So, ABOUT THIS SITE:  Everything you ever wanted to know about the Salem Witch Trials is here. Literally years in the making and encompasses the top authorities in the country on the subject in the form of writers, genealogist, filmmakers, and historians.


This Site covers it.


Delve into the MENU above and enjoy.  

Nineteen people were hanged and one man pressed to death, while hundreds went to jail during the "Salem Witch Hysteria" of 1692.  This site will explore what really happened during that infamous period in American history along with rare historical references, family genealogies, Blogs, and the story surrounding the making of the acclaimed PBS mini-series, THREE SOVEREIGNS FOR SARAH,  This PBS Series is the TRUE story of what actually happened in Salem Village in 1692 and offers an accurate portrayal of the Salem Witch Trials, with real characters and original transcripts of the trial woven into the dialogue. The film is a powerful, moving story about three loving sisters accused of witchcraft and portrayed by three Academy Award-winning actresses.


A genuine piece of American history - preserved.