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So then in April, Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of farmer John Proctor, was accused. And John is furious. He called the girls liars and spoke out against the trials. It was really going to bat for his wife, you know, and it was brave, but it was fatal. You have to understand, in Salem, to defend the accused was to put yourself into the line of questioning. So now, days later, John is accused too, and the girls are claiming that his specter was now threatening them. Both the husband and the wife were arrested. Elizabeth, at the time was pregnant. The only thing that spared her from just fully being killed, at least temporarily, was that she had an unborn child. And the courts at the time would not kill an unborn, but they had no problem just, you know, chaining the mother up in prison. John wouldn't be so lucky. In late April, the jails in Salem, Boston and Ipswich were just overflowing. Rich, poor, young, old, no one was safe. People were just getting rounded up and put into prison. What's interesting in retrospect is that the only people that were untouched from these accusations were the powerful, right magistrates, wealthy merchants, influential ministers. They were never accused. The net, basically, of these witch trials only caught the weak. Old grudges now returning to fuel, right? These land disputes and family feuds that people have had for, you know, decades now was proof of witchcraft. Thomas Putnam, one of the village's most powerful men, had long argued over property with several people that happened to have been accused. Now those enemies were being carted off to jail, and the land was his to have. Witchcraft had now become a weapon for land ownership. Some people refused to wait for trial. A few managed to escape, like John Alden, who was a ship captain, who escaped with the help with, you know, some friends and basically just vanished off to the countryside. Others fled before they could be caught, you know, carrying stories of Salem's madness to these neighboring towns. Some were sheltered. Others were just completely turned away for fear that this witch plague might be real. Right, that. But maybe this person is a witch and they've escaped the. You know, they escaped Salem and they came to my town, but I'm not going to risk having them, because what if, you know, the trials come here and I'm harboring a witch? So they would just send them away. The panic was even touching animals. How crazy is that? Two dogs were accused of being witches and they were executed. Now, if animals can serve Satan, then literally everything's out the window, right? Like, everything was dangerous and suspicious. Like, a bark at night could just be a demon's call. And then immediately they're coming to your house, taking your dog to get killed. So by that summer, the whole town was upended. People are turning on their neighbors, even family members versus family members. Husbands are testifying against their own wives. Parents are accusing children. It's like it wasn't all malice. Some of it was, of course, but it was mostly just terror. It was terror that you would be accused. It was terror of letting evil hide among you. It was terror that God might punish you for being complicit with witchcraft. And in Salem, things had completely gone crazy. So by late May 1692, Massachusetts is falling apart, right? The jails are totally full. The magistrates had basically run out of, like, authority. The colony was now drowning in these accusations. And at this point, so many people were accused that they didn't know what to do. So when the new governor, Sir William phips, arrived in May 14, he was walking into this completely, like, degenerate, spiritually terrified town. And so by the time he settled into his post, freshly appointed by the English crown to be the new governor of this colony, he basically needed to get a grasp on what was happening. And this witch crisis wasn't something that he could ignore. So in order to restore order, he created a special court, one that was meant to handle this threat. And he called it the Court of Oyer and Terminer. This was like an old French term, basically to hear and determine, you know, what the specific cases were. Now, the name suggests that it's pretty fair, right? We're going to hear all the cases and determine who's guilty. But the court isn't built to decide like. Like, is witchcraft real? It was built to find who the witches are. So it wasn't like if you were a witch. It was, who in this room is a witch? So Phips appointed seven judges, led by Lieutenant Governor William Stouton, and none of them were trained lawyers, but all of them were true believers in the word of God. They saw Satan as A real threat, active, you know, enemy in Massachusetts and themselves basically as, like, soldiers of God. So know, Stouten especially, was very ruthless. He was a Harvard graduate, a former minister himself, and he believed that mercy was weakness. So to him, letting a witch live was betraying God and basically letting everyone in the town be, you know, potentially a threat to the. The problem of witchcraft. So every acquittal was a sin, right? Every execution was an act of righteousness. So under his lead, the court became an engine of guilt. When the juries were hesitating, he was pushing them harder and harder to get a conviction. And when witnesses were faltering, faltering, he was pressing even harder. Like, it's almost hard to even wrap your head around, like, the pressure that these people were feeling. Like, I guess you could imagine, you know, like some type of terrorist or something in your town, wherever you live. Imagine, okay, there's five people here that are terrorists, and you don't know who they are, what they look like, anything like that, but we just know that some of them are. And every person that you let off, off is going to just kill more people. So now you're like, okay, we'd rather put multiple innocent people to death than potentially let one of these bad people go free. And that's how they saw this threat. Now, the problem with witchcraft is that there's no evidence or, you know, standard for justice or anything like that. So they're basically just kind of going off vibes now. The court met for the first time June 2nd, in Salem town. The first to face trial was Bridget Bishop, a woman in her late 50s who worked in a tavern and was always dressing in these bright, bold colors. Now, this is a world where women were expected to be modest and quiet. And Bridget was standing out. She wore, you know, like, bright red colors. She was married three times. She was working around alcohol, around men that were drinking, and that enough was, you know, to. Enough to make her a suspect of being a witch. Now, she had been accused of witchcraft before, but, you know, this time the outcome was already written, right? The afflicted girls were screaming the moment that she entered. Witnesses told stories once again about her specter, about her ghost spirit climbing through the windows and sitting on their chests and threatening them. One man swore that he saw her ghost in his room, and he actually swung a sword at it. And when the blade struck her specter, nothing happened. And the court said that that was proof that she was a wish. Like, if there was flesh, if she was actually been in the room, she would have been Killed. And the fact that nothing happened proves that she was supernatural. So the jury found her guilty. And on June 8, her death warrant was signed. Two days later, Bridget Bishop was hung at Proctor's Ledge. She insisted that she was innocent until her last breath. Breath. But her denials just once again, only convinced the judges that she was truly guilty. Their thinking on this is that a real witch would lie. So it was just like a Kafka trap, right? Like, if you said, I'm a witch, they'd be like, well, you're a witch. And if you said you weren't a witch, they'd be like, well, that's what a witch would say. And so from then on, the trials just became theater. The meeting house was packed every session, and the afflicted girls sat right at the front, treated like these honored VIP guests. And every time they cried, the court would stop. And when they pointed, everyone would turn. And they were just the most powerful people in Salem at that time. And the performances were really intense. Whenever an accused person would move, the girls would mimic the action, right? They would just grab their necks. They would claim that they were being bitten and crushed and that, you know, they were being attacked by these women just sitting there in the courtroom. And the crowds would gasp and the judges would lean forward. And even when those marks were proven fake or self inflicted or, you know, the bite marks that they had under their dresses were done by themselves or by people near them at that moment, it didn't matter, because the belief that the people had was enough. And then came the touch test. The judges basically ordered the accused to touch one of the girls. And if the girl suddenly stopped convulsing, the court would take it as proof the witch's spirit had returned to her body. It was. It was all nonsense, right? But it played like evidence. And because it was so theatrical, the people just ate it up. Up. English law should have protected the accused. I mean, by all accounts, English law at this time was very sophisticated. And in the world, it was the standard of evidence, right? There was a right to counsel. There was a right to cross examine witnesses. There was a presumption of innocence. All the things we have in America today. But in Salem at that time, those protections were gone. There were no lawyers, no defense, no presumption of innocence. This was basically just an impossible task. And the crime was invisible, right? How do you prove that your spirit didn't leave your body? How do you prove that you didn't sign a deal with the devil in a dream? The only way to prove innocence was to confess that you were a witch and accuse other people. And so as a result, confession was the only path to survival. Like the spectral evidence that people would talk about, right? The idea of, like, waking up and seeing a person in your room, that was like the ghost version of them. You know, this was accepted in court. And normally English law, even at this time, would reject this type of evidence. But the influential Boston minister, Cotton Mather had sent a lot of mixed signals about this topic. He was warning against relying solely on spectral evidence, while also kind of encouraging the court to proceed with vigor trying to get all the witches. The problem was that other proof was usually just like gossip or like land disputes or grudges or just more visions. And so this ambiguous advice gave the judges permission to continue. And they didn't really care about, you know, British common law or anything like that. And because without the spectral evidence or the rumors, there would be no cases. So they would also search for these witches marks. This was a physical sign left by the devil. Women were stripped and they were examined, and they would look at everything on their bodies to determine if they're a witch or not. So that could be a wart or a scar or a molecule hole, and that could be enough to doom you. If it didn't bleed when it was pricked with a needle, it was proof. And if it did, they just looked somewhere else until they found something else suspicious. Like, it was completely dehumanizing and demoralizing for these women that were pulled out of their houses, stripped, and then searched for, like, a weird wart on their shoulder and then pricking it. And, you know, if it didn't bleed, There you go. Now, the trials were moving fast, and this was, you know, this was on purpose. The judges were afraid that if they hesitated, that that might bring some doubt. And so some days saw multiple convictions in a row. And this justice was extremely fast. And because it was already decided beforehand, so by late June and then August and then September, this pattern continued to repeat. Accusation, examination, trial, conviction, execution. And each death made the next one easier to justify. Right? If that woman was a witch because she had a weird mole on her shoulder, then if you have a weird mole, then you're also a witch. So to stop would mean, you know, admitting that innocent people had been killed, and you couldn't do that. So now they were in just this infinite flywheel of conviction and execution. And the jails are getting even more overcrowded, right? The prisoners were chained in these dark, cold cells like you have to imagine, like you Know, Salem in the late 1600s isn't great for anyone. And you can imagine how bad it is for prisoners. So they're forced to pay for their own food. And some are dying. The trials are even starting, and the families are getting billed for the people staying in prison. I mean, the whole thing is just insane. The girls are screaming, the witnesses tell stories. The accused would deny everything, and they would say, well, that makes you a witch. And then you would become guilty. And, you know, no one would walk free from these sessions. And when the juries hesitated, once again, they were pushed even more to get a conviction. Now, maybe the craziest part of this insanity is that all of these executions were public. They always were. Were. And each time, the condemned were loaded into an open cart and taken through the center of Salem town, a slow ride to Proctor's Ledge, where people would be hung. And people lined the streets, and they would watch. Many were just staring in silence. Other people would kind of jeer and mock the women that were getting hung, and others would, you know, say prayers for the people that were dying. And the prisoners just sat there exposed. Their hands were bound, the wind hitting their faces. A few of them were, you know, praying out loud just basically for, you know, forgiveness or, you know, to be accepted into heaven or perhaps that the executioner, at last minute, would have a change of heart. Others would just cry to themselves, silently accepting their fate. Some would shout and get angry and profess their innocence to anyone that would listen, but it did no good. Proctor's Ledge sat at the edge of the town, this sort of rocky kind of area. And it was at the base of Gallows Hill with a view of the Heart Harbor. And for centuries, people believed that the hangings occurred at the top of Proctor's Ledge. But historians confirmed in 2016 that the actual site was the ledge below. Now, every hanging drew a crowd. And for some, it was a duty to witness, you know, justice in this new colony. For others, it was curiosity. And for some of them, it was just fear. Afraid that staying home might seem like they were sympathetic for the witches and that, you know, everyone that was there were, you know, condoning what was happening, that that would make them safe. You know, ministers would show up, too, and they would watch and nod and basically remind everyone that this is what justice looks like. And then June 10, 1692, Bridget Bishop went alone. Her execution was a test. This was basically to see how the public would react, right? If people rioted, then maybe the trials would have stopped. But there was no outrage. Everyone was Just succumbed to this fear. There was no protest, and they just watched it happen. And then July 19th, five women died together. Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susanna Martin, Elizabeth Hatch, and Sarah Wilds. They are carried to the hill in the same cart, forced to watch one another get hung one by one. Sarah Good shouted at Reverend Nicholas Noyes before she died, calling him a liar and swearing that God would make him choke on blood one day. Rebecca Nurse, 71 years old, had actually been found innocent at first. But Judge Stoughton didn't like the verdict, and then he pressured the jury to reconsider, basically telling them that they had made a mistake, and then they returned the guilty verdict. Governor Phips then issued a reprieve, but withdrew it under the pressure from the justices and, you know, basically renewed the sentence for the afflicted women. Rebecca Nurse's execution set a dangerous precedent. Right. Mercy was no longer allowed. Any juror who hesitated learned that leniency could then cost them their lives. August 19th, five more are hung. George Burroughs, John Willard, George Jacob Sr. Martha Carrier, and John Proctor. Doctor. Now, this is an interesting inflection point, because now men are being hung as well. Burroughs was interesting. He had been a minister. He was ex. He was educated. He was respected. He was once a leader in the faith that is now condemning him to death. Before he died, he recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly, and according to Puritan belief, a witch couldn't do that. So in that moment, the crowd went completely still. And for that moment, and everyone in the audience kind of looked at each other like, did we make a mistake? And then Cotton Mathers rode forward on horseback, warning that the devil could appear even as an angel of light. That Burroughs perfect prayer was just the brilliance of Satan's deception. And the crowd was like, oh, that's a good point. And the execution went forward. But something in that moment cracked. And for many, this seed of doubt had been planted, and that maybe, just maybe, that they were sent sentencing these innocent people to death. And then eight more died on September 22nd. Martha Corey, Mary Eastie, Alice Parker, Mary Parker Ann Pewdator, Margaret Scott Wilmot Red, and Samuel Wardwell. Eight hangings in one day. And the trials are moving faster and faster, as if the court sensed that time was running out and the people were kind of getting a little bit tired of this entire theatrical charade. This hill had become, you know, sort of a point in a stage for mass death. At this point, 19 people, 14 women and five men, were executed between June and September, and their bodies weren't buried in A churchyard where bodies typically would be. To the Puritans, these witches died in lockstep with Satan in an alliance with the dark one and that no consecrated ground could accept them. So what followed was actually very sad. After they were hung at the gallows, they were dumped in shallow, unmarked graves nearby families, sometimes times would go back at night to dig them up in secret and carry their bodies homes to give them a proper burial. But even that was dangerous because if you got caught, that would mean that you were arrested and that, you know, you were now sentenced to death. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a break really quick because you know what time it is. It's time to level up. And Bluechew just dropped something wild. Okay? Bluechew's been rocking with us from the beginning, so of course, we have to rock, pun intended, with them. All right? And what they've just done done is changing the game. All right, this is next level Gold, metal energy. This is Blue Chew Gold. If you've never heard of it, this is the newest innovation from the number one chewable Ed brand. All right? This isn't the little blue pill that your grandpa used. This is the four in one beast that is setting the gold standard for performance. We're talking two ingredients to keep the good times rolling, okay? Mixed with apomorphine and oxytocin that are going to turn up the arousal and the connections in your brain, as well as the ingredients to keep the blood flow to keep everything pumping, okay? Blue Chew gold dissolves in your tongue and works in as little as 15 minutes. And that means you're going to be rocking quicker and staying in the game longer. Let me just say that's how we put this tent up every single episode. We give Christos a bluechew, and you know what? We have this tent rocking all year round, okay? That's what it takes. Now, I recommend this in a, you know, a married, Christian relationship, but you know what? You guys can do whatever you want. Bluechew is the ultimate service to get you these chewables to your door in a discreet way to keep the bedroom room on fire. We have a special deal for the listeners of this program. You're going to get 10 off your first month of Blue Chew Gold if you use the code Gagnon G A G N o N. That's promo code Gagnon G A G N o N. You can visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And thank you so much to Bluechew for keeping the lights on. And making this show possible. Now, let's get back to.

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Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax. And let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts. Good. But one man's story stands out, and That's Giles Corey. 81 years old, stubborn, unbroken. And when he was brought to trial, he refused to plead guilty. And as a matter of fact, he just didn't say if he was guilty or not guilty. And under English law, that meant that the court couldn't proceed. So they turned to an old punishment. And this was pressing. This is known as pen foot ed duo. Now, they laid Corey on the ground, and they placed a board over his chest and started to stack stones slowly, deliberately, between each addition. And each time, they would ask him to enter his plea. Are you guilty or not guilty? And he continued to say nothing. The weight was building. His ribs were cracking. He couldn't breathe. They say that his tongue pressed out of his mouth, and when it did, the sheriff would push it back in with his cane. But still, he refused to speak. His last words, according to the legend, was simple. More weight. He died on September 19, three days later. His wife, Martha, was also hung with eight other people. People. Because Giles never entered a plea, his property couldn't legally be seized by the state, and it passed on to his family, just as he planned. He was crushed to death, but ultimately not defeated. At least five others died in prison. Sarah Osborne and the infant child of Sarah Good. I mean, the jails were freezing and overcrowded and foul, and food was scarce. And even after the trials ended, some remained locked up because they couldn't afford the fees for their food and shackles. So they were literally indentured, because in that time, you had to pay for your own prison stay. The executions themselves were not exactly mob violence, right? Like, they were official and orderly and signed off by the authorities of Massachusetts. And that's what made it worse, because this wasn't chaos from a bunch of people that you could some way sort of quell. It was the law of the land. This was the law twisted into something unrecognizable because of religious panic and fervor. Ministers urged the condemned to confess and save their souls, and most of the them refused. They just prayed and forgave their accusers in the Christian way and just faced death on their own terms. Mary Eastie was one of the last to die and wrote a petition before her execution to ask the court to stop. Not to save her, but to just prevent any more innocent people from dying. And in her last words, she forgave everyone who condemned her, which to me is, you're better. You're a better woman than I am, Mary. You. But others were still defiant. Sarah Good cursed her minister till the end. Rebecca Nurse prayed quietly. George Jacob Sr. Too weak to stand without his cane, said simply, I'm innocent. And by the final hangings in September, the crowd had changed. There were no more cheers, no more shouts of victory. Just a defeated silence. And the executions had become routine. Right. This was a grim ritual that the town was performing because it had been told that it was. Was right. But deep down, the people started to feel that this was wrong. And they started to feel the weight of what they had actually done. And no one would say anything out loud, but the silence on the hills said everything. And by October 1692, I mean, almost, what, eight months since this whole thing, not 10 months since this whole thing started, the panic that had once, you know, consumed Salem was starting to break apart. Not in the village itself, like the girls were still screaming and still pointing, but beyond, in Boston and the wider colony, the rest of Massachuset started to think that what was happening was too crazy. Too many people had died. Too many of them were respected and educated and even godly people going to church on a regular basis. I mean, a minister had been hung. Like, what is happening? The trials no longer look like justice. It just looked like chaos. And among those watching was a man named Increase Mather, one of the most powerful ministers in New England and the father of Cotton Mather, who had defended the trials early on. But by October, Increase Mather circulated a man script amongst Boston ministers that said what many had begun to think but would never say. He basically said that spectral evidence could not be trusted. The devil, he said, could take the form of innocent people trying to trick the courts. So to Hang someone based on visions only or dreams only was to risk killing the innocent, which is what the devil actually wants. He basically took their satanic panic and flipped it on him. He said, we're killing innocent people, which is exactly what the devil wants us to do. So he said it were better that 10 suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned. And that single line, that thought hit like lightning. And his sermons were printed in pamphlets, and they called it Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits. And it spread all throughout Massachusetts. And people would read it in taverns and in kitchens and. And for the first time, the idea that the trials might be wrong started to feel possible. And everyone started to realize, hey, this has gone way too far. And then came the accusation that changed everything. There was an accused woman named Lady Mary Phipps. Now, if that name sounds remotely familiar, that is because that is the governor's wife, William Phipps. Now, for Mary Phipps to be accused of a witch was a massive scandal. And at this point, it just crossed line. The fear had reached a zenith. Governor William Phips was sent there to control this colony and put order to this town. And he was struggling to prove his control over these people to England. And suddenly saw the madness, madness threatening not just, you know, his colony and his township, but his own family, his own wife. And so he acted quickly. And on October 29, 1692, Phips dissolved the court. And he ordered that no more arrests would be made for witchcraft craft. And just like that, the trial stopped. And by January 1693, one year later, a new court was formed. This is the superior court of the judicature. And this time, spectral evidence was completely banned. And they heard 56 cases of witchcraft. And out of these 56 cases, only three of them led to conviction. And these three convictions, Phipps quickly pardoned them. And by May, every remaining prisoner of these witch trials was released. Many had been locked up for over a year. And they walked, walked free into a town that would barely even look at them. They were still social pariahs. Technically, the hysteria was over. But what came next was this uneasy, angry silence, right? This town of Salem was broken. Families were gone. Neighbors who once stood together in church now wouldn't even talk to each other like this. Guilt was just in the air, and everyone had lost something or someone. Everyone knew someone, someone that was killed. Still, some refused to let the story end at that point. In the years that followed, petitions began to circulate. Families of the executed demanded justice. They wanted their loved ones names to be cleared. Because this Was a stain on their family. Oh, so and so's brother was a witch. So and so's aunt was a witch. They wanted their property back. They wanted their family name to be redeemed. And in 1696, 12 jurors signed a public apology admitting that they were wrong. The next year, the Massachusetts general court declared a day of fasting and repentance for what it called the tragedy raised among us by satan and his instruments. It was sort of a tacit confession, basically blaming the devil, not themselves, that this had gone wrong. That same year, Samuel paris, the minister whose household started this entire thing, was forced to leave Salem village. He never admitted from fault. He never said that his, you know, children were lying. He just insisted that he had done his duty before God. And some confessions actually came later. 1706, Ann Putnam Jr. One of the original accusers, stood before her church and apologized. She said that she was diluted by Satan. And whether she believed that or simply said what she was supposed to say, no one can really know. Samuel se, one of the few who repented, stood in his Boston church in 1697 while his pastor read his confession aloud. He bowed his head as the congregation watched, Then fasted on the anniversary of the executions every year for the rest of his life. But William stoughton, the chief judge and the man who had really driven the trials forward with this vigor, and he wanted everyone to be completely convicted and get rid of all the witches, he never apologized. He became the governor and defended everything that he did until the day that he died. The people of Salem tried to move on. You know, they built new houses and planted new crops and, you know, new children were born and raised new generations. But the weight of what happened in this town never faded. It just sank deeper and got buried under years and years of silence. Technically, the hysteria was over, but the shame never left. And, I don't know, understanding Salem is never really an easy thing for, you know, Americans to really understand. But this kind of thing happens all over the world, right? For centuries, people have been asking the same thing. How did this small town just lose its mind? How did fear turn these ordinary people into to, like, a quasi gestapo and, you know, turn regular people into executioners? Some say that it's, you know, faith in God gone too far. Others call it just a mass hysteria where, you know, one person would have this panic and this anxiety that would spread to the next person and the next person. The girls might have started, you know, with a real panic. Maybe they were having night terrors or maybe they Liked the attention. Or maybe they were coerced by their parents to rid the town of evil. Either way, way, once the people believed them, it was too late. And then, not to mention, you know, the old politics of Salem, that really fueled a lot of these grudges, right? This town had been simmering for years over land and money and pride. And all these people coming to this town trying to, you know, get wealth and create a life for themselves. The trials really gave them permission to aim their anger somewhere, right? And then, not to mention, you know, the sexism that existed in the colony at this time. Most of the accused and most of the people convicted and executed were women who just didn't really fit the mold, right? Widows, independent women, outspoken women, women that wore clothes that men didn't like. They were just witches. And it made it way easier than controlling them. And the world beyond Salem wasn't calm either, right? The colony had been attacked. The leadership shank was, you know, shaken. The English crown was looking at this like, what is happening to our people over there? This is crazy. And the future of this entire country colony was really uncertain, and everyone needed someone to blame. And witchcraft and this satanic panic gave them an outlet. And in the end, it wasn't about demons or witches or any of that stuff. It was about people, people convinced that they were right in the name of God. People who were afraid for themselves and their family that were willing to sell out their neighbors. And that's why I think this story is worth remembering and worth really meditating on and thinking about, because it shows just how quick, quickly, justice and fear and indignation can lead us to, you know, putting justice at the back burner and, you know, really going after our fellow neighbors and people that we share community with, right? Like this silence now becomes safety. No one wants to speak out. And it just shows how easily, like, fear can turn regular good people into monsters. And nowadays, you know, Salem is a pretty quiet town. You can go there, and they got cafes and souvenir shops. You can go to Proctor's Ledge, and you can see the memorial that they made in 2017. And they have 19 names carved into stone, and people will stop and read them and, you know, think about what it was like to be in this place at that time. And it took the colony years to admit its mistake. By 1697, there was the fasting and prayer, and then by 1711, they overturned some of the convictions. But it wasn't until 1957, more than 250 years later, your parents may have been Alive in this time that Massachusetts issued a formal state apology to all the innocent people they killed. Some of the victims were cleared then, you know, the rest not until 2001. And then the very last victim wasn't exonerated until 2022, literally 330 years after the original execution. For a long time, families would carry the weight of, you know, those names and, you know, they would tell stories to their children and grandchildren about how their family member was unjustly killed by the state because of the executioner, you know, the, the witness rather of. Of just a few small people in the town. Now these names are just sort of ghosts that you see in, you know, plaques in museums and Halloween. People will go there with witches hats and sort of, you know, play, you know, almost like play it up. Like it's like a tourist stop. And I get, you know, it's fun, like I would do the same thing. And other people say that it's like, you know, like healing and, you know, taking back sort of this, you know, quasi misogynistic sort of moment in American history. Others say that it kind of cheapens and creates a mockery of this terrible tragedy that happens. Happened. But either way, the past is still there, you know, and now exists as a tourist stop. But the real Salem isn't, you know, the shops and museums. It is sort of this moment of mass hysteria where people were able to be so afraid and that justice was able to be so co opted by bad actors that innocent people were killed. You know, the trials ended in 1693, but the patterns don't. And it's something that humans, I think, have to deal with, right? This fear to blame, you know, minority groups for the problems happening in society, the desire to condemn people because it's convenient. The fear of staying silent and not standing up for justice. You know, Salem was just one of the first times that it was really written down and acknowledged. And so I think for us it's not about witches or mystery and witchcraft. It's I think, just a human story for how we behave in times of high stress and struggle. And that is a shortened history on the Sea. Salem witch trials. I don't know, dude. It's like, I think it's just a human problem where human beings, when faced with an existential threat, some type of like, difficulty that we're dealing with as a society, to just blame something, someone, some group. And in that time, because of the religiosity of the people, there was a very easy scapegoat. And when you have the law Working in lockstep with sort of the spiritual class and the religious authority. Authority, things can go sideways. And I say this as a Catholic, right? Like, I think that the separation of church and state in America is very helpful because if you're just assuming that these types of spiritual attacks are, you know, valid evidence, then you have stuff like, you know, like skeptor testimony, and you're like, well, you know, I saw this person as a ghost. And there's no standard of evidence, there's no proof that can actually beat that. And if you say that you're innocent, then you're actually a witch. And you create these sort of logical traps, gaps, where you have people that are, you know, completely destitute and also suffering now on the hook. And it's not like things got better in Salem. It's not like the next winter was better because they got rid of the witches. Like, I know it is a. It is a human problem. And I think, like, these things that we have in place in society are really helpful, right? Separation of church and state is valuable. And as much as, like, you know, I'm Catholic and I'm down with, you know, Catholic stuff, it's like, yeah, but I have to recognize that not everyone in my society is Catholic, so they can't be governed by the same laws. I don't think the Bible can be. Be the sole rule of law in a place. And furthermore, I think all of these balances that we have in the judicial system, like innocence till proven guilty, a certain standard of evidence, a jury of your own peers that are not being pressured by judges, the right to a speedy trial with an attorney present, all of these things slow down the judicial process, but they are so important for maintaining that innocent people aren't killed. And. And I mean, even the death penalty in general, I think, is probably something that should be questioned in relation to this. Like, yeah, this. Should the state have a monopoly on murdering people? I don't know. You look at this case and you're like, yeah, there's a ton of other issues. But now people are getting killed at the hands of the state that, you know, 200 years later, they go, whoops. But those are real people with kids and families and wives and husbands and, you know, that just. Were just. Just ventilated, taken off the earth just because, you know, some kangaroo court convicted them. So I think it's an interesting, interesting sort of proxy for the modern day where it's like, hey, anytime you're in a position where things are going bad for society and the People in power just want to be like, hey, it's those people's fault. I'm like, take a step back, take a breath. You know what I mean? Like, if it is a group of people that is causing the problems, have some type of legitimate trial with an attorney present and the actual due process that we afford to all the people in this nation and just try to take us, try to just chill, you know, because the Salem witch trials is just a microcosm for other things that have happened all over the world. Right. Foreign governments will have their own sort of judicial systems where someone says you did something and they have high status, then you're just going to be caned. You know, like, you're just going to get whipped or something. I just think that as the. As Americans and, you know, as people with, like, a rich history of justice, we should try to maintain that standard of justice and stuff. Like Salem, I think, is unfortunately, a. A helpful lesson to know what happens when hysteria takes over a group. I'm curious, what. Was there ever any type of, like, modern consensus as to why these girls were behaving in this way? Like, the girls that were accusing. Could you look that up? I'm assuming that, like, the father's a minister. He's teaching his kids from day one. Like, hey, the devil's at the door. The devil's going to come in. Devil's going to come in. I'm assuming that these girls have religious trauma and start having, like, night terrors as a result of, like, this, you know, fear. And then the dad is telling them, like, hey, if you convict this person, you're going to rid our town of, you know, you're going to rid our town of, you know, Satan himself. But I also wonder if there was maybe, like, an external thing. Was there, like, lead in the water? Yeah. So it's actually close. Possible ergot poisoning from contaminated rye causing mass hysteria, which is something I've heard before. Interesting. Ergot poisoning from contaminated rye, specifically in that part of. Of Salem. Correct. Wow. And that all these people are. What. What are the symptoms of, like, contaminated rye? Like, delusions and, like, paranoia and stuff. Convulsive nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, spasms, confusion, hallucinations, seizures. Interesting. So these girls are afflicted with potentially, potentially this contaminated rye that then is making them have these, like, convulsions and seizures. And then the. The fact that it was the minister's daughters, he was like, well, obviously it's the devil. And then as a result, you have this whole spark of the witch Trials. I think it started with like one or two of them actually had this or got poisoning. And then the rest kind of just hysteria. And then on top of that, I imagine that, you know, the, the people are like, you know, the, the, the dad who's the minister is like pressuring his daughter like, hey, whoever did this to you, we will get them taken care of. Just tell me who it was. It was. Right? I mean, it is like, I get like, you know, this whole. I think it has been co opted by like a lot of feminists where they're like, yeah, this is like, you know, the patriarchy killing women. And I get that, right? Because like it is a patriarchal sort of society that is killing women. But at the same time, it's like everyone in this town was complicit. You know, like women are snitching on women. Like all of the testimonies that's basically putting all these people to death are women themselves. So like, I think the lesson shouldn't be like, like men are mean to women, which they are. I'm not doubting that, but I'm suggesting that this is a human issue that all human beings need to be aware of in the event that not literally this happens again, but like, we get to another point where the state, the government is trying to convince people to snitch on each other. And I think ultimately the working class needs to rise up against the, the elites. That's, that's maybe more of the lesson that I think we can take from this, that, you know, the, the ruling class is ultimately trying to, to blame all of their shortcomings on the people and get us to fight and we need to have solidarity.

A (65:46)

Also, the play or the book is really good, but the movie is even better if you ask me. Daniel Day Lewis is John Proctor. Oh, yeah. Really good. What's, what's the name of the movie? The Crucible. The Crucible. Yes, yes, yes, I've heard of this. I should probably watch that. It's great. It's pretty fire. One of his best performances. Maybe I'll peep that. Maybe I'll check it out. I've really got to start watching movies anyway, guys. This has been another episode of Camp. I appreciate you guys supporting as always. You can check out Religion History Camp where I focus on those topics specifically. Also see Me on the Road, Mark Yagnon Live. Also check out the merch. If there's anything I missed on this topic. You know, again, I'm not an expert in, you know, American colonial history, so if there's any parts that I overlooked, please don't hesitate to correct me in the comments. And furthermore, just comment what you think. Please drop, drop some comments on me. The top comment on this video. We'll be getting some free merch. We'll hook you up some way or another, especially in the holiday season. We got all sorts of holiday merch dropping and I just appreciate you guys for supporting this little community, keeping the lights on, keeping the fire burning here at camp. Thank you guys so much for joining me and I'll see you next time.