Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch

Episode: Rachel Christ-Doane: Salem Witch Panic - Pt I

Date: November 5, 2025
Guest: Rachel Christ-Doane (Director of Education, Salem Witch Museum)
On Location: Salem, Massachusetts

Episode Overview

Comedian Rachel Dratch and co-host Irene Bremis kick off a two-part deep-dive into the true history behind the Salem Witch Trials, joined by expert historian Rachel Christ-Doane. They move beyond pop culture myths to unravel the origins, triggers, personal stories, and modern connections of the infamous 1692 panic. While humor and asides pepper the intense discussion, this episode is a detailed, accessible primer on the human dynamics—fear, scapegoating, and social tensions—that fueled one of America’s darkest chapters.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction & Guest Background

• Rachel Christ-Doane’s Path (01:39–03:13)
  • Christ-Doane shares her journey: a women's history major, she “accidentally” landed at the Salem Witch Museum as a college sophomore and became “obsessed” with witch trial history, ultimately writing her honors thesis and earning a Master's on the subject.
  • “I didn't know anything about the Salem Witch trials... which is ironic because I'm from Andover, which had more people accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials than Salem.” (02:09 – Christ-Doane)

Witchcraft in History: Scapegoating & Human Psychology

• Origins of Witch Beliefs (04:19–06:50)
  • The concept of witchcraft evolved alongside societal needs to blame outsiders in times of crisis. Christ-Doane draws parallels with scapegoating across different eras and marginalized groups.
  • “To scapegoat someone… is a very human thing to do. Right. It happens over and over again.” (04:34 – Christ-Doane)

The European Witch Trials and Salem's Uniqueness

• Witch as Social Outsider (06:50–10:16)
  • The archetype of witches as “enemies hiding in plain sight” emerges in 15th-century Europe, later mapped onto vulnerable individuals in Puritan New England.
  • Not only women: While witchcraft was gender-related, it wasn’t gender-specific. Men were also accused, especially if they challenged the hysteria.
  • “Witchcraft [was] a gender related crime, not a gender specific crime.” (08:28 – Christ-Doane)

Societal Context: Why Did the Panic Happen?

• "Perfect Storm" in Massachusetts (15:18–17:33)
  • Leading up to 1692, Massachusetts was rocked by: loss of its charter (loss of political autonomy), religious turmoil, wars with Native peoples, economic inflation, epidemic disease, and even climate disruptions (the “Little Ice Age”).
  • “A lot is going wrong all at the same time. … When your life is getting worse, when there's anxiety in the air, that's when people look for scapegoats.” (15:49 – Christ-Doane)

The Trigger: Illness and Accusation

• Case Zero: The ‘Afflicted Girls’ (17:33–22:15)
  • In early 1692, two young girls in the minister’s household begin exhibiting seizures and odd animal-like behaviors, echoing a similar Boston case from 1688. This is immediately interpreted through the lens of witchcraft.
  • The girls were never accused of witchcraft—instead, adults asked them: “Who hurt you?”
  • “They're showing these bizarre symptoms. But, no, they're not thought to be witches. They're the ones being hurt by witchcraft.” (22:15 – Christ-Doane)
  • The first named suspects: Sarah Good (a destitute, outspoken woman), Sarah Osborne (sick, scandalized for remarrying an indentured servant), and Tituba (an enslaved woman of color and ultimate scapegoat).

Tituba’s Pivotal Confession

• How Panic Spread (22:15–26:52)
  • Under pressure and abuse, Tituba confesses and claims there are more witches “in hiding.” This catalyzes mass suspicion and arrests, as authorities now believe in a hidden conspiracy.
  • “She says, you know what? Sure, I am a witch... And there are other witches hiding in the community as well. And that actually turns out to be kind of a smart thing on her part. … She had no way of knowing this, but she lives throughout the witch trials and is released.” (22:54–23:22 – Christ-Doane)

Real Stories: The Fates of the Accused

• Sarah and Dorothy Good (29:36–34:08)
  • Sarah Good’s biography is detailed—her downward spiral into poverty, her infant and four-year-old daughter Dorothy also swept up. Dorothy, after nearly eight months in jail, is permanently traumatized.
  • “Dorothy's four years old at the time of her accusation. She ends up going to prison with her mother and is in prison for like eight months. And by the time she's released, she's so traumatized by what happened that she's never able to recover herself. … She becomes a ward of the poverty relief system.” (30:51–31:41 – Christ-Doane)

Debunking "Land Grab" Myths

• Was Accusation Motivated by Greed? (33:48–37:40)
  • Rachel debunks popular theories that accusers sought the land of the accused, explaining that while property was seized by the state after convictions, accusers themselves didn’t benefit. Land disputes fed into personal grudges, but were not the direct motive.
  • “The accusers didn't get anything out of it. They could not take the property of the person they accused.” (36:15 – Christ-Doane)

Timeline: Accusations Escalate

• How the Panic Spread (40:39–44:44)
  • From the original three, the circle widens to more “afflicted” girls, and then to “usual suspects” (outspoken women, outsiders), before engulfing pillars of the community like elderly, respected Rebecca Nurse.
  • “Mouthy” women and social outcasts were especially vulnerable, but as the panic escalated, even friends and model citizens like Nurse were accused, often because of decades-old family grudges.

Executions: Process and Public Response

• Emergency Court & Spectral Evidence (47:32–53:17)

  • Once a new colonial charter was in place, Governor Phips forms an emergency court (“Oyer and Terminer”) that admits “spectral evidence”—visions and dreams—as proof. This is unprecedented and speeds up convictions.
  • The first person tried and executed: Bridget Bishop, known for her independent and quarrelsome nature.
  • Notable moment: “Bridget Bishop… the attorney general picks her intentionally because she has evidence that's beyond spectral evidence… They convict her, they execute her in June.” (51:30 – Christ-Doane)

• Notable Victims:

  • Rebecca Nurse: Elderly, upstanding, initially acquitted but retried after public outcry, then executed.
  • Mary Eastey (Nurse’s sister): Wrote moving petitions from jail. Her words plead, “I want you to consider sparing other innocent lives.” (paraphrased, 54:13)
  • George Burroughs: Former minister, forcefully brought from Maine, caused the crowd to doubt the justice of the executions when he perfectly recited the Lord’s Prayer at the gallows (57:23).

• Public Executions and Shifting Sentiment (55:17–58:42)

  • Initially, the public accepted hangings as moral lessons. As respected figures died, crowd sentiment shifted toward doubt and discomfort.
  • “When Bridget Bishop is executed, the tone is more like, yeah, she's a witch… but as the summer goes on… more and more people in the crowd are like, this is not okay. This is a corruption of justice.” (56:32 – 57:21 – Christ-Doane)
  • The largest hanging occurred on the final execution day: 8 people, including Mary Eastey.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Scapegoating and History Repeating:
  “The kind of disturbing part about being an early modern historian right now… a lot of rhetoric… is like, copied and pasted from the witch trials period. Same stories, same way of delivering them. It's just 300 years later.” (10:31 – Christ-Doane)

• On Witchcraft Accusations and Outspoken Women:
  “Who's the most likely to push social boundaries? Often it's women, poor women, women who are beggars, maybe seen as drains on society… Who were mouthy, outspoken…” (08:28 – Christ-Doane)

• On the Spread of Hysteria:
  “They bring them (the accused) in… Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne both say, I am not a witch… Tituba, however… pretty quickly starts following their leading questions… and that actually turns out to be kind of a smart thing on her part. She had no way of knowing this, but she lives throughout the witch trials…” (22:19–23:22 – Christ-Doane)

• On Public Hangings and Doubt:
  “…he, as he's standing literally at the foot of the gallows, recites the Lord's Prayer perfectly without error. And the crowd's looking at each other like he wasn't supposed to be able to do that.” (57:21 – Christ-Doane, re: George Burroughs)

• Contemporary Relevance:
  “It's really easy for us looking now to be like, how could they do this?... Well, how could we do what we're doing now?... It's the same old cycle, just a different century.” (44:55 – Christ-Doane)

Timeline & Key Segments

• 01:39–03:13 — Rachel Christ-Doane’s background
• 04:19–06:50 — Witch belief origins & scapegoating
• 06:50–10:16 — Gender and the “outsider”
• 15:18–17:33 — Political/social context leading up to 1692
• 17:33–22:15 — The “afflicted” girls and start of accusations
• 22:15–26:52 — Tituba’s confession and mass hysteria
• 29:36–34:08 — The tragedy of Sarah & Dorothy Good
• 33:48–37:40 — Debunking the “land grab” myth
• 40:39–44:44 — Cascade of accusations, including Rebecca Nurse
• 47:32–53:17 — Emergency court, spectral evidence, first executions
• 55:17–58:42 — Public hangings, shift in public opinion
• 53:21–54:13 — Mary Eastey’s moving petition
• 58:39–59:01 — Preview for next episode (myths, moldy wheat, modern witch narrative)

Memorable Moments

• Dorothy Good’s Small Chains:
  Christ-Doane discusses the legend of Dorothy being chained at age four—possibly the kernel of truth, but overblown by pop history. (32:38)
• Audience Reactions to Executions
  George Burroughs' articulate prayer on the scaffold sows widespread doubt. Cotton Mather calms the crowd, but a turning point has been reached. (57:23)
• Rebecca Nurse’s Defense:
  Her initial acquittal and then retrial under public pressure illustrates how mass fear steamrolled judicial process. (53:17)

Tone and Style

The conversation is equal parts accessible, humorous, and intellectually rigorous, deftly balancing the darkness of the subject with comedic asides and relatable modern analogies. Irene and Rachel’s joking about being “mouthy broads” and their running commentary—“I’m coming out against the Salem witch trial!” (44:15) or “You would not have fared well in 1692” (42:02)—help make the material lively without detracting from its gravity.

Next Episode Preview

The discussion was so rich that it spilled into a Part II. Upcoming topics will include:

• Myths about witch trials (e.g., "swim or sink" tests, burning)
• Alternative (and debunked) explanations for hysteria (moldy wheat/ergot)
• The changing depiction of witches in pop culture and feminism

Recommended Reading (teased by the guest)

Rachel Christ-Doane’s forthcoming book on Dorothy Good and survivor trauma, plus other reading recommendations—likely to be discussed in Part II.

For Listeners New to the Topic

This episode covers:

• A clear, chronological account of how hysteria developed and spread
• The deeply personal impact on women, children, and community leaders
• The complex human psychology driving the witch hunts, and how these dynamics repeat in modern society

If you want to understand how scapegoating, mass panic, and miscarriage of justice come together—and why these stories echo today—this episode is an engaging and essential listen.