Publisher's Synopsis
The Salem witchcraft affair in 1692 may be divided into two major episodes; namely, the Salem Village witch hunt and the Andover witch hunt.. Each witch hunt involved about the same number of people imprisoned. Salem Village, as an unplanned outgrowth Salem town, was disorderly. Andover, as a planned settlement of the aristocratic and organizational genius Simon Bradstreet, was orderly. The witch hunt started in Salem Village in February 1692. The answer is: The authorities realized that the orderly people of Andover would provide the needed confessions. In summary the answer to the question "WITCHES IN SALEM, BUT WHY IN ANDOVER?" Arrests were made in the Salem Village witch hunt over the four-month time period from March 1, 1692, to July 1, 1692. Essentially all the people arrested refused to confess to the sin of witchcraft The Salem witchcraft court held its first trial on June 2, 1692. Without confession the court had to convict the accused on the basis of spectral evidence. Many objected to the use of such a questionable form of evidence. A new witch hunt was started in Andover in July 1692. Essentially all the people arrested for witchcraft confessed. Let us now add an additional fact. In July 1692, the authorities sorely needed confessions in order to validate the Salem witch trials underway. The question now becomes: Why did an entirely new witch hunt start in Andover? The answer is that the authorities needed confessions from orderly God-fearing people as found in Andover in order to justify the validity of the Salem witchcraft trails underway.
