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What's up, Everybody? I'm Chris DiStefano, aka Chris Dies de Stefano, and this is Chris Darice. Welcome to Chris Derrice. All right, today we're gonna go back in time to the 1600s, Massachusetts. When you can get killed for gossip. You can get killed for being weird, or you can just get killed for being a woman. That's right, the Salem witch trials, baby. Burn, bitch. All right, 1692. This is the year 1692. 200 years after Christopher Columbus discovered this nation. Tell that to the Native Americans. Okay? 1692, Christianity, dominant religion across colonial America and Europe. Most people believed in heaven and hell. The devil is real and an active force. And the Bible is literally the truth. Hey, Mom. 1692, the belief in the supernatural was widespread. Like my asshole, witches and the devil were considered real threats. Folks. They believed it to be real. They believed it to be real. The devil was everywhere. You could see it. The Internet wasn't around yet. Okay? Even though now we know the Internet is the devil. Back then, pre Internet, they would just actually see the devil. And they usually saw it inside a woman who they thought was lying or having an affair. It's just what it was. Illness, crop failure, any type of misfortune, sudden death, witchcraft. Everything is witchcraft. Witchcraft, witchcraft. You're a witch, she's a witch. Everybody gets a witch. Not nature, not disease. No witches. Doubt was real. And the communities were tight knit. They were anxious and they were always looking for someone to blame. They always wanted to blame. Nobody could look within themselves. That wasn't invented yet. Okay? That wasn't a skill that people had to have self reflection. Instead, everything was everybody else's fault. But not me. Not me. Let's burn her. And these accusations happened all across America, Europe. It was bad. Although there were witch trials going on on many places in the world. We want to focus on the 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials because it is wild and there's some conspiracies involved. And I actually went to go visit the Salem witch trials museums and I got scared on the ghost tour. Salem is beautiful if you ever went. It's gorgeous. Especially this time of year. And when I say this time of year, I mean whenever you're listening to this Episode. Cause I love it all the time. Cause it's cute and quaint and they have good scones. Where did the word witch come from? Okay. Because the only first time I ever heard it was coming out of my father's mouth towards my mother. The word witch comes from Old English. Ooh, makes me think of a 40. I want a 40. O, E. The word wits, witche, witche, W, I, C, C, E, meaning a female sorcerer. And the word Wicca is the male version. But witch, witch, female sorcerer, that's really what the word means. And it's tied to other words. Mean that mean to bend or to shape, suggesting someone who could change reality. Like they could cast a spell. You know, they could contort their body and bend and do all types of crazy things. You know, back in the day, you know that it was kind of like a shapeshifter. Like back in the day people would call shapeshifters witches. And now in current day, some of you just call them Jews. Jk, jk, jk. Just kidding. That's not me, that's the Internet. Sometimes you guys gotta get it. This is all satire, okay? Early uses of the word actually didn't always mean evil though. A witch could be a healer, a wise woman, a midwife, or spiritual figure outside the church, or your ex wife. Any of those could just be a witch. But the Middle Ages during, under Christian influence, all that, the term began to mean someone who worked with the devil. A threat to church authority and social order. Don't forget the church was very, very, very powerful years ago. It was like a nation. It was like the head of the church could kill you. Now obviously they won't do that. Just if you're a little boy, you know, you gotta watch out. Catholic church, the idea over time of the word witch, it went from being a magical person to being something more darker, Dangerous, Dangerous. And that fear didn't disappear. It actually just got bigger and bigger for some reason. And we're going to have some theories as to why. The late 1600s things just explode and everyone is scared of witches, okay? Everyone's like, get the witches out. They just didn't want them anywhere near them. And they had this whole campaign that was anti witch. Okay, Just think of back then in the 1600s, the witch was kind of like the migrant today. Just kidding. These are all just. I mean, again, when I come here on this show, just understand that some of the things that I say are actually not my views. What I'm doing is I'm looking at the Internet and Seeing what people are saying. And I'm doing a little thing called satire, okay? And it's not me, but I guess it is. It's in my brain, but it's not me. So let's set the scene. The year 1692. I've said that 300 times already in this episode. The year is 1692, and we are in 17th century Massachusetts, which would put us firmly in 1692. America's growing at this point. We're growers, not showers. We have 12 colonies right now, not 13. Georgia hasn't joined yet. Welcome, Georgia. You're coming soon. I will be in Georgia, in Atlanta in October at the Tabernacle Theater, which is a beautiful theater. So come see me do comedy. Maybe I'll fart into the mic. So we're in puritan New England. Puritanical New England. This country was founded on the Puritans. And that's why, you know, that's why even still to this day, they will not show boobs on TV. No boobs, but they will show AK47s. But puritanical, it's like, you know, this religion is like, everything has to be pure, and you have to do this and that. And they're so tight, so tightly wound up. My mom's a Puritan, so this was in puritanical New England, where we are in Massachusetts at the time. Religion, Bible is law. Devil is not only real that he's. He's out there. He's lurking. He is waiting to tempt the weak. Okay, I saw the devil inside her vagina. Salem is a small, isolated village, cold, gray. The people were simple people back simple people. They were living these devout lives, farming by day, praying by night. No real room for joy. Just kind of just work, go to work, farm the land, go home, eat, go to sleep. That's what life was like. It was just the same day over and over and over again. Very North Korea. And in this world, okay, women are seen as the ones more likely to fall into sin. Okay? It wasn't, oh, I feel horrible that that woman was just raped. It was like, that woman made me rape her. That was the vibe back then. And that was awful. And that's just how things were. I mean, people would blame women for everything, even though if it was a man doing a horrible thing was like, it's the woman's fault. And they were more easily swayed by Satan's whispers if they deviated from, like, these strict norms, these religious puritanical norms. And they were like, the women want to be too independent Too different. They could be seen as suspicious. Like look at this one trying to get a job, trying to speak up for her rights. You want to get burned? I will burn you. That's the way it was back then. Women had to keep their mouths shut. And they had their roles were take care of the children, have sex with me and don't say anything. Some people might call those the glory days. I say they're the Salem witch trials and I want to talk to you about them. We are in 1692 for the 10,000th time. Bitter cold Salem village. Strange things start to happen in Reverend Samuel Parris household. His nine year old daughter Betty and his eleven year old niece Abigail Williams begin to act kind of strange. They were screaming, falling into trances, claiming to see specters contorting their bodies. And obviously we know now that these were just girls who were getting their first period. They did it realize at the time that that's what it was. Perfectly normal explanation. But the doctor goes and says this is bewitchment. This is what it is. Now, the Paris family wasn't wealthy, but they were powerful. Okay, so Paris was a kind of a divisive figure in the community. Some people liked him, some people thought he was a greedy prick. So when the minister's household comes under attack, this is a big, huge problem. And this diagnosis of the girl's bewitchment, panic across the village, especially for his haters. His haters love to see it. They were like, let's kill him. So by mid to late February, other girls start showing signs that they're experiencing the same problem because you know what it is? Periods sync up. So Anna Putnam Jr. Who was 12, daughter of the Putnam family. I grew up not far from Putnam Avenue in Ridgewood. There used to be a movie, the movie theater there. And then they had to close it down because someone killed one of the cleaning ladies overnight. What can you do? And I know that because my dad was taking me to the movies to see a little movie called Little Giants. And we couldn't go because someone was murdered in the movie theater the night before. So instead he took him to the OTB racetrack and he gambled a little bit. And I was told not to tell my mom. So other girls, Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard and more. All these girls are experiencing this same kind of phenomenon. They're like going, you know what they thought was crazy? And this bewitchment diagnosis is starting to happen left and right. But before we get into the trials, it's very important to note the geography of Salem. Salem, Massachusetts. Salem Village. Okay? This was poor, rural farming community, strict puritan beliefs where people live very hard lives and they wanted to break away from their own church. Salem town was wealthier, more urban coastal center, focused on trade and business, more political connections, and, you know, less strict lifestyle than the village. So the village kind of poor, the town wealthy, and the whole community had a population of only a few thousand people. It's like the size of my family. It was a very important town. Trade, fishing, you know, all that big. Salem, Massachusetts, one of the most important colonies. Close knit place, everybody knew each other. So here's an interesting thing. Remember I told you Salem village was the poor? Salem town was the wealthy. But most of the accusers came from the village. The poor people were accusing the rich people in Salem town of being the witches because they were jealous, you peanut butter, and jealous. So all these rich, the wealthier people were the ones getting burnt at the stake, and the poor people were the ones who were more deeply embedded in religion saying, burn them. So it wasn't really just a fear of witches. It was also a power struggle. Let's go to February 1692. These are the first accusations. Okay, so the first one who was accused was Tituba, who was an enslaved woman from the Caribbean. She was owned by Reverend Parrish. She got accused of being a witch. Wonder why? Sarah Good was homeless, known to talk back, you know, talk smack, sharp tongue. She probably had a mental health disorder. That's why she was probably homeless in the first place. And Sarah Osborne, who was an older woman who didn't go into church, who didn't like going to church, and who married a servant, which was very scandalous for the time. So every woman had something about them that these pious puritanical people didn't like from the beginning. One was black, one was homeless, and one had a scandal. So it's just what it was. Now, these women, they were all outsiders, like I said, one way or another. Poor, foreign, elderly, whatever. So Tituba just confesses, probably, I would almost think absolutely 100% under threat, her force. And she describes visions of black dogs, witches, books flying through the air, all I'm sure they basically had, you know, a modern day gun to their head. And her confession, it just added fuel to the fire because now people are thinking witches are real and they're working amongst them in the village. And as more girls become afflicted, this list of accused just goes on and on and on. And they started targeting people of rival families. Anyone who was unpopular in the village, it was literally like, yo, you're about to go down. Okay? If I don't like you, you're going down. It was like cancel culture, except you got burnt at the stake. But we're gonna find out later that burnt at the stake might be a myth. Trial by fear. You've heard of trial by Twitter? Well, this is trial by fear. Special court is created just to handle the witch trials called the Court of Oyer, which means to hear and decide. So this court allows spectral evidence, meaning people's claiming of seeing ghosts or spirits of the accused hurting them are admissible. Meaning you can say a ghost did it, and the court will be like, yes, you can say that I saw the spirit choking me in a dream, and that was enough evidence. I mean, that's crazy. Could you imagine that today? I mean, literally, dude, if I had to go to court over the dreams my girl has, I would be in the electric chair. I mean, every single night, she has a dream that I've killed someone, I'm cheating on her. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. So I'm so happy that there's no spectral evidence court today. Cause your boy would be dead. So obviously, this lowers the bar for conviction. I mean, anyone can get convicted off dreams. You know what happened to those three women who were accused? Well, Tituba confesses, spends over a year in jail, and then they actually released her when someone paid her jail fees. And then she was hit and killed by a horse and carriage leaving the courthouse. Sarah Good, the poor beggar who was pregnant, by the way, denied the charges. Baby is born in prison, and then she died in there because of the harsh conditions. The baby died in the prison because of the harsh conditions. And then they hung her on July 19, 1692, after she was accused of sending her spirit to harm others. So who the hell. And then Sarah Osborne, the older woman in dispute with her neighbors, seen as suspicious for skipping church. She also died of illness in jail before she could even reach trial, because it was just disgusting in there. Gross. I love True Classic. Okay? 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Whether it's helping men show up better in their daily lives, giving back to undeserved communities, or making people laugh with ads that don't take themselves too seriously. They lead with purpose. There it is. I actually truly have been wearing True Classic for a while now. And I'm telling you, feel the difference. Once you throw it on, it really is great. And it's the only T shirt that I have that I only use it to wear on my body. I don't use it to clean up spills or people's backs. So forget overpriced designer brands. Ditch the disposable fast fashion. True Classic is built for comfort, built to last and built to give back, baby. You can grab them at Target, Costco or head to truclassic.com chaos and get hooked up today. Go to trueclassic.com chaos get hooked up today. I love it. So here's the real reason why they were bugging out. Many people today believe that these villagers claim to suffer from these supernatural fits were simply pretending they were faking it, fake news. Because they were just under pressure and they just, you know, it's like this mob mentality that happens. But really what I think a lot of scientists are starting to believe today is that there was a tainted rye. So one of the foods they were eating was tainted with ergot. It was called ergot, which is this weed that will grow that will cause hallucinations, convulsions and paranoia. Very similar to what the Salem witch trials were was happening in 1692. Why was it only happening in that town? They found evidence of ergot growing everywhere. Everybody's going crazy. And then why only the women going crazy? Because bitches be crazy. No. Jk, jk, jk. It's very, very possible that this crazy behavior and seizures nothing to do with witches, nothing to do with ghosts, nothing to do with all that had to do with ergot, the tainted rye. You are what you eat, folks. And these people were eating a weed that gives them hallucinations, convulsions, and paranoia. Boom. There you have it. Of course, nobody knows about the tainted rye back then. So accusations just start to snowball. The neighbors turn on each other, Old grudges resurface. It's basically, you know, it's a way for. If you got power in that community and you want to take somebody out and you've never liked them, well, now's your time to be like, hey, you're a witch. How about that? Stupid. So let's go through some of the stories about some of the people accused because they're fascinating. Bridget Bishop is one lady that we discovered. She was known for wearing fashion clothes. She ran a tavern, so she was an easy target. People didn't like her. She was a woman that owned the business, and. And she was wearing really nice, flashy clothes. So she said. People said that she bewitched her children. So she was one of the first ones to be tried and hung. And I guess, you know, I don't know why they thought she bewitched her children. I mean, they just were. Who knows? I mean, back then, you never know. You never. You never know what these damn kids were doing. I mean, maybe they were just being kids. Maybe they were just running around with ADHD like all the kids today. Maybe they had one of them was allergic to peanuts, I don't know. But they said they were bewitched, so they killed her for it. George Burroughs. This is a man. He was a former minister. He was accused of being of using his superhuman strength. He could lift barrels and throw them. And his ability to do that became proof he was in league with the devil. He was a warlock, a male witch, or Wicca. And he recited the Lord's prayer at his hanging, which witches supposedly couldn't do. But they hung him anyway because they were like, well, we already came this far. Might as well, you know, I mean, these people, all these people came all this way. They wanted to see you hanging out. Rebecca Nurse, 71 years old. Deeply religious. Loved by her community. Accused by the Putnam family over a land dispute. Remember that powerful Putnam family, rated T for teen?
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When the jury found her not guilty, the court reversed the verdict after the girl had more fits. And then she got hung. Martha Corey, outspoken, very skeptical of the trial. She was probably seeing this like, guys, I think it's in the food. Like nobody's crazy here. But that made a lot of enemy. She made a lot of enemies because she spoke up. But I thought silence was violence. So even if you speak up, it's violence. So the moment she voiced doubt, she became a target. Even her own husband, Giles Corey was later accused. And he's a guy. When I went to the Salem Witch Museum with my mom when I was a little kid, they told us a story about Giles Corey and how they pressed him to death. They took rocks and stones and they just pressed him to death until all his organs exploded. And. And I believe that I've seen the ghost of him ever since in the corner of my eye. Because Giles Corey is someone who I literally think about at times. When I turn the lights off in my house and I'm sprinting from the kitchen up the stairs to get to the safety of my wife in the bedroom, I'm thinking about Giles Corey coming and grabbing my ankles. Or Jacob Marley from Evernies at Scrooge. Giles Corey, who was. He was an 81 year old farmer. How are these people living this long? In 1692, he was an 81 year old farmer, got pressed to death with heavy stones when he got accused of witchcraft, partially because his wife Martha had been arrested. He didn't want to enter a plea because he knew if he did then they were going to take his land. So instead of pleading guilty or not guilty, he just stayed silent. So this shows you silence is violence. The court ordered him crushed to death with stones until he spoke. But his legendary final words were more weight. Good for you, Giles Corey. Good for you. Dorothy Goode got accused at only four years old and they accused her. After her mother, Sarah Goode was accused and killed the girls claimed her tiny spirit bit them. So she spent months in jail shackled and came out mentally broken. Of course. You gonna put a little four year old in jail? Come on. Should have just put on a little Miss Rachel and went in the other room and jerked off. Kidding. So Lady Mary Phipps, this is an interesting one because she was the wife of the governor of Massachusetts, the state where all the Salem witch trials were happening. And her name ends up on the list. People are like, oh, she's a witch, too. And that's when the governor goes, no, no, no, no. Okay, okay, okay. Not my wife. Not my wife. And her name on the list helped push an end to the madness where now the governor's trying to be like, let's just rethink this a little bit. Could it maybe be the food we're eating? You're not killing my wife. So sorry. By the way, the dogs weren't safe either. For all you animal lovers out there, they were killing them too. At least two dogs were executed and being accused of being under a witch's control because they were just biting people going crazy because they're just dogs being dogs. And they probably had no food. One was said to have bewitched a girl. Another one just acted strange. They were like, why is that dog licking its ass? Witch? It's absurd and dark, but it's real, baby. Overall, there was a place in Salem called Gallows Hill. 19 people got hung there, all denied being witches, even as the noose were around their neck. They were like, we're not witches. So pretty brave to just do that till death. Over 200 people were accused overall, with at least 100 jailed, some for months in horrific conditions. So you say, oh, that's not that many people. I thought it was way more. But 200 people out of only a few thousand is a very high percentage. I mean, that would be hundreds of thousands of people if you extrapolated it to today's numbers. But I'm not going to extrapolate it, because I'm not that good at math, because I'm not Chinese. Now, the jails during the Salem witch trials, very overcrowded, dark, freezing, you know, not like our jails today. Prisoners shackled to the beds, no heat, nothing. Food was scarce, and it led to starvation. A lot of people just died in jail. Families had to pay for their own chains and food. So, you know, you have to. You know, some of y' all out there having nice chains. That's cause your mommy and daddy paid for that. Don't say it never did nothing for you, girl. Now, many prisoners just didn't. They couldn't survive the New England winter of 1692. They just couldn't. Because, you know, families maybe didn't have any money. They didn't have any money. And it was just bad. The ones who did survive, destitute, traumatized, of course, and permanently marked as suspicious. Okay? In their communities, if you got arrested for this, it's like the accusation was enough, Right? Didn't matter what happened. It doesn't matter what happened. What the actual law said the accusation was enough. Like poor Kevin Spacey. He was never convicted. He was only accused. But yet you still treat him poorly. Here's the myth. Ready for this? Oh, I just thought of a new segment. You know, we could call it an original name. Mythbusters. No one was burned during the Salem witch trials of 1692-1693. Nobody was burned. Burning at the stake was more common in European witch hunts, but in American witch hunts, we didn't burn them. We just hung them, because that's what Americans do. Germany, France, Scotland, they like to burn people. We like to hang people. It's what it is. Not everyone in the village supported the trials, though. Those who live closer to the port, to the water, they opposed the hysteria. And those who were, like, way further out, isolated and devout, tended to support the accusation. So the more religious and more devout you were, the more you believed that witchcraft was everywhere. I think there's that one thing throughout history, right? When religion is up, kind of science and reasoning is down. And when science and reasoning is up, religion goes down. So I think the best is to have a balance of the two. And this was definitely unbalanced. Religion was up, and so science and reasoning was out, and everyone was just dying. Cotton Mather, who was a respected Boston minister, wrote to the court, don't trust visions and dreams. That's spectral evidence, and it's unreliable. But they didn't listen to him because his name was Cotton. And that's kind of just a stupid name. It's like, you know, why? Yeah. Why would you name your kid Cotton? It's like, hey, my name's elastic. So Cotton Mather had a son who was actually the president of Harvard. And he agreed. He said, it's better 10 witches go free than one innocent die. And those words finally reached Governor William Phips, member whose wife was on the list. So he finally steps in and he says, listen, y' all got crazy. Enough is enough. The Salem witch trials lasted about 15 months total. Got intense. Executions took place over at Single Hill, just 1692. That's the only time people were getting really killed. Governor Phips shut it down. You know, I see someone. They accused his own wife. And then in 1692, October 1692, he. He disbanded that court of oyer and terminer, and he halted the trials. But by then, 19 were dead and scarred Salem forever. I mean, look, it's. All these years later, this is all we talk about. I mean, Salem is just. Nobody would know that the town existed unless it was for these Salem witch trials. It wasn't until years later where the government finally declared the trials unlawful and they admitted their fear. Injustice had driven the courts. Everyone. To go crazy. No reparations given to the families, though. Of course not. No. Everyone just, you know, you're dead. You're dead. Sorry. Gotta keep going on. And then in 1711, Massachusetts actually passed a bill that restored some of the civil rights and names of some of the accused and granted small financial compensation to surviving family members. But only a few. Many families got left out. Loved ones, you know, just got nothing. They were just. You just kind of wrong place, wrong time. Right? That happens in life. Wrong place, wrong time. And if you were living, if you were a woman in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, you are definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time. That would have been a perfect time, if you were a woman in Salem, 1692, to say, I'm going trans. Oh, you thought I had a vagina? Nope, that's a penis. I cut off the skin of my elbow. So, Salem Witch Trial, how does it start? It starts with two little girls screaming and then ends with everyone dying. Salem Witch trials were absolutely about fear of change, resentment towards the wealthy, and a community on edge because of religion. This is what we're saying. Religion is good, but in small doses. Okay, folks? I mean, when you get too religious, things get a little crazy. So you got to watch your back, trust no one, and do not eat the rye bread in Salem. It'll make you a witch, you crazy bitch. All right, those are the Salem witch trials. Tell me what you like. Tell me what you didn't like. Really appreciate you guys coming back to this channel. Week after week, we are here for you, giving you new updates on history every Sunday night. And remember, yesterday was history.