The Thing About Salem

Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack

The Thing About Salem is your resource for in-depth coverage of the Salem Witch Trials, the largest outbreak of witchcraft accusations in American history. Witch trial descendants and experts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack examine a different “thing” about the Salem Witch-Hunt in each new conversational episode, uncovering a topic, person, or place associated with the witch hunt of 1692-1693. 15-minutes a week is all you need to have all your Salem Witch Trials questions answered. Were there any witches in Salem? #witchcraft #truecrime #Tituba #puritans #newengland #popculture #history

  1. Tituba elaborates on her Salem Witch Trials confession

    4H AGO · BONUS

    Tituba elaborates on her Salem Witch Trials confession

    In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we cover the developments of March 2, 1692 in Essex County, including constable Samuel Braybrook’s report that Sarah Good escaped custody three times on the way to the Ipswich jail. Back at the Salem jail, magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin interrogated Sarah Osborne and Tituba, with Osborne maintaining her innocence while Tituba expanded on her confession, describing the devil’s appearance, coercion to harm Betty Parris and Abigail, and signing the devil’s book alongside nine others, including Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, leaving several witches unidentified. We also share how testimony continued to mount, with reports of Sarah Good’s specter and strange animal apparitions, as five community members formally deposed against the three accused women. 00:00 March 2nd Shock 00:35 Show Introduction 00:40 Osborne and Tituba 01:37 Devil’s Book 01:59 Witch Hunt Begins 02:18 More Testimonies 02:38 Formal Depositions Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims: https://change.org/witchtrials Find My Massachusetts Legislators: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCliis4vjMIUgg3wcA0pXeYQ/ ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub: https://aboutsalem.com/salem-witch-trials-daily/⁠ Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026: https://aboutsalem.com/week-7-blog-families-geography-and-the-machinery-of-accusation-february-9-15-2026/ ⁠The Thing About Salem: https://aboutsalem.com⁠ ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts: https://aboutwitchhunts.com⁠ ⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780375706905⁠ Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781107689619⁠ ⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience:  https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780190627805⁠ ⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781589791329⁠ Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection (the court documents): https://pem.quartexcollections.com/collections/salem-witch-trials-collection Links

    3 min
  2. March 1, 1692: The first arrests of the Salem Witch Trials

    1D AGO · BONUS

    March 1, 1692: The first arrests of the Salem Witch Trials

    We cover the busy day of March 1, 1692 in Salem Village as Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba were arrested and brought to the meetinghouse for crowded examinations led by magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, with multiple people recording the proceedings. We discuss how Good and Osborne denied any pact with the devil while pressure and accusations mounted, including debate over whether the devil could appear in an innocent person’s shape. We recount how Tituba’s testimony escalated fears by describing the devil, other alleged witches, and strange creatures, and by implicating Good and Osborne while claiming coercion. We also touch on the suspects’ jailing arrangements, a village meeting pushing separation from Salem Town, and reports of spectral affliction, a “beast” sighting, and Good’s brief escape attempt. 00:00 A Tense Day Begins 00:23 Arrests and Witch Marks 00:54 Hearing Setup and Recorders 01:27 Sarah Good Examined 02:46 Sarah Osborne Questioned 03:35 Tituba Breaks and Confesses 07:00 Specters and Strange Creatures 08:57 Jail and Village Politics 09:41 More Reports and Closing Tease Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims Find My Massachusetts Legislators The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026 ⁠The Thing About Salem ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts ⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt ⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience ⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

    10 min
  3. How did the Salem Witch Trials start?

    1D AGO

    How did the Salem Witch Trials start?

    How did the Salem Witch Trials Start? It's early March 1692, and Salem Village is about to change forever. In this episode of The Thing About Salem, we cover the explosive first week of the Salem Witch Trials, from the very first arrests to the courtroom confessions that transformed a local crisis into a full-blown witch hunt. The episode opens with a recap of the pivotal final days of February 1692, when a physician's diagnosis, a desperate folk magic ritual, and a gathering of ministers set the stage for what was coming. By February 29, the waiting was over. Complaints were filed, warrants were issued, and three women were headed to examination. March 1, 1692 marks a critical  moment in the Salem Witch Trials. Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin questioned the accused in the packed Salem Village meeting house, and what happened inside those walls would send shockwaves through Massachusetts Bay Colony and fuel months of accusations to come. The episode traces events day by day through March 7, showing exactly how a handful of afflicted girls, a contested diagnosis, and one dramatic confession set an entire province on edge. In this episode: The witch cake and what it was meant to do The first complaints and arrest warrants of the Salem Witch Trials The examinations of Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and Tituba before magistrates Hathorne and Corwin Tituba's confession and the Devil's book with nine signatures Why the debate over spectral evidence mattered Day-by-day events from March 1 through March 7, 1692 Links Salem Witch Trials Daily Videos & Course The Thing About Salem Website ⁠The Thing on YouTube⁠! ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts Website Sign the Petition: MA Witch Hunt Justice Project www.massachusettswitchtrials.org Support the nonprofit End Witch Hunts Podcasts and Projects ⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt ⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience ⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege ⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

    21 min
  4. In the Salem Witch Trials, warrants were issued for the first 3 witchcraft suspects on February 29, 1692

    1D AGO · BONUS

    In the Salem Witch Trials, warrants were issued for the first 3 witchcraft suspects on February 29, 1692

    In this episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we cover the events of February 28th and 29th, 1692. We discuss how heavy rains kept Governor Bradstreet from meeting, while the afflicted in Salem Village—Betty, Abigail, Ann, and Elizabeth—continued to suffer. We explore reports from the parsonage in which Tituba was visited by the devil, alleged witches, and familiars, and how these encounters escalated fears in the village. As the girls’ afflictions intensified, Samuel Parris and others moved from waiting to action. We recount how a formal complaint was filed against Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, leading Salem magistrates to issue arrest warrants and order the accused brought to Ingersoll’s Tavern for preliminary examinations the next morning. 00:00 Stormy Sabbath Setup 00:29 Meet the Hosts 00:34 Feb 28 and 29 Overview 00:46 Tituba's Spectral Visits 01:26 Threats and Rising Afflictions 01:35 Complaints and Arrest Warrants 02:13 Tomorrow's Examinations Tease Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims Find My Massachusetts Legislators The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026 ⁠The Thing About Salem ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts ⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt ⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience ⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

    2 min
  5. February 27, 1692: The Devil's Book in the Salem Witch Trials

    3D AGO · BONUS

    February 27, 1692: The Devil's Book in the Salem Witch Trials

    In today’s Salem Witch Trials Daily episode, we discuss February 27, 1692, when Ann Putnam Jr. reported that Sarah Good’s specter tortured her and tried to force her to sign the Devil’s book, marking the first such accusation in the Salem crisis. We place this idea in its long theological context and explain how Puritans viewed the book as a set of diabolical contracts, even as descriptions of it varied during the trials. We also touch on Elizabeth Hubbard’s claims that Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne tormented her, including a frightening wolf incident later referenced during Tituba’s questioning. Finally, we preview how the Devil’s book concept escalated rapidly after Tituba’s March 1 confession, including her testimony that nine names were already in the book. 00:00 Welcome and Date 00:16 Devil’s Book Origins 00:59 First Salem Accusation 01:49 What the Book Meant 02:22 Hubbard and the Wolf 03:22 Tituba’s Confession 03:38 Conspiracy Expands Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims: https://change.org/witchtrials Find My Massachusetts Legislators: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCliis4vjMIUgg3wcA0pXeYQ/ ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub: https://aboutsalem.com/salem-witch-trials-daily/⁠ Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026: https://aboutsalem.com/week-7-blog-families-geography-and-the-machinery-of-accusation-february-9-15-2026/ ⁠The Thing About Salem: https://aboutsalem.com⁠ ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts: https://aboutwitchhunts.com⁠ ⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780375706905⁠ Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781107689619⁠ ⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780190627805⁠ ⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege: https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9781589791329⁠ Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection: https://pem.quartexcollections.com/collections/salem-witch-trials-collection Links

    4 min
  6. The First Person Accused of Witchcraft in Salem in 1692

    3D AGO · BONUS

    The First Person Accused of Witchcraft in Salem in 1692

    In our February 26, 1692 episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily, we look at the moment the Salem Witch Trials escalated when the first specific accusation of witchcraft was made. We discuss how neighboring ministers and gentlemen visited Samuel Parris at the Salem Village parsonage, witnessed Betty and Abigail’s afflictions, and concluded Satan’s hand was involved while advising caution. We also cover what was learned from Tituba during this visit, including her connection to the witch cake attempt and what she said about learning methods to discover witches. Finally, we follow how the afflicted girls’ finger-pointing began in the Parris household, setting the stage for arrests that would soon follow. 00:00 Late February Recap 00:45 Ministers Visit Parris 01:31 Tituba And The Witch Cake 02:00 First Accusations Begin 02:44 What Happens Next 02:49 Where To Follow Sign the petition to exonerate Massachusetts witch trial victims Find My Massachusetts Legislators The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channe ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026 ⁠The Thing About Salem ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts ⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt ⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience ⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

    3 min
  7. The Devil Hath Been Raised in Salem: The Baking of the Witch Cake

    5D AGO · BONUS

    The Devil Hath Been Raised in Salem: The Baking of the Witch Cake

    The Witch Cake That Sparked Salem’s PanicWe revisit the crisis in Reverend Samuel Parris’s Salem Village household in February 1692, when his daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams suffered violent fits and a doctor declared they were under an “evil hand.” With no natural cure, neighbor Mary Sibley intervened while the Parrises were away, directing Tituba and John Indian to make a traditional witch cake using rye flour and the girls’ urine, then feed it to the family dog as a form of sympathetic counter-magic. We discuss the folk beliefs behind this practice and why it failed to help the girls, who soon began naming alleged tormenters. We also cover Parris’s furious reaction and his condemnation of using folk magic as sinful in the Puritan worldview.00:00 Fits in Salem Village00:35 Witch Cake Countermagic01:16 How the Cake Was Supposed to Work01:54 Accusations Ignite02:07 Parris Condemns Folk MagicLinks Sign the petition to exonerate Find My Massachusetts Legislators The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026 ⁠The Thing About Salem ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

    3 min
  8. Salem Witch Trials Daily: Under an Evil Hand

    5D AGO · BONUS

    Salem Witch Trials Daily: Under an Evil Hand

    We introduce the early events that sparked the Salem witch trials, focusing on January and February 1692 in Reverend Samuel Parris’s Salem Village household. Parris’s 9-year-old daughter Betty and 11-year-old niece Abigail began exhibiting alarming, inexplicable behaviors and violent physical afflictions. The family tried prayer, fasting, and medical treatment without relief, and around February 24 a local physician (widely believed to be Dr. William Griggs) examined the girls and found no natural cause, concluding they were under an “evil hand.” The hosts draw on later accounts by ministers John Hale and Deodat Lawson describing preternatural fits, invisible biting and pinching, contorted movements, choking, and apparent conversations with unseen “appearances.” With the community quickly concluding the girls were bewitched, the episode turns toward how this diagnosis shifted attention from medicine to the question of who was responsible. 00:00 Mysterious Afflictions Begin 00:18 Bizarre Symptoms in Parris Home 01:01 Prayer and Medicine Fail 01:07 Doctor Declares Evil Hand 01:34 Hale Describes Torments 02:15 Lawson Witnesses the Fits 03:10 Meaning of Bewitchment 03:39 Who Is Responsible Sign the petition to exonerate Find My Massachusetts Legislators The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel ⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 7: Families, Geography, and the Machinery of Accusation, February 9-15, 2026 ⁠The Thing About Salem ⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

    4 min
See All (99)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

The Thing About Salem is your resource for in-depth coverage of the Salem Witch Trials, the largest outbreak of witchcraft accusations in American history. Witch trial descendants and experts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack examine a different “thing” about the Salem Witch-Hunt in each new conversational episode, uncovering a topic, person, or place associated with the witch hunt of 1692-1693. 15-minutes a week is all you need to have all your Salem Witch Trials questions answered. Were there any witches in Salem? #witchcraft #truecrime #Tituba #puritans #newengland #popculture #history

Information

  • Creator
    Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack
  • Show Website
    The Thing About Salem