# Ep. 14: "Lives of the Necromancers," and the Salem Trials **URL:** **By** Anthony Comegna **Published:** August 1, 2017 --- In the late 1600s, Puritans saw Satan behind every tree; the world still abounded with spirits endless signs of Satan’s battle against God. The Salem trials were largely the result of a combination of personal animus, avarice, and cruelty within a deeply occultist culture. New England courts executed nineteen witches and subjected many repented convicts to purifying torture. One thing only ended the feverish trials: accusers gradually turned on the affluent and influential after using up the easier targets of marginalized and poor women. Further Readings/References: [Godwin’s Lives of the Necromancers series](https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/lives-necromancers-part-i) [Godwin’s chapter on Salem](https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/witch-trials-sweden-salem) [Marshall, Peter. William Godwin: Philosopher, Novelist, Revolutionary. PM Press. 2017.](https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=856) Miller, Perry. The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century. Boston: Beacon Press. 1954. Trevor-Roper, H. R. The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1969.