The episode of Salem Witch Trials Daily profiles the influential Putnam family of Salem Village and their mixed roles during the 1692 witchcraft crisis. It traces the family’s origins and three main branches, highlighting that some Putnams were major accusers while others supported the accused, including signing a petition for Rebecca Nurse. The hosts also note a prominent Putnam opponent of the trials and concludes that people in Salem often played shifting and contradictory roles over time.

00:00 Welcome + Why the Putnams Matter in 1692

00:48 Origins of the Putnam Dynasty & the Three Branches

01:03 Branch 1: Captain John Putnam Sr. & Lt. Nathaniel—Accusations and the Rebecca Nurse Petition

01:54 Aftermath Connections: Benjamin Putnam Takes in Dorothy Good

02:26 Branch 2: The Thomas Putnam Line—The Accusation Powerhouse

03:13 Ann Putnam Jr. in Court & Her 1706 Public Apology

03:39 Family Crosscurrents: Supporters, Step-Relations, and the Afflicted Circle

04:16 The Dissenter: Joseph Putnam Opposes the Trials (and Israel Putnam’s Legacy)

04:54 Wrap-Up: Salem’s Complexity—Accusers, Defenders, and Changing Minds

George Francis Dow: Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Sidney Perley: The History of Salem, Massachusetts

⁠Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

The Thing About Witch Hunts / About Salem YouTube channel

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily Hub

Salem Witch Trials Daily Course Week 5: The Framework of Death

⁠The Thing About Salem

⁠The Thing About Witch Hunts

⁠Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience

⁠Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

⁠Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692

Ben Wickey, More Weight: A Salem Story

Peabody Essex Museum Salem Witch Trials Collection

The Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, 1689–1694 - Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Richard Hite, In the Shadow of Salem: The Andover Witch Hunt of 1692