The question of why the Salem Witch Trials happened is one debated by scholars and historians, as well as the central question of How to Hang a Witch. Mather doesn’t go into the environmental, political, or historical reasons, but instead focuses on elements of human nature that echo throughout history and apply to any situation wherein groups of people experience stress. The element that this novel focuses on is The Culpability of Bystanders and the corresponding guilt of those who don’t speak up for the accused. Sam’s ancestor is not one of the judges at the trials and is said by Elijah to have attended only one execution, so the question of why he is so reviled by everyone in Salem remains unclear throughout most of the novel. However, the answer in How to Hang a Witch is that he was the ultimate bystander. His scholarly work on witches fed the hysteria, and he did nothing to stop it, standing by while people were put to death through unfair trials and spectral evidence that both he and his father thought were inaccurate.

At the beginning of the novel, Sam refuses to face the repercussions of this action, saying, “I’m not going to apologize for some dude who wore a curly wig three hundred years ago and made bad decisions just ‘cause we have the same last name” (19).