The title Escaping Salem suggests that Salem was not the only place that persecuted witches during the colonial period. Godbeer examines another instance of a witch hunt in Stamford, Connecticut, that happened that same year. In the short book he demonstrates that witch hunts were not just unique to Massachusetts. The northeastern colonists were people who desired to create a new society based on their religious ideals. Their agricultural ways meant that eventually they would spread out to lands farther than Massachusetts in order that more of their male sons could own farms. These male sons took their religious values with them, honoring the church and hard work and demonizing anyone who was "other" in this system. In Escaping Salem the author's thesis is that Salem was not the only place that this persecution of "witches" happened, and readers today can say that witch hunts still take place in American society as we persecute others who are not like the mainstream, especially during times of social stress. The world of 1692 had stress as more people left the initial settlements and ventured into the woods in order to have their own land. In the past, America worried about the spread of Communism from people we marked as "other," and in today's society the fear is over different religions. Escaping Salem is an attempt to put the witch hunt into a broader context--by looking at a similar event in Connecticut, Godbeer points out that witch hunts were not only limited to Salem.
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