The Instant New York Times Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly Bestseller!Killing the
Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the
events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village Massachusetts. What began as a mysterious affliction
of two young girls who suffered violent fits and exhibited strange behavior soon spread to
other young women. Rumors of demonic possession and witchcraft consumed Salem. Soon three women
were arrested under suspicion of being witches--but as the hysteria spread more than 200
people were accused. Thirty were found guilty twenty were executed and others died in jail or
their lives were ruined.Killing the Witches tells the dramatic history of how the Puritan
tradition and the power of early American ministers shaped the origins of the United States
influencing the founding fathers the American Revolution and even the Constitutional
Convention. The repercussions of Salem continue to the present day notably in the real-life
story behind The Exorcist and in contemporary witch hunts driven by social media. The result is
a compulsively readable book about good evil community panic and how fear can overwhelm fact
and reason.
