Book excerpt: The Emmy Award–winning screenwriter “examines spine-tingling tales in chapters called ‘The Beliefs,’ ‘The Law,’ ‘The Experts’ and ‘The Witches’” (Bristol Herald Courier). While the Salem witch trials get the most notoriety, Virginia’s witchcraft history dates back many years before that . . . Colonial Virginians shared a common belief in the supernatural with their northern neighbors. While the witchcraft mania that swept through Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 was significant, fascination with it has tended to overshadow the historical records of other persecutions throughout early America. The 1626 case of Joan Wright, the first woman to be accused of witchcraft in British North America, began Virginia’s own witch craze. Utilizing surviving records, author, local historian and screenwriter Carson Hudson narrates these fascinating stories.