Accused: Fairfield’s Witchcraft Trials

In 17th century New England, religious beliefs and folk tradition instilled deep fears of magic, evil, and supernatural powers. How else to explain unnatural events, misfortune, and the sudden convulsions and fits of local townspeople? Through a series of graphic novel-style panels, artist Jakob Crane retells the dramatic story of the witchcraft cases that took place in the Fairfield area in the 1650s and 1690s, providing a creative retelling of these troubling events in the community’s early history. Learn how neighbors, magistrates, and colonial leaders treated accusations of witchcraft and why the outcome of Fairfield’s witchcraft trials in 1692 was so different from what happened in Salem at the same time.

The panels are available to purchase in a booklet here, or at the museum shop.