In the New World, witchcraft evolved as a patchwork quilt of beliefs and practices. Many different concepts, cultures, and customs existed side by side, sometimes overlapping and influencing one another. Each new group of immigrants brought with them their individual views and traditions. Over time, they produced a rich tapestry of magickal thought.

Medicine men and women of the native tribes in North, Central, and South America had engaged in various forms of magick for centuries. They tapped the plant kingdom for healing purposes and divined the future. They communed with spirits, ancestors, and other nonphysical beings, seeking divine aid with crops and the hunt. Like pagans of other lands, these indigenous people honored Mother Earth and all her creatures. And, like magicians everywhere, they manipulated the forces of nature to produce results.

When white settlers migrated to the New World, they infused their concepts and customs into the territory. Not all of the early European immigrants were Christians. Some followed the Old Religion and sought freedom to practice their beliefs in a new land. Old World pagans continued with their magickal workings as they had in their native countries. Evidence suggests that some of these people joined Indian tribes whose ideas were compatible with their own.

The African slave trade brought the traditions of African witches to the Americas. Followers of voudoun, Santeria, macumba, and other faiths carried their beliefs and rituals with them to the Caribbean and the southern states of the United States, where they continue to flourish today.

The Salem Witch Trials

When William Griggs, the village doctor in colonial Salem Village (now Salem), Massachusetts, couldn't heal the ailing daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, he claimed the girls had been bewitched. Thus began the infamous Salem witch hunt that remains one of America's great tragedies. Soon girls in Salem and surrounding communities were “crying out” the names of “witches” who had supposedly caused their illnesses.

Between June and October of 1692, nineteen men and women were hung and another man was crushed to death for the crime of witchcraft. More than 150 other victims were thrown into prison, where several died, on charges of being in league with the devil.

Religious and political factors combined to create the witch craze in Salem. A recent smallpox epidemic and attacks by nearby Indian tribes had left the community deeply fearful. Competition between rivals Rev. James Bayley of neighboring Salem Town (now Danvers) and Rev. Parris exacerbated the tension as both ministers capitalized on their Puritan parishioners' fear of Satan to boost their own power.

The hysteria also enabled local authorities to rid the community of undesirables and dissidents. Economic interests, too, played a role in the condemnation of Salem's “witches” — those convicted had their assets confiscated and their property was added to the town's coffers. A number of the executed and accused women owned property and were not governed by either husbands or male relatives.