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The 1690s: 1690–1699
1690–1699 · worldwide, all places
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Salem, Massachusetts executed twenty people for witchcraft in 1692 on the testimony of frightened girls. Europe fought France to a standstill in the Nine Years' War, the Bank of England was founded in 1694 to pay for it, and in Carolina, settlers were already demanding witch trials of their own.
1692 is Salem's year in American memory. Arthur Miller's The Crucible dramatizes the trials as political allegory, and Robert McCammon's Speaks the Nightbird investigates a Carolinian witch panic in 1699. Open the 1690s on the StoryTerra map and explore its stories by place.
9 famous stories set in the 1690s
Live snapshot of the top 9 most popular catalogue items (2026-09-05). Click any card to open this entry on the live map.
Browse 24 books, 6 movies and 3 games set in the 1690s (1690–1699).
The Crucible
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Las brujas de Salem
The Crucible
"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in…
The Witches of Salem
Salem 1692. The young Abigail seduced and abandoned by John Proctor accuses John's wife of being a witch in revenge. A series of tragic trials soon befall Salem as fear and suspicion blur the lines of reality.
Salem Witch Trials
Salem Massachusetts. A small town—with no clear governing body—became embroiled in a scandal that forever stands as one of the darkest chapters in American history. For those accused of witchcraft by their neighbors and…
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history--the Salem witch trials.Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin…
The Heretic's Daughter
Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in…
The Man Who Laughs
Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs (first published under the French title L'Homme qui Rit in April 1869) is a sad and sordid tale -- not the sort of tale of the moment Hugo was known for. It starts on the night of…
Speaks the Nightbird
The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies, and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding…
The 9 stories above are just a sample of the 33 in the catalogue for this entry. For the live 1690–1699 catalogue, use the button above — or browse the whole 17th century. On the live map you can also filter by the exact time the stories take place — any year, decade or century, from BCE to the future.
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