Salem witch trials

1. Trials held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 that led to the execution of twenty people for allegedly practicing witchcraft. The trials are noted for the hysterical atmosphere in which they were conducted; many townspeople were widely suspected of witchcraft on flimsy evidence.

When people are quick to accuse one another of serious misdeeds on inadequate evidence, the situation is often compared to the Salem witch trials.

A “witch hunt” is a political campaign launched under the pretext of investigating activities considered subversive by the state.

Example Sentences

The trial of Amy Denny and Rose Cullender, from Lowestoft, held in Bury St Edmunds in 1662 set a precedent that was believed to have influenced the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts at the end of that century.

Read more on BBC

Just as America’s penchant for religious mania and moral panic goes clear back to the Puritan settlers and the small-town schism of the Salem witch trials, the punitive, paranoid spirit behind Alligator Alcatraz — the desire to divide those who “belong” to the imagined national community from those who do not — has deep roots in this nation’s history.

Read more on Salon

Forty years after William Pynchon’s books were burned in Boston, the nearby Salem witch trials exploded, with the state murdering 14 women and five men and tormenting nearly 200 others for demonic sorcery.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“It was like the Salem witch trials,” he said, adding that the hearings were a distraction from the devastation in Gaza.

Read more on New York Times

In I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, Condé told the story of a slave who was one of the first women to be accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Read more on BBC