In the fall, many Connecticut residents become infatuated with its dark seventeenth-century past. They indulge in decorating their homes with spider webs, witches, and cauldrons, watching movies like Hocus Pocus, and visiting seemingly spooky villages such as Salem, Massachusetts. Yet, such accessibility to and immersion in witch-related pop culture has actually created a misunderstanding. Salem was not the first community to try and hang witches in the New World. Instead, Connecticut, over forty years before the events in Salem, had its own witch trials that were just as tumultuous, if not more so.
Patrick Cumpstone will present a lecture on the Connecticut Witch Trials on October 25 at 7pm at Milford Public Library, 57 New Haven Ave. In this presentation, Cumpstone will explain why he thinks many of the women tried for witchcraft in Connecticut Colony between 1647 and 1669 were accused. By fitting the trial details into the cultural context of the period, he suggests an explicit connection between the women’s speech and their accusations. He will also review the scholarship that has since been done on the Connecticut Witch Trials and its influence in driving legal change in the state.