The War On Witches: When Good People Do Evil Things
Most of us think we already understand the witch hunts. We think of Salem; Of pointed hats, black cats, and women accused of consorting with the devil. It's one of history's most recognizable stories, which is exactly why it's so easy to gloss over. We assume we know what happened, file it away under “historic events in the rearview mirror,” and move on. But the deeper you look, the stranger it gets — and the less it has to do with the Salem we think we know.
Published October 1, 2026 | Featuring: Jessica Strohm
How We Came to See Our Neighbors as Monsters Well Before 1692
Most of us think we already understand the witch hunts. Salem. Pointed hats. Women accused of consorting with the devil. It’s one of history’s most recognizable stories, which is exactly why it’s so easy to gloss over.
Many of the people accused of witchcraft across Europe and colonial America weren't fringe figures or social outcasts. They were healers, midwives, herbalists, respected members of their communities. They delivered babies, cared for the sick, found missing livestock, interpreted dreams. Their neighbors relied on them. And then, gradually, those same neighbors came to believe they were servants of the devil.
The witch you picture probably isn't the historical one. The black cat, the cauldron, the pointed hat — most of those images were layered onto witchcraft long after the major European trials had already ended. They're cultural sediment, not history.
What the records actually show is something more unsettling: accusations frequently targeted people whose knowledge had once made them valuable. The same herbal remedies that earned a woman trust in her community could, under the right circumstances, be reframed as evidence of dark arts.
Neighbors turned on neighbors. Former patients testified against healers. Once suspicion took hold, it had a way of making everything fit — helping someone recover from illness became evidence of supernatural influence, and even denying the charges could be read as further proof of guilt.
That psychological mechanism didn't disappear when the witch trials ended. Legal standards improved and the specific hysteria faded, but the underlying pattern — the way fear can collapse an individual into a category, and how moral certainty can make ordinary people participants in extraordinary injustice — has never really gone away.
This episode of Pretty Evil isn't really about the occult. It's about perception, and what happens to it under pressure. When did the story you've been told about someone become more real to you than the person standing in front of you?
“That's the thing about this kind of fear. It only requires that the story you've been told about someone becomes more real to you than the person standing in front of you.”
— Jessica Strohm, Host & Show Creator
Sources & Further Reading
Primary Historical Sources
Matthew Hopkins
Hopkins' own account of his methods as England's self-appointed Witchfinder General — an essential primary source for understanding how witch hunts were justified by those carrying them out.
King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England)
Written after the North Berwick witch trials, this treatise defended the reality of witchcraft and encouraged its prosecution.
c. 10th century
One of the most important early church documents on witchcraft — rather than encouraging witch hunts, it argued many supernatural claims were illusions or dreams, a position later dramatically reversed.
Recommended Books
Ronald Hutton
Perhaps the most comprehensive modern history of witchcraft beliefs and how they evolved over time.
Marion Gibson
A highly accessible examination of major witch trials across Europe using surviving court records.
Brian P. Levack
Considered one of the definitive academic works on the European witch hunts.
Historical Cases Discussed
Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database
One of Scotland's earliest well-documented witchcraft cases, involving a respected healer and seer.
Wikipedia
The Scottish witch trials that helped shape King James VI's beliefs about witchcraft and inspired portions of Daemonologie.
Wikipedia
Midwife, healer, and one of England's best-known accused witches — her case illustrates how healing practices were reframed as evidence of witchcraft.
Wikipedia
A licensed Bavarian midwife whose professional knowledge became central evidence against her during her trial.
Wikipedia
One of the most famous victims of the Salem Witch Trials, remembered for refusing to enter a plea and reportedly responding, “More weight.”
Historical Databases & Archives
University of Edinburgh
One of the most comprehensive searchable databases documenting Scottish witchcraft accusations.
University of Virginia
An outstanding collection of primary documents from the Salem Witch Trials.
British Library
Historical manuscripts, pamphlets, and contextual resources relating to early modern witchcraft.
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