Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A & E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 9, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0767015045
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,560 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

This program unearths surprising information about a notorious period in early American history. No one was burned at the stake after the 1693 Salem Witch Trials, but 19 people were hanged and one was "pressed" to death, all on accusations from young girls. At the peak of the hysteria, some 150 people, male and female, were accused of being witches. A year after the trials, the hysteria subsided; in 1711, some financial restitution was paid to the families of the dead. This program describes what happened and why, presenting original accounts of the sorrow the jurors and others felt after the trials were over.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Examination of Curious Event, September 5, 2000

By 

Tracy Davis (California, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Salem Witch Trials [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In the History Channel's "In Search of History: The Salem Witch Trials", the viewer will see a wonderful distillation of a previously footnoted slice of American History: the deaths of 20 people in Salem Village, Massachusetts, in 1692. Using expert commentary by historians such as Carol Karlsen (whose book "The Devil in the Shape of a Woman" is an excellent book on the entire witchcraft phenomena in New England), the trials and individuals involved in this matter are profiled in an understandable way. The only minor quibble is that of all the theories put out on what actually happened -- mostly based on the Puritans' belief in the active participation of both good and bad spiritual forces in everyday life -- no one mentions the theory that some scientists think caused the whole thing: ergot, a mold found in rye. This video is an excellent companion to Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", Robin Cook's "Acceptable Risk", and Matossian's "Poisons of the Past"(which devots space to the ergot theory). I highly recommend this video for its visuals, its narrative, and its encapsulation of this fascinating time in American History.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." - EXODUS 22:18, January 27, 2010

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Salem Witch Trials [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As with most such documentaries, events are told using antique writings and art intermixed with modern footage, narration and actor voices.

The irony of all witchcraft trials is that from the 14th Century on, untold thousands of people were put to death by otherwise good, rational Christians because they had a skin blemish, or floated when thrown into a lake or confessed to literally anything after hours of excruciating torture. The Malleus Maleficarum, which was published in 1486 in Germany, lists a variety of seemingly benign symptoms that condemned many innocents to hanging or a fiery death.

When the 1692 witch trials commenced in Salem, Massachusetts, there was almost 300 years of prosecutorial precedence for authorities to fall back on. Testimony from a group of teenaged girls, whose courtroom behavior in hindsight appears at best staged, greatly helped in convicting 19 of Salem's citizens. Acting always in unison, the howling girls' claims of being attacked in court by the accused's spectre, apparitions that were of course only visible to the children, was all it took to send their protesting neighbors to the gallows. Ultimately, 200 people from as far south as Boston were arrested based on the group's finger-pointing.

The undoing of this coven of young accusers was their subsequent targeting of those who were, in the authorities' opinion, absolutely above reproach. Doubts were quickly raised as to the girls' veracity, resulting in the release from custody of dozens of untried people. In 1711, many previous convictions were overturned. Eventually, only one of the accusers apologized for taking part in the destruction of so many lives, for the scars inflicted upon these unfortunate souls' families and the loss of their properties.

Epilogue: The other nine "guilty" people had their sentences reversed in 1957 (not much consolation after being dead and buried for over 250 years!). A large marker was also placed at that time which reads: IN MEMORY OF THOSE INNOCENTS WHO DIED DURING THE SALEM VILLAGE WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA OF 1692.

Total running time: 42 minutes

This program is also available on DVD.