The
Salem witch trials were the result of a period of
Puritan paranoia which led to the deaths of about twenty citizens.
In 1692, in Salem Village, (now Danvers, Massachusetts), a number of young girls, particularly Abigail Williams[?] and Betty Parris[?], accused other townsfolk of magically possessing them, and therefore of being witches or warlocks. The clergy believed the accusations, and sentenced these people to either confess they were witches or be hanged.
Gile Cory refused to enter a plea. By so doing he preserved his property for his heirs: had he confessed or been found guilty, his goods would have been confiscated by the state. The law provided for an application of a form of torture called peine fort et dure, in which the victim was slowly crushed by piling stones on him: in the event, Cory died without entering a plea.
The witch trials ended with intervention of the equivalent of the governor visiting Salem and finding himself appalled at what had become of Salem.
This incident was so profound that it helped end the Puritan faith, and led indirectly to the founding principles of the United States of America.
Clergical participants and commentators:
Afflicted (those who complained of bewitchment):
- Sarah Bibber
- Elizabeth Booth
- Sarah Churchill
- Martha Goodwin
- Elizabeth Hubbard
- Mary Lacey (also an accused witch)
- Mercy Lewis
- Elizabeth "Betty" Parris
- Bethshaa Pope
- Ann Putnam, Jr.
- Susanna Sheldon
- Mercy Short
- Mary Walcott
- Mary Warren
- Abigail Williams
Accused:
- Capt. John Alden
- Daniel Andrew
- Sarah Bassett
- Edward Bishop
- Sarah Bishop
- Mary Black
- Dudley Bradstreet
- John Bradstreet
- Sarah Buckley
- Richard Carrier
- Mary Clarke
- Sarah Easty Cloyce
- Sarah Cole
- Giles Cory
- Mary Bassett DeRich
- Rebecca Eames
- Philip English
- Ann Foster
- Dorcas Hoar
- Abigail Hobbs
- Elizabeth Howe
- George Jacobs, Jr.
- Elizabeth Johnson
- Mary Lacey (also an afflicted child)
- Sarah Osborne
- Lady Phips
- Susannah Post
- Elizabeth Bassett Proctor
- Tituba
- Job Tookey
- Hezekiah Usher
- Mary Withridge
Killed:
- Bridget Bishop - hanged June 10, 1692
- Rev. George Burroughs - hanged August 19, 1692
- Martha Carrier - hanged August 19, 1692
- Martha Cory - hanged September 22, 1692
- Giles Cory - pressed to death September 19, 1692
- Mary Easty - hanged September 22, 1692
- Sarah Good - hanged June 19, 1692
- Elizabeth Howe - hanged June 19, 1692
- George Jacobs, Sr. - hanged August 19, 1692
- Susannah Martin - hanged June 19, 1692
- Rebecca Easty Nurse - hanged June 19, 1692
- Alice Parker - hanged September 22, 1692
- Mary Parker - hanged September 22, 1692
- John Proctor - hanged August 19, 1692
- Ann Pudeator - hanged September 22, 1692
- Wilmott Redd - hanged September 22, 1692
- Margaret Scott - hanged September 22, 1692
- Samuel Wardwell - hanged September 22, 1692
- Sarah Wildes - hanged June 19, 1692
- John Willard - hanged August 19, 1692
- Boyer, Paul & Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, MJF Books, 1974.
- Starkey, Marion L., The Devil in Massachusetts, Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.
- Miller, Arthur, The Crucible - a play which implicitly compares McCarthyism to a witch-hunt
- Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Knopf, 2002