Witch Hunt: What Possessed Salem?

In 1706, 14 years after the Salem witch hunts, arch-accuser Ann Putnam made a formal apology to the congregation of the Salem Village church. "It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time," she said. "What I did was ignorantly done, being deluded by Satan."

Those executed on "Witches' Hill" had said as much in 1692. Maintaining their innocence--in full knowledge that they could avoid execution by confessing to crimes they didn't commit--several lamented that Salem Village itself seemed to have been possessed by Satan. In spirit at least, historians have tended to agree. Something strangely demonic was at work in Salem Village, something simultaneously fascinating and deeply disturbing, something we still don't fully understand.

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