Conjuring Fear: The Legacy of the Connecticut Witch Trials

Live from the Boathouse!
Beth Caruso presents Conjuring Fear: The Legacy of the Connecticut Witch Trials
The Annual Horace Beck Lecture
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Members: FREE (please use the ticket reservation link to reserve your spot)
Non-Members: $5.00

>> Reserve your ticket.

Before there was Salem, there were the Connecticut witch trials. Between 1647 and 1663, colonial Connecticut held court, leading to the indictments and deaths of at least eleven people who were accused of witchcraft.

Join Connecticut author Beth M. Caruso as she explores the history behind the witch trials and the climate of fear they created. Caruso, who is a co-founder of the CT Witch Trial Exoneration Project, will also recount the process of passing Resolution HJ 34 in the Connecticut General Assembly in May 2023. This resolution exonerated the witch trial victims more than 300 years after their deaths.

Since 2015, Beth Caruso has educated the public about the Connecticut witch trials and advocated for victims’ exoneration through lectures, articles, and social media. Her novel, One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s First Witch Hanging, is based on the life of Alice ‘Alse’ Young, the first colonial hanging victim. Its sequel, The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper In New Amsterdam further explores the subject. Copies of both books will be available for purchase and signing.

About The Horace Beck Lecture:

Horace Palmer Beck (1920-2003) was a folklorist, sailor and professor of American Literature at Middlebury College (VT).  He tape-recorded the personal experience of people associated with the sea on both sides of the Atlantic. Some of his best known books are Folklore of Maine and Folklore of the Sea.  He also published articles for The American Neptune, The Journal of American Folklore, and other periodicals. The Beck Lecture is supported by an endowment that funds an annual public presentation about history, folklore, storytelling, and regional music and culture.

Save the Date!
Upcoming Live at the Boathouse! lectures:

• November 16, 2023: Erica Cirino presents Turning the Tide on Plastic Pollution: Setbacks and Solutions
• December 13, 2023: Connecticut River Gateway Commission presents Legacies of Preservation: A Panel Discussion with the Gateway Commission