“New England’s Other Witch Hunt” with Walt Woodward-CT State Historian Emeritus

Join Walt Woodward, CT State Historian emeritus, on Thursday, March 30, 2023, a 7p.m. as he discusses New England’s Other Witch Hunt. 

Everyone knows about the witch hunt at Salem in 1692. But few people know that in the years before Salem, Connecticut was New England’s fiercest witch prosecutor. The first person hanged for witchcraft in New England came from Windsor, and every single person indicted for witchcraft in Connecticut in its early years was convicted and hanged.

Walt Woodward brings this extraordinary and nearly forgotten story to life in a lecture that begins with the Protestant Reformation and traces its history all the way through the Hartford Witch hunt of the 1660’s – a nightmare of trials and executions that preceded Salem by a generation. He also shows how Connecticut’s Governor John Winthrop, Jr. and his friend Rev. Gershom Bulkeley intervened to transform Connecticut from New England’s most aggressive witch hunter to a colony that completely ended executions for witchcraft thirty years before they even began at Salem.

Along the way, he answers all those questions you’ve wondered about the early witch hunts, and explains why almost everyone in the 1600s believed that witchcraft was very real, and terribly dangerous.

This 45 minute program will touch on such topics as Witchcraft, Hartford Witch Hunts, Early Modern Culture, 17th Century New England, Religious History, Legal History, Alchemy, Magic, Puritan Society, Salem Massachusetts. Learn more about presenter Walt Woodward and the program New England’s Other Witch Hunt.  

The fee for this program is $10 for adults and $5 for students and pre-registration is strongly suggested.

Continue on with our exploration of Witch themed programs and attend Salem Witch Hysteria presented by Delvena Theatre Company.

This program series is sponsored by