The Salem witch trials of 1692 are the founding myth of American paranoia — the template for every subsequent panic about hidden enemies within. In January 1692, a group of young girls in Salem Village (now Danvers) began experiencing fits, contortions, and screaming episodes. The local doctor, William Griggs, declared them bewitched. Under pressure, the girls named three women as their tormentors: Tituba (an enslaved woman), Sarah Good (a beggar), and Sarah Osborne (an elderly woman who rarely attended church). The accusations rapidly expanded.

Over the following months, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft. The special Court of Oyer and Terminer, established by Governor William Phips, accepted 'spectral evidence' — testimony that the accused's spirit or specter had appeared to the witness in a dream or vision. This meant that no one could prove their innocence, because the accusation itself was the evidence. Nineteen people were hanged. One man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death with stones for refusing to enter a plea. At least five others died in jail.

The trials ended when accusations reached too high — when the governor's own wife was named, and when Increase Mather (president of Harvard) published 'Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits,' arguing that spectral evidence was unreliable. The court was dissolved. Within a decade, many participants publicly repented. Judge Samuel Sewall issued a public apology in 1697. But the dead were still dead.