Over a period of several centuries, individuals accused of being witches were persecuted throughout Europe.  An estimated 40,000 to 100,000 people—75 percent to 80 percent of them female—were executed during that period for witchcraft.  That persecution carried over to the European colonies in America.  Beginning in 1626 and lasting until the 1700s, witchcraft trials were held throughout the colonies.  Although the witchcraft trials held in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 are the best remembered trials today, witchcraft trials were also held in Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.  In all, 300 to 400 individuals in Britain’s American colonies were accused of being witches.  Between 40 and 50 of them were executed. 

Mark Podvia is a member of the emeritus faculty of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University.  After retiring from Penn State, he served as Co-Director of the West Virginia University College of Law Library.  He has published more than 80 articles, dedications, reviews, and indices and bibliographies in various publications including Law Library Journal, Penn State Law Review, Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, The Green Bag, and A Legal Miscellanea.  In 2022 he published a book, The Strange Case of Dr. Paul Schoeppe, detailing the events surrounding an 1869 murder case in Carlisle.  His most recent article, published in the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, is “Witchcraft Trials in Early America, Including Pennsylvania.