It began in 1692, over an exceptionally cold Massachusetts winter, when a minister’s daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, after 19 men and women—and two dogs—had been executed for witchcraft. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the fledgling colony. Suspicions flew as neighbors accused neighbors, children accused their parents, and siblings each other.
In her new book, The Witches: Salem, 1692 (Little, Brown), Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff paints a portrait of a dark, unsettled time when the colony braced itself daily against Indian attack and English oversight, and when anxiety rippled just under the surface.
Aside from suffrage, for Schiff the Salem witch trials represent the only other moment when women played a central role in American history. Her questions about the Salem settlers resonate today: How do women express themselves when they are meant to be silent? How are their words interpreted or mangled? How does a society handle female self-expression and empowerment?
Schiff, whose books include biographies of Cleopatra, Véra Nabokov, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, examines the legal and social ramifications of the trials; the truth about witchcraft; the world of adolescent girls; and how in curious ways the events of 1692 shaped America’s future.
The Witches is available for signing.
Smithsonian Connections
Smithsonian.com offers a brief history of the Salem witch trials, events in colonial America that took place as a 300-year-old “witchcraft craze” was coming to its end in Europe.
Stacy Schiff writes about the Salem Witch trials in the November 2015 issue of Smithsonian magazine.
