4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
We often think of the witch trials as something in the deep and distant past.
But, as we'll hear in today's episode, the attitudes and behaviour that led to witch trials is as present today as it was then.
In this third and final episode of our limited series, Inside the Witch Trials, we go back to Salem, Massachusetts, to find out how colonialism, racism and a radical ideology created a witch trial that's as relevant today as it was in the 17th century.
What was life like for Puritans in this new and unfamiliar land? Why did so many people willingly admit to being witches? And what became of Tituba, the enslaved woman whose testimony sparked panic in this remote village?
Kate is joined by Professor Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials, to find out.
This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
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0:00.0 | Hello my lovely betwixters it's me Kate Lister how are you doing well I'm doing just fine thank you very much for asking I'm glad that we're all fine and here together but to make sure that you stay fine and I stay fine and everyone else stays fine, I have to give you the fair dues warning, so here it is. |
0:17.0 | This is an adult podcast broken by adults to other adults about adult things in an adult way, covering a range of adult subjects, and you should be an adult too. |
0:24.0 | And actually in all seriousness we are getting quite tasty today. |
0:27.5 | We are discussing the witch trials. |
0:29.5 | And if that is not your cup of tea, |
0:31.5 | then this is your opportunity to get out now while you still can. |
0:35.0 | For the rest of you, on with the show. |
0:38.0 | The early modern period was a time of huge upheaval. |
0:46.0 | Radical ideas were spreading like wildfire. |
0:49.0 | People were led to believe they were at spiritual war with the devil. The stakes couldn't have been higher. |
0:55.8 | As fear and paranoia grew, a violent breaking point was inevitable. |
1:00.9 | What became known as the witch trials soon followed. |
1:05.0 | Over the course of this limited series I'll be taking you directly into the isolated communities where this fear was felt the most. |
1:16.0 | Further still, we'll enter into the courtrooms at the heart of three significant witch trials |
1:21.0 | to find out what it was like to be caught up in the middle of all this mayhem. |
1:25.6 | From Pendle in Lancashire where a nine-year-old sent her whole family to their deaths after accusing them of being witches. |
1:33.0 | It's Janet who really signs the death warrant for her own people. |
1:39.0 | To the West Fords of Iceland, where it was mostly men, not women, who were burnt at the stake. |
1:45.0 | All of a sudden the devil was all around and this caused the hysterical fear. |
1:50.5 | And to Salem, Massachusetts, where colonialism, racism and fear in an unknown land created a perfect storm that is still felt today. |
1:59.0 | The Salem witch trials, they have this really long legacy legacy and it's a legacy of persecution and |
2:05.3 | mistrust. Join me Kate Lister as we go inside the witch trials. |
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