While most everyone has heard of the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693, few people have heard the details that have come to light through recent historical evaluations.

Saturday afternoon at the Marshalltown Public Library, historian Kathy Wilson gave a bone-chilling account of the events, offering insights gleaned by modern-day historians.

“We thought it would be a good seasonal topic for Halloween, talking about witches,” Librarian Katie Fink said. “We’ve had Kathy come in the past to do programs and people have loved her, so we just wanted to bring her back.”

Before focusing on Salem, Wilson discussed the political and religious climate of England and other parts of Europe from the 1300s to 1600s, and how a belief that those who practiced witchcraft or magic were the sources behind unexplainable disasters, deaths and tragedies.

Around 200,000 people – mainly in central Europe – were executed under suspicion of being witches.

“We’ve all heard the stereotypes about the Salem Witch Trials. You learned it was a bunch of little girls that got caught playing magic, and all hell broke loose, but you never heard why it happened and what the outcome was,” Wilson said.

The settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony – primarily Puritans – had witnessed those witch-hunts in their mother countries.

“They had no problems pointing fingers at other Anglicans and Catholics and charging them with witchcraft if they felt at all persecuted or threatened by these individuals,” Wilson said. “Two hundred people were accused and 19 were tried and executed.”

She said historians have noted a series of trends among the accused in Salem Village (today the town of Danvers, Mass.). They tended to be females between the ages of 39 and 72, who were either widowed or orphaned and did not have a male authority figure for protection; owned (valuable) property or a business; were outspoken critics of local government or the church; had altercations with the law; had previously been accused of witchcraft.

The two key figures in the Salem Witch Trials were Thomas Putnam and the Rev. Samuel Parris. Wilson said after the three girls made their accusations, powerful men in the community backed their claims, but it was more than religious hysteria – greed was the driving force. Putnam was the father of one of the accusers, and Parris was the father and uncle of the other two accusers.

“There was an agenda in gaining control of the land in the village,” she said. “The Putnams were trying to eliminate the opposition. I do believe Rev. Parris truly believed that there was evil in Salem and that the devil was at work … If you happened to be the person accusing someone of witchcraft for the first time, which was the case most of the time, when that person was found guilty and executed, you got their property.”

Most of the accusers had been affiliated with Putnam, who also served as clerk of court for the trials.

“Those people who were going out and rounding up supporters to make accusations were encouraged to do so by Thomas Putnam. One of the things historians have noticed is that there are more than 100 documents recording the accusations and they read like the 17th century example of cut and paste. They read almost verbatim,” Wilson said.

Wilson is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Iowa. She specializes in 18th and 19th century British-American social history.