Myths and Misconceptions about the Salem Witchcraft Trials
June 10 @ 6:00 pm
Bridget Bishop Anniversary Lecture at the Witch House.
The Salem witchcraft trials are the subject of much popular interest, but its history is a victim of many myths, misconceptions, and total fiction. Historian Margo Burns will tease them apart, from ergot to land-grabs, and many more.
Margo is the 10th-generation great-granddaughter of Rebecca Nurse, who was hanged in Salem in 1692 on the charge of witchcraft. She is the project manager and an associate editor of Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press. This work is the definitive collection of transcriptions of the legal records of the episode.