Courses

In 1692, hundreds of people, including men, women, and children, were accused of witchcraft. Twenty were executed. What led the members of a small community in Salem, Massachusetts, to persecute and even kill each other? Historians have sought to answer this question for decades. They have approached Salem from a variety of angles, using economic, social, legal, anthropological, and gender studies frameworks to explain the occurrences of 1692. During the semester, we will explore some of these methods. While the events that took place in Salem remain the most sensational and well-known, they were not isolated incidents. Thus, we will connect the Salem Witcraft Trials to the massive witch hunts that took place in Europe between 1400 and 1700. During this time, widespread fears about witchcraft led to the persecution and execution of tens of thousands of people. Fascinating and chilling, witchcraft raises productive and provocative questions about human society and belief, about fear and responses to fear, about the cultural norms that permit and even encourage the deadly persecution of individuals, and the patterns of gendered expectations that put one gender (usually female) at heightened risk for witchcraft accusations.