Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts

The Salem Witch Trials are such a well-documented and frequently studied example mass hysteria that they helped generate the term “witch-hunt” as descriptor for the misguided social persecution of a person or group based on false or wildly exaggerated perceptions of danger. In describing how Salem came to kill 20 of its own members, and subjected more to imprisonment, humiliation, and exile, the book underscores the role of fear as a catalyst for hysteria. Unsurprisingly, the foundational condition is one of fear, particularly fear of unknown forces. This fear was both ideological and material—rooted in religious teachings about the Devil’s influence, as well as tangible anxieties over threats to the Puritan way of life. While the existence of the Devil derived from a belief in the Christian God, and it was presumed that “it is witches and warlocks that do his bidding in the world” (41) the susceptibility to mass hysteria depended on specific social conditions that heightened anxiety and encouraged scapegoating. By 1692, the Puritans had seemingly overcome the worst that a harsh new environment could throw at them. With considerable help from the Indigenous peoples, they were able to overcome the brutal New England winter, which at first nearly wiped out the entire settlement, and enter a condition of not just comfort but prosperity.