Stacy Schiff on The Witches of Salem

The Boston Public Library is pleased to welcome Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, as she unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials in The Witches: Salem, 1692. The panic began when a minister’s daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and a 75-year-old man crushed to death. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history.

The event moderator is the award-winning historian and fellow witchcraft author Brenton Simons, longtime President and CEO of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the largest nonprofit genealogical society in America. He is the author of Witches, Rakes, and Rogues: True Stories of Scam, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in Boston, 1630–1775, winner of the Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History and the first book to examine Boston’s witchcraft trials in depth.

This event will take place in Rabb Hall, Central Library in Copley Square, and is free and open to the public.