Charles Wentworth Upham

Born in 1802, he was educated at Harvard and went on to serve as a Unitarian minister before moving more deeply into public life. His career connected scholarship, religion, and politics in a way that made him a well-known figure in nineteenth-century New England.

He served as mayor of Salem and later represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Alongside that civic work, he wrote extensively, with Salem Witchcraft becoming his best-known book and helping shape how later readers understood the 1692 trials.

He died in 1875, leaving behind a reputation as both a careful local historian and an active public servant. For listeners interested in early American history, his writing offers a window into how one nineteenth-century author interpreted one of New England's most haunting stories.