Did You Hear What Happened in Salem?: The Witch Trials of 1692

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1692. When the first girl fell down screaming, the people of Salem Village thought it might just be silliness. Then a second girl started barking. A third and fourth began to shake uncontrollably. A doctor said “an evil hand” had come upon the girls, and everyone knew: They were bewitched.

But who were the witches? Everyone knew that too: the unprotected residents of Salem—the poor, the elderly, the ones who were a little bit strange. Soon more girls were having f...