John Winthrop on Witchcraft
Both Europe and America in the seventeenth century were beset by witch mania—the belief that certain people were possessed by the devil and practiced witchcraft. In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 twenty such women were executed. Others, lwere given lesser forms of punishment, such as "ducking" in a local pond, as seen in the top picture. That the belief in witches in Massachusetts was long established and widespread is proved by this 1648 journal entry by John Winthrop.
Click the journal to read more
Mary Dyer
Some Quakers seemed determined to be martyrs, and a woman named Mary Dyer was one of them. Even when the Puritans shipped her off to Rhode Island, she broke the laws and returned to Boston to preach her religion anew. Finally, in 1660, the Puritans hanged her. Her last words were a final refusal to save herself by leaving Boston. She said, "In obedience to the will of the Lord God I came and in his will I abide faithful to death."
The Quakers
Some people, especially those known as the Quakers—or Friends—had different ideas. Quakers called their church services "meetings." In a Quaker meeting everyone is equal, there are no ministers, and anyone may speak out—including women. Like the Puritans they were convinced they followed the "true" religion, and they wanted to spread the word to others.
Ann Foster's Trial at Salem, Massachusetts
In this nineteenth century lithograph a so-called witch uses supernatural powers to command a bolt of lightening to strike dead her accuser. In actuality, "witches" were nothing more than ordinary women—perhaps more eccentric, or just more independent-minded than the norm. Their suppression was part of a pattern of male dominance in the Puritan colonies. Many of the accused went to their deaths insisting on their innocence. But as the following court document concerning the case of Ann Foster reveals, accused witches could sometimes be driven by male "examiners" to give confessions. See if you can make sense of the unusual spelling in this document.
Click to Read her Confession
Cotton Mather on Witchcraft
Cotton Mather's writings on the Salem witchcraft crisis were republished in this 1846 book edited by Henry Jones. During the terrible year of 1692 hundreds of women and men were arrested, and twenty were executed as witches. Mather, who considered himself a mere chronicler of these events, in fact helped to foster them.
Samual Gray's Testimony
The witch mania in Salem, Massachusetts began in February, 1692 when a group of teenage girls began experiencing psychological troubles. With the community ripe for a scapegoat, a series of arrests took place in which eventually hundreds were accused of witchcraft. Pictured here is the trial of George Jacobs, who was one of twenty to be executed in Salem. (Men could be witches, too!) Below is the testimony of Samuel Gray made during the trial of Bridget Bishop, another of the twenty who were executed in that terrible year.
Click to Read the Testimony
A Different World
Most Puritans thought they had done everything they could to be fair to Mary Dyer. It was a different world then, a world just leaving the Middle Ages. The whole world believed in witches in the seventeenth century. People thought that if you wanted to make a bargain with the devil you could do it, and then torment people and fly through the air on a broomstick, or become invisible and squeeze through keyholes. People often blamed witches for inexplicable natural disasters. Those accused of being witches were sometimes whipped, hanged, or drowned
Witch Panic in Salem
What happened in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, was different from run of the mill superstition, as the Reverend Cotton Mather described: "An army of devils is horribly broke in upon our English settlements: and the houses of the good people are fill'd with the doleful shrieks of their children and servants. We have with horror seen such witchcraft.
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Stanley Laff [O'Callaghan MS]
Created on October 27, 2025
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Transcript
John Winthrop on Witchcraft
Both Europe and America in the seventeenth century were beset by witch mania—the belief that certain people were possessed by the devil and practiced witchcraft. In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 twenty such women were executed. Others, lwere given lesser forms of punishment, such as "ducking" in a local pond, as seen in the top picture. That the belief in witches in Massachusetts was long established and widespread is proved by this 1648 journal entry by John Winthrop.
Click the journal to read more
Mary Dyer
Some Quakers seemed determined to be martyrs, and a woman named Mary Dyer was one of them. Even when the Puritans shipped her off to Rhode Island, she broke the laws and returned to Boston to preach her religion anew. Finally, in 1660, the Puritans hanged her. Her last words were a final refusal to save herself by leaving Boston. She said, "In obedience to the will of the Lord God I came and in his will I abide faithful to death."
The Quakers
Some people, especially those known as the Quakers—or Friends—had different ideas. Quakers called their church services "meetings." In a Quaker meeting everyone is equal, there are no ministers, and anyone may speak out—including women. Like the Puritans they were convinced they followed the "true" religion, and they wanted to spread the word to others.
Ann Foster's Trial at Salem, Massachusetts
In this nineteenth century lithograph a so-called witch uses supernatural powers to command a bolt of lightening to strike dead her accuser. In actuality, "witches" were nothing more than ordinary women—perhaps more eccentric, or just more independent-minded than the norm. Their suppression was part of a pattern of male dominance in the Puritan colonies. Many of the accused went to their deaths insisting on their innocence. But as the following court document concerning the case of Ann Foster reveals, accused witches could sometimes be driven by male "examiners" to give confessions. See if you can make sense of the unusual spelling in this document.
Click to Read her Confession
Cotton Mather on Witchcraft
Cotton Mather's writings on the Salem witchcraft crisis were republished in this 1846 book edited by Henry Jones. During the terrible year of 1692 hundreds of women and men were arrested, and twenty were executed as witches. Mather, who considered himself a mere chronicler of these events, in fact helped to foster them.
Samual Gray's Testimony
The witch mania in Salem, Massachusetts began in February, 1692 when a group of teenage girls began experiencing psychological troubles. With the community ripe for a scapegoat, a series of arrests took place in which eventually hundreds were accused of witchcraft. Pictured here is the trial of George Jacobs, who was one of twenty to be executed in Salem. (Men could be witches, too!) Below is the testimony of Samuel Gray made during the trial of Bridget Bishop, another of the twenty who were executed in that terrible year.
Click to Read the Testimony
A Different World
Most Puritans thought they had done everything they could to be fair to Mary Dyer. It was a different world then, a world just leaving the Middle Ages. The whole world believed in witches in the seventeenth century. People thought that if you wanted to make a bargain with the devil you could do it, and then torment people and fly through the air on a broomstick, or become invisible and squeeze through keyholes. People often blamed witches for inexplicable natural disasters. Those accused of being witches were sometimes whipped, hanged, or drowned
Witch Panic in Salem
What happened in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, was different from run of the mill superstition, as the Reverend Cotton Mather described: "An army of devils is horribly broke in upon our English settlements: and the houses of the good people are fill'd with the doleful shrieks of their children and servants. We have with horror seen such witchcraft.