The Capital Crime of Witchcraft with Margo Burns

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Boardwalk Room (Room 2) — 142 Main St., Sandwich, MA

Happy Archives Month! The Friends of Sandwich Town Archives (FOSTA) Board of Directors invites you to our Annual Meeting with guest speaker: Margo Burns, who will present "The Capital Crime of Witchcraft: What the Primary Sources Tell Us" FOSTA will briefly review actions taken in 2026 to support the Sandwich Town Archives, give a financial update, and an overview of Board positions and election procedure for 2027. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there! The Capital Crime of Witchcraft: What the Primary Sources Tell Us: On first impression, the witchcraft trials of the Colonial era may seem to have been nothing but a free-for-all, fraught with hysterics. Margo Burns explores an array of prosecutions in seventeenth century New England, using facsimiles of primary source manuscripts, from first complaints to arrest warrants, indictments of formal charges to death warrants, and the reversals of attainder and rescinding of excommunications years after the fact; demonstrating how methodically and logically the Salem Court worked. This program focuses on the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 and 1693, when nineteen people were hanged and…