Partially this is due to the event’s metaphorical malleability, and how different generations can retool the story to suit its own needs (see, e.g., Arthur Miller’s The Crucible). Partially that is due to its perceived historical irony – intolerance, zealotry, and bloodletting in the land of tolerance and religious freedom. Yet 322 years later, they are still at the forefront of our consciences. Compared to the Inquisition, it barely registers. In the annals of religion-fueled violence, the Salem Witch Trials were relatively small time. When it finally ended in 1693, 19 people have been hanged and one person (Giles “More Weight” Cory) had been pressed to death. Then they started accusing townspeople of bewitching them. Pretty soon, more girls were having fits. Their fits proceeded (naturally!) into the baking of a “witch cake,” the secret sauce of the cake being the girls’ urine. The furor began with young girls – Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam – acting strangely after having their fortunes told. In 1691, in Salem Village, religious repression and fear combined with baser ingredients of boredom and greed boiled over into the infamous Salem Witch Trials. It made for an environment in which clear thinking and logic paled before cries of “She’s a witch!” If these worries were not enough, Puritan leadership filled their followers heads with hogwash about demons and devils and evil spirits. They killed settlers in their beds, dragged women and children into the woods, and were reputed to be cannibals.

Possessed of an almost mystical connection to the land, the Indians could appear, strike, and vanish at any moment. The forests also would have hid Indians, the most terrifying creatures of all. Beyond the gridded towns and the tended fields, a giant wilderness would have loomed, huge dark forests that hid ferocious bears, stalking panthers, larcenous squirrels, and possibly homicidal raccoons.

Undoubtedly, the Massachusetts of the 17th century would have been a terrifying place for a Puritan colonist.

A Delusion of Satan by Frances Hill