Can Belief Be Compelled? Evidence from Salem

In his Letter Concerning Toleration Locke argues forcefully that belief cannot be compelled under any circumstances. I put this proposition to the test by examining false confessions extracted during the Salem witch-hunt only three years after Locke’s letter was translated into English. Evidence in the Salem records—in particular, a deposition signed by six accused witches—establishes that a number of confessors believed their own false narratives at the time they offered them. Of great psychological interest, these cases give us a sense of what the Salem hysteria felt like to those engulfed by it. They also invalidate Locke’s claim that belief can never be compelled. The truth seems to be that our immunity to coerced belief is an illusion that can be maintained only by excluding all evidence to the contrary. The record of Salem shows that power can shake our foundations, pervert our conscience, fracture identity, compel beliefs.