HILF 15: Salem Witch Trials with Alex Malt

It is one of the darkest, yet most alluring parts of early American History, and although it only lasted for one year [1692-1693] the Salem Witch Trials spellbind us to this day. Dawn sits down with guest, Alex Malt, who is eager to get into this bewitching history and go visit his hometown sites with more authority next time. 

00:07:42 - After some catching up and chit-chat, Dawn gets into her sources, 2 Books:

But first, just the general stats on The Salem Witch Trials: 

00:13:27 - Dawn lays out her plan for the episode: First to tell the general story of the Salem Witch Trials, the HILFY-est Who's-what's of the story. Then, after the break, we will dive into the WHY and the HOW - which has been the focus of study in the 330-ish years since the Salem Witch Trials took place.

00:14:58 - We begin in January, 1692 in the cold, cold house of the cold, cold man, Rev. Samuel Parris. His daughter Betty and his niece Abigail have been trying their hand and fortune telling when all shit breaks loose. 

00:22:50 - Fortune Telling? Witch Cakes? THE DEVIL... There is no redder meat for a Puritan Village and the accusations begin to spread like wildfire. 

00:31:25 - The executions took place in Salem and they were all, except one, done by hanging. Giles Corey was pressed to death in a method considered archaic even by these animals. 

00:36:25 - All of the so-called judges were - to put it bluntly - cunts. But one of them was particularly cunty and his name is John Hawthorne. His descendant, Nathanial Hawthorne, would go on to apologize for his ancestor - and to write the novel The Scarlet Letter. 

PART 2

00:42:28 - We know that Salem didn't invent the idea of Witch Craft. Dawn goes back to English Witch Trials and how their laws and courts set a precedent for Salem - but it was, of course, horribly flawed and outdated even for the time. 

Dawn begins to lay out her favorite theories that have developed over the years in an attempt to explain WHY and HOW these horrible events could have happened: 

00:48:33 - THEORY #1 - Teenage Girls Just Suck.

Which is not entirely untrue, but it ignores the unique circumstances of the specific girls who were first 'afflicted' in Salem. Many of them - at least nine by my count - had witnessed firsthand bloody and murderous violence in the frontier by and against the native Americans. 

00:55:22 - THEORY #2 - It was never about witches - all local grievances and petty politics. 

No doubt, grievances and politics played a huge role in the Salem Witch Trials but - of course - they are at play in every community on earth. They were not so deep or so bloody or so egregious that they explain the murder of 20 people in 12 months. Also, it's not so local as the rifts are reflected as far away as the Mother England. 

01:02:30 - THEORY #3 - They were DRUGGED!

Ergot is a hallucination-inducing mold that grows on some grains and breads in certain weather scenarios. In 1976, Linnda R. Corpale suggested that this is to blame for the effects in Salem.

It’s a neat theory. Makes sense and lets us off the hook. It’s been pretty roundly dismissed. "

01:05:15 - THEORY #4 - It was the Devil.

If you are among the faithful who believe in the biblical interpretation of the apocalypse, good and evil - God and the Devil locked in an eternal battle for our souls - then this is NOT a story of psychosis, politics or moldy bread. Yes innocent people were murdered in Salem, but it was still the DEVIL who did that - using people as his pawns. At least that was how they were explaining it in 1697. 

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LIVE RECORDING - May 26th, 2022 at The Glendale Reading Room in Glendale, California

NEXT EPISODE - EP16: Great Mistakes with Brian Kiley.