Salem trials
Colonial witch hunt
The Salem trials were witch trials held in colonial Massachusetts in 1692, resulting in the execution of twenty people accused of witchcraft.
The phrase now serves as shorthand for mass hysteria, moral panic, or persecution based on flimsy evidence: The hearings became a Salem trial, with accusations flying and careers destroyed.
Arthur Miller's play *The Crucible* cemented the trials as a metaphor for McCarthyism and political witch hunts generally.
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
- spectral evidenceTestimony from supernatural visions
- TitubaSalem trials' first accused
- Massachusetts Bay ColonyEarly Puritan New England settlement
- mass hysteriaShared irrational public fear
accused witches · scapegoating · Puritans · moral panic · false accusations · McCarthyism · guilty verdict · Arthur Miller · colonial America · gallows · testimony · occult practices · gender bias · execution · paganism · legal precedent · religious intolerance · 17th century
- witchcraftwitch, spell, spellwork, witches, spells
- church historychurch history, apostles, Protestant Reformation, Christian history, baptism
- crime historyorganized crime, criminal records, Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, Jack the Ripper
- religious trialsinquisition, religious court, Spanish Inquisition, Roman Inquisition, church court
- Salem witchcraftwitch trials, accused witches, spectral evidence, Tituba, hangings
- witch huntswitch trials, witch hunt, witch hunts, witchcraft accusations, witch finder
Salem trialsdue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
fair trial · habeas corpus · rule of law · presumption of innocence · judicial review
Salem trialsscientific inquiry
Systematic investigation of phenomena
evidence-based reasoning · Age of Reason · Enlightenment · forensic science · skeptical inquiry
Salem trialsrestorative justice
Conflict resolution through mutual healing
amnesty · exoneration · rehabilitation · community healing · civil rights movement