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