Salem Witch Trials: Nothing But Putnams

Show Notes

The Putnam Family’s Role in the Salem Witch Trials

No family is more associated with the Salem Witch Trials than the Putnams. And for good reason. One man in this family filed complaints against 35 people. His wife, his daughter, and their maid were all among the afflicted. The depositions, the courtroom drama, the relentless momentum of accusation after accusation. The Putnams were not bystanders to any of it.

So it would be easy to close the book on them there. Villains. Next chapter.

Except the same family also signed the petition defending Rebecca Nurse. Some members testified against the accused in the morning and put their names on her defense in the afternoon. One branch quietly took in Dorothy Good in the years after the trials, when almost no one else would. And one Putnam kept his horse saddled for months, ready to ride at a moment’s notice, because he was openly opposing the trials and he knew what that could cost him.

In This Episode

Three branches of the Putnam family, three generations, and a cast of individual’s history has flattened into footnotes. Josh and Sarah trace who accused, who defended, who did both, and who walked a quieter path that history almost forgot. The story of Ann Putnam Jr. and the only public apology to come out of the entire crisis. The Putnam descendants who shaped American history long after 1692. And the harder question underneath all of it: when a community turns on itself, what does it take to be one of the people who helped it happen, and what does it take to be one of the people who doesn’t?

About The Thing About Salem

The Thing About Salem takes the Salem Witch Trials seriously as history. That means going beyond the names everyone knows, sitting with the complexity, and treating the people involved as real human beings rather than symbols. Hosted by Sarah Jack and Josh Hutchinson, the podcast draws on decades of research, firsthand expertise, and a genuine commitment to getting it from the records. New episodes every week.