Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts

King George responded to colonial dissent with increasing repression, dispatching an army under the command of Thomas Gage. Given its reliance on British commerce, Salem acceded to Gage’s forces, and he even set up headquarters near the old site of the witch trials. Gage was reluctant to act too harshly, lest he fan the flames of resistance even more, and so he decided to try and disarm the colonists before they could organize into an effective militia. Some of his soldiers launched a raid against a cache of cannon barrels, but the locals were warned and raised the bridge into the town, and the cannons were moved over the course of the delay. As they leave, “the road is littered with armed colonists, who taunt the soldiers every step of the way. The British shoulder their weapons throughout the long retreat. They wisely choose not to open fire” (212).

By 1777, the colonists had been at war with the Crown for two years, declaring an independent United States of America. After writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson took a particular interest in religious freedom, writing a bill for the Virginia assembly. It stated that “the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed in their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free” (215).