Show Notes
Alice Young was the first person executed for witchcraft in the American colonies, in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1647, before the Salem witch trials. Award-winning author Beth Caruso and playwright Lauren Cavanaugh join Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack to explore her story and the new play Windsor’s Daughter that is bringing her life back into the light.
This conversation moves between historical research and present-day resonance, asking what it means to memorialize people whose graves were never marked, whose names faded from community memory, and whose persecution mirrors patterns still unfolding today.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- Where to follow Windsor’s Daughter as it finds its stage
- Why Alice Young’s 1647 execution changed American history
- Why her name nearly vanished from history
- What made Windsor, Connecticut, a powder keg
- How a play brings her execution to the stage without showing it
- Why there is no grave to visit
- What the 2023 exoneration meant for her descendants
- How her story connects to persecution happening today
Links
- Author Beth Caruso at OneofWindsor.com
- Playwright Lauren Cavanaugh
- Connecticutwitchtrials.org
- Listen to more CT Witch Trials Podcast Episodes
- Support the Podcast Buy a Witch Trial History Book!