When you hear “Salem Witch Trials,” you picture Salem, Massachusetts. Almost everyone does. But the panic that became the most infamous witch hunt in American history did not start in Salem at all. It started a few miles inland, in Salem Village, a farming community of feuding families and one deeply divided church, in the village we know today as Danvers. Part 1 of our two-part story goes back to 1692, to a minister’s home where unexplained fits began among the girls of the household, fits no one could name and no one could stop.

From that one household, the fear had somewhere to go. Ale traces how Tituba’s confession changed the temperature of the whole colony, how spectral evidence, testimony about visions no one else could see, was allowed to carry real weight, and why even respected neighbors like Rebecca Nurse were not safe. She also gets into what really happened to Giles Corey, and follows Salem Village into its next life as Danvers. Tom is hearing all of it for the first time, just like you. How does a village convince itself that the devil moved in next door?