Ep. 14: "Lives of the Necromancers," and the Salem Trials

The Salem trials were largely the result of a combination of personal animus, avarice, and cruelty within a deeply occultist culture. New England courts executed nineteen witches and subjected many repented convicts to purifying torture. One thing only ended the feverish trials: accusers gradually turned on the affluent and influential after using up the easier targets of marginalized and poor women.Further Readings/References:Godwin’s Lives of the Necromancers seriesGodwin’s chapter on SalemMarshall, Peter. William Godwin: Philosopher, Novelist, Revolutionary. PM Press. 2017.Miller, Perry. The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century. Boston: Beacon Press. 1954.Trevor-Roper, H. R. The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1969. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.