The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the execution of twenty people, while several others died in jail or while awaiting trial. The victims of the Salem witch trials were primarily women, although some men were also accused and convicted. The list of Salem witch trial victims includes Bridget Bishop, the first person to be executed on June 10, 1692. Other victims include Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba. Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor were prominent figures in the trials and were ultimately executed.

SALEM WITCH TRIALS CHRONOLOGY

January 1692- Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village’s daughter, 9-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Parris, falls ill, soon followed by his 11-year-old niece, Abigail Williams.

Mid-February- After a month of fasting, prayer, and home remedies, Betty and Abigail have not improved. The girls are examined by a doctor (most likely local physician William Griggs), who pronounces their alarming behavior to be caused by bewitchment.

February 25- Following the directions given to them by their neighbor Mary Sibley, Tituba and John Indian (both enslaved people working in the household of Samuel Parris) prepare a “witch cake.” This act is an attempt at counter-magic. Though strongly discouraged, attempts at utilizing magic (primarily for simple tasks such as protecting one’s home from evil forces, fortune telling, or curing the sick) are still relatively common in Puritan New England. This particular charm calls for the combination of the sick girls’ urine with rye meal to create a small cake. This cake is then baked on hot ashes and fed to a dog. The hope is this could harm the witch responsible for hurting the children. Around this same time, 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr. and 17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard are the next to become afflicted with this mysterious illness. The girls report terrible attacks from invisible specters and apparitions.

February 29- The girls name three women, alleging these are the witches who are harming them by invisible means. Warrants are issued for the arrests of Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba.

March 1- Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne are examined in the meeting house in Salem Village by Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Though Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne maintain their innocence, under extreme pressure, Tituba confesses, implicates Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, and tells the magistrates there are more witches, though she is unsure of their identities.

March 3- Though Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Hubbard temporarily recover after the initial suspects are brought into custody, Ann Putnam Jr.’s torment continues. She soon claims to see the specters of Martha Corey, Dorothy Good (the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good), and Elizabeth Proctor.

March 13- Ann Putnam Jr. allegedly sees yet another specter, this time of an unknown old woman sitting in her grandmother’s chair. Guided by the suggestion of either her mother, Ann Putnam Sr., or the Putnam’s 17-year-old servant, Mercy Lewis, Ann Jr. eventually identifies this specter as elderly Salem Village resident, Rebecca Nurse. Soon Mercy Lewis falls ill and is now also regularly tormented by the same mysterious affliction.

March 18- Ann Putnam Sr. (age 31) reports spectral torment. She is now among a small group of adult women who claim to be afflicted.

March 21– Martha Corey is arrested and examined at Ingersoll’s ordinary in Salem Village. She is held for trial.

March 24- Having been arrested the previous day, Rebecca Nurse is examined before Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Though she firmly maintains her innocence, the torment of afflicted witnesses (present during the examination) is enough for the magistrates to hold her for trial. The 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse is sent to Salem jail.

April 2– Abigail Williams continues to claim she is tormented by the specter of Elizabeth Proctor. Meanwhile, John Proctor (husband of Elizabeth) keeps a close eye on his 20-year-old servant Mary Warren. Though Mary testifies as an afflicted witness during the trial of Rebecca Nurse, her employer is an outspoken skeptic of the affliction. In this environment, Mary’s fits eventually cease, and she posts a note on the Meeting House door requesting prayers of thanks for her recovery.

April 11- Having been arrested a few days prior, Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce (Rebecca Nurse’s sister) are examined in Salem Town. John Indian, husband of Tituba, is now among the afflicted and is present during these proceedings. During the examination, the afflicted claim both Elizabeth and her husband are tormenting them and appear to be violently afflicted. John Proctor is taken into custody. Sarah Cloyce, and both Proctors are held for trial.

April 18– Four more suspected witches are arrested; Giles Corey (husband of Martha), Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, and the once afflicted Mary Warren. They are examined the next day. Abigail Hobbs breaks down, making her the second person to confess. In the coming weeks more and more will be arrested, not just from Salem, but from towns and villages miles away.

May 4- An arrest warrant having been issued 4 days ago, Rev. George Burroughs arrives in Salem, having been transported all the way from Wells, Maine. Burroughs was minister of Salem Village for three years a decade prior. Evidently, he left bad feelings in his wake, and was now forcibly returned to Salem to face witchcraft charges.

May 10- Sarah Osborne dies in prison in Boston. She is the first causality of the Salem witch trials.

May 14- Increase Mather returns from England with a new charter and new governor, Sir William Phips. Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter had been revoked in 1684, and until the new charter was issued, the colony had been operating in a kind of legal limbo. Until this point, there had only been pretrial examinations to determine if those accused of witchcraft had enough evidence against them to warrant a trial. With the arrival of the new charter, a court could now be formed to oversee the growing witchcraft cases.

May 27- Governor Phips approves the creation of a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer (meaning to hear and to determine). This court will try the witchcraft cases.

May 31- At the request of John Richards, one of the magistrates appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Boston minister Cotton Mather offers advice regarding the trial of witches. While Mather cautions against the use of spectral evidence (the appearance of invisible apparitions only the afflicted can see), he concedes that the court’s procedure should be determined by to the magistrates’ good judgment.

June 2- Bridget Bishop is tried and condemned at the first sitting of the court in Salem. Sometime after this date Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns, presumably due to his dissatisfaction with the court’s proceedings.

June 10- Bridget Bishop is executed on Proctor’s Ledge at Gallows Hill in Salem. She is the first person to be executed during the Salem witch trials.

June 15- Twelve ministers of the colony advise the court not to rely entirely on spectral evidence to obtain convictions. The court ignore this advice and continues to rely heavily on spectral evidence. This is primarily the evidence used for conviction going forward.

July 19- Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth How, Sarah Good, and Sarah Wildes are executed on Proctor’s Ledge. When Sarah Good ascends the gallows, Reverend Nicholas Noyes encourages her to confess and save her soul. In response, she angrily replies “You are a liar! I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink!”

August 19- George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Proctor and John Willard are hanged. Although George Burroughs recites the Lord’s Prayer perfectly on the gallows (a task witches were allegedly unable to complete without error), Cotton Mather insisted that, “…the Devil has often been transformed into an Angel of Light.”

September 19- The 71-year-old Giles Corey is taken to an open field near the Salem jail and is pressed to death under heavy stones after refusing to recognize the authority of Court of Oyer and Terminer. This is the first (and only) time this method of torture is used in colonial New England.

September 22- Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty (sister of Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce), Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker are hanged. This is the last date of execution during the Salem witch trials.

October 3- Boston minister Increase Mather, father of Cotton Mather, addresses a meeting of ministers in Cambridge to warn against reliance on spectral evidence. Mather writes, “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned…”

October 29- With public opinion turning against the trials, Governor Phips dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

December 14- The Lower House passes the “act against conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits.” This law maintains that witchcraft is a felony offense, punishable by death. However, it lessens the penalties for minor acts of magic (such as attempting to find love, tell the future, or unsuccessfully trying to harm another person by magical means).

December 16– In response to the numerous individuals accused of witchcraft still languishing in jail, the General Court determines the Massachusetts Superior Court will meet for a special session on January 3, 1693 to oversee these remaining cases. Governor Phips decrees this new court will no longer accept spectral evidence.

January 1693- The Superior Court condemns three of the fifty-six persons accused of witchcraft. Chief Justice Stoughton signs death warrants for these three and for five others previously convicted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692. The next date of execution is set for February.

January 31- Governor Phips steps in and issues reprieves for the eight scheduled for execution. Upon paying their jail fees, all of those accused of witchcraft are now officially free to go.

March 10– Lydia Dustin, a 79-year-old resident of Reading, dies in jail. Though cleared of her original witchcraft charges, she could not come up with the money to pay her jail fees, and dies in jail still awaiting her release.

April 1696- Samuel Parris steps down as the minister of Salem Village.

January 14, 1697- The Massachusetts General Court orders a day of public fasting and prayer in atonement for errors made by the colony, including the witchcraft trials. On this day, twelve of the jurors of the Court of Oyer and Terminer sign a statement of apology for their role in the witch trials. In addition, Samuel Sewall, who served as a magistrate in 1692, stands before his congregation while his minister reads a prepared statement aloud. In this declaration, Sewall acknowledges his feelings of shame for his role in the witchcraft trials and asks God to pardon his sins.

1698- A new minister, the 22-year-old Joseph Green, is ordained as the minister of Salem Village. Reverend Green tries to bring peace and reconciliation to his parishioners, and rearranges the seating within the meeting house so that the families of the accusers and accused are sitting side-by-side.

August 26, 1706– At the age of 27, Ann Putnam Jr. wishes to join the Salem Village church. On this day, she stands before the congregation as Reverend Green reads aloud her statement of faith. In her declaration, she apologizes for her role in the witchcraft trials. Though she attributes her actions to a delusion of the devil, Ann Putnam Jr. is the only afflicted witness to publicly acknowledge her wrongdoing in the years after the witchcraft trials.

October 17, 1711– Massachusetts legislature approves the reversal of the attainder (restores the civil liberties) of twelve of those individuals who were executed, and seven of those who were condemned but not executed in 1692. While an important step, not all those convicted of witchcraft are recognized by this resolution.

1945- A bill is introduced into legislature to clear the six remaining names of those convicted during the Salem witch trials. This bill is championed by descendants of Ann Pudeator. Twelve years later, in 1957 a resolution is finally passed that pardons “Ann Pudeator and certain other persons.” However, these “other persons” are not yet formally named in legislature.

October 2001- The known missing names are finally added to the 1957 resolve. As such, Susannah Martin, Bridget Bishop, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott, and Wilmott Redd are formally cleared of all witchcraft charges. This is an important acknowledgment of the wrongdoings and significance of the events that took place in 1692.

August 2021- Though it was believed the proceedings in October 2001 had cleared the names of all of those wrongly convicted of witchcraft in 1692, it is discovered that one name has erroneously been overlooked. Thanks to the work of historian Richard Hite, and the efforts of an eight-grade class in North Andover, MA, legislature is introduced to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr.

List of People Involved in the Salem Witch Trials

These were the primary accusers during the Salem Witch Trials. Most of these young ladies took part in many different trials and accused many citizens of Salem, including those who weren't convicted.

The young ladies would speak of visions, act erratically, and come up with incredible stories about the accused. They relied on spectral evidence, which was allowed in the court until Governor Phips forbade its use. Spectral evidence is effective at getting a conviction due to it being so hard to defend against. The accuser can change their story within a moment, and the accused are unable to give a counterargument.

• Primary Accusers
• Other Accusers
• Not Found Guilty or Survived Trial Period
• Not Tried
• Court Personnel
• Public Figures

Elizabeth Booth - She was the daughter of George and Elizabeth Booth. On June 8, 1692, Elizabeth allegedly showed signs of affliction by witchcraft.

Elizabeth Hubbard - Lived with her uncle William Griggs due to being an orphan. She first starting having fits on February 1, 1692.

Mercy Lewis - Parents were killed by a Native American raid. She would become one of the primary accusers. She became a servant in the Putnam house.

Elizabeth "Betty" Parris - The daughter of Samuel Parris and was a primary accuser. She can be linked to the death of 20 residents of Salem.

Ann Putnam Jr. - The daughter of Thomas Putnam, she became one of the primary accusers. Later in life, she would apologize for her actions.

Mary Walcott - She was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Walcott and played a role in 16 of the executions that took place.

Mary Warren - The servant for John and Elizabeth Proctor and the oldest of the accusers. She played a significant role in the death of John Proctor.

Abigail Williams - She was one of the first to have fits. Her fits would eventually lead to the trials, and she would disappear after the trials ended.

Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor were prominent figures in the trials and were ultimately executed. Notable victims also include Giles Corey, who was pressed to death with heavy stones for refusing to enter a plea. The accused were often subjected to harsh interrogations and the use of spectral evidence, which included testimonies of alleged visions and specters seen by the afflicted girls.

Other Accusers

These accusers did not participate in a majority of the trials, although it could be argued that Thomas Putnam seemed to be in the background often due to his daughter being a primary accuser.

Benjamin Abbott - A well-known resident of the area. He would play a key role in accusing Martha Carrier of witchcraft, which would ultimately lead to her death.

Sarah Bibber - She accused 16 people of witchcraft. However, due to her questionable reputation, her testimony was not given much credit. She would also be accused of practicing witchcraft.

Deliverance Dane - One of the initial accused of practicing witchcraft. She would flip and accuse her own father-in-law of witchcraft and use spectral evidence to accuse him. Her father-in-law was not convicted or imprisoned due to her accusations.

Thomas Putnam - An influential citizen of Salem who seemed to have a financial interest in the trials that he participated in. Putnam seemed to have a financial interest in many of those who were accused.

The Physician who diagnosed afflicted

William Griggs - He was the primary physician in Salem whose only competition was Roger Toothaker, who died in prison after being accused of witchcraft by someone that was close to Griggs.

Convicted and Executed

Bridget Bishop (June 10, 1692) - Bishop was accused of bewitching five young women, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Elizabeth Hubbard, on the date of her examination by the authorities, April 19, 1692. She denied all allegations but was convicted and hanged.

Rebecca Nurse (July 19, 1692) - was 71 years old when the warrant was issued, and it sent shockwaves throughout the community. Many would testify in her defense, and the jury said she was not guilty when the time came. Unfortunately, this would not stick, and the jury changed their decision. The nurse would be hanged.

Sarah Good (July 19, 1692) - On March 25, 1692, she appeared before the court to be tried for witchcraft. She was accused of rejecting the puritanical expectations of self-control and discipline when she chose to torment and scorn children instead of leading them toward salvation. She would give an aggressive defense but be sentenced to death.

Elizabeth Howe (July 19, 1692) - Was accused of witchcraft despite being blameless to all in the community. The accusers used spectral evidence to sway the judges and jury. Howe gave a fierce defense, and people testified in her defense. It would not matter. She was convicted and sentenced to hang with others.

Susannah Martin (July 19, 1692) - Inhabitants of nearby Salem Village, including Joseph and Jarvis Ring, had named Susannah a witch and stated she had attempted to recruit them into witchcraft. She was also accused by John Allen of Salisbury, a man who claimed that she had bewitched his oxen and drove them into the river nearby, where they later drowned. She pleaded not guilty but was put to death by hanging.

Sarah Wildes (July 19, 1692) - the accusers put the same accusations on her as they did the others. The difference for Sarah Wildes is there seemed to be a particular interest in her conviction from Thomas Putnam, who was a wealthy landowner. She maintained her innocence but suffered the same fate as the others. She was sentenced to hang.

George Burroughs (August 19, 1692) - He was a minister who lived outside of Salem but was still accused of practicing witchcraft. Due to being a member of the clergy, his trial was attended by many. He was accused and convicted of witchcraft. While at the gallows, when given his chance to give his last words, he quoted the Lord's Prayer perfectly. This is something a witch was not supposed to be able to do.

George Jacobs Sr. (August 19, 1692) - He was a resident of Salem for 33 years when he was accused of witchcraft. He swore to his innocence and never blinked. He had a heated exchange with the magistrate and his accuser, but since spectral evidence was allowed into the courtroom and treated as fact, it made it difficult for him to prove his innocence. He was convicted and hanged.

Martha Carrier (August 19, 1692) - She had lived in Salem for some time when she was accused. The carrier was an easy target due to being blamed for bringing smallpox into the town. This was untrue but led to her being banned from public life. In one of the more gruesome trials, her children were tortured until telling the accusers what they wanted to hear. She was convicted and then executed.

John Proctor (August 19, 1692) - He was well-liked within the community, influential, educated, and wealthy. He was the only defendant to go after the use of spectral evidence and how it should not be admitted in court. This occurred because his wife had been accused, and he was defending her. The girls then turned on him. His execution would begin to shift public opinion on the trials.

John Willard (August 19, 1692) - He was another of the accused who questioned the trials. After being accused of witchcraft, Willard chose to run, which made him appear guilty. He denied all connections with witchcraft. He would be charged, convicted, and then executed. His trial was another that began to shift public opinion.

Martha Corey (September 22, 1692; wife of Giles Corey) - She was a vocal critic of the trials and believed that the accusers were lying. She was then accused and was put on trial. The evidence against her was delusional, but was still believed. She was executed in the last of the executions. Her death shocked Salem due to her good standing in the church.

Mary Easty (September 22, 1692) - Similar to Martha Corey, it was surprising to see her accused. The accusers had also evolved and had come up with new ways to use spectral evidence for a conviction. She again said she was innocent and would be released from prison, only to be accused again. She would be convicted and hanged.

Mary Parker (September 22, 1692) - It is unclear as to why she was targeted. However, she did receive some land after the death of her husband, who seemed to be a wealthy landowner, and it seems in later years, some in the community may have been targeting the land owned by the family. The moment that Mary’s name was mentioned, the young “afflicted” girls predictably fell into fits and would only stop when Mary Parker touched them. She was convicted and hanged.

Alice Parker (September 22, 1692) - She was mentioned by Mary Warren, who said she had been a witch for 12 years or more. On that same day that Alice was accused, she was arrested. Her trial, like all the others, was a sham and based on spectral evidence. The stories that were allowed in the courtroom did not make sense, but still managed to convict her.

Ann Pudeator (September 22, 1692) - She was a midwife who delivered many babies within the community. However, birth was dangerous, and many women and children died during birth, which made her susceptible to ridiculous charges. At first, the charges were dropped, but she was accused again, and this time, the accusations stuck and would lead to her execution.

Wilmot Redd (September 22, 1692) - There is no record of her defense. However, the accusations were similar to the others. She seemed to be ignorant during the trial, and the accusations that were being fired at her did not make a lot of sense and were based on spectral evidence. She was convicted and executed.

Margaret Scott (September 22, 1692) - She was arrested late in the course of the events as part of the Andover witch hunt. Mary Walcott and Ann Putnam, Jr. had been brought to Andover on June 11 and again on July 26 to initiate and perpetuate the witch hunt there. Margaret’s primary accusers were the two most prominent families in Rowley, the Nelsons and the Wicoms.

Samuel Wardwell Sr. (September 22, 1692) - It is not known who initially accused him of witchcraft, but the person who did accuse many in his family as well, which included his wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law. It is believed, but cannot be proven, that the initial accuser was Martha Sprague. He initially confessed in hopes that would get him out of the trial. When he realized it was not going to work, he recanted his confession.

Giles Corey (September 19, 1692) - Pressed to death. - The husband of Martha Corey. During her trial, he defended his wife, which resulted in the accusers turning on him. He refused to plead and, therefore, could not be tried according to their laws. Since he refused to plead, he was pressed to death.

Convicted and died in prison

• Sarah Osborne - died May 10, 1692
• Ann Foster – died in custody in December 1692

5 Notable Women Hanged in the Salem Witch Trials

An elderly widow, a beggar and a church-going woman who made a stand against the trials were among those executed.

Updated: June 27, 2023 | Original: October 18, 2018

In early 1692, during the depths of winter in Massachusetts Bay Colony, a group of young girls in the village of Salem began acting strangely. The daughter and niece of the local minister, Samuel Parris, claimed to be afflicted by invisible forces who bit and pinched them, sending their limbs flailing. By mid-February, two more girls had joined them, and the first waves of panic gripped Salem’s residents: The girls had been bewitched.

The afflicted girls soon accused three women: the Parris’ “Indian” enslaved worker, Tituba; a local beggar woman, Sarah Good; and an invalid widow, Sarah Osbourne. As local magistrates began questioning the accused, people packed into a tavern to witness the girls come face to face with the women they had accused of witchcraft.

While the other two women denied the accusations against them, Tituba told vivid stories of how Satan had revealed himself to her. She said she had signed the devil’s book with her own blood, and seen the marks of Good and Osbourne there beside her own.

Tituba’s riveting testimony helped unleash a notorious witch hunt that swept quickly beyond Salem and engulfed all of New England. Close to 200 people would be accused before the Salem Witch Trials ended the following year, and 20 of them would be executed by hanging over the summer and fall of 1692. These are five of their stories.

1. Bridget Bishop

When the special Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in Salem Town in early June, the first case it heard was against Bridget Bishop, a local widow, as the prosecutor assumed her case would be easy to win. Bishop had been accused of witchcraft more than a decade earlier, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. She also fit everyone’s idea of a witch: elderly, poor and argumentative.

Ten witnesses testified against Bishop, and she was quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. On June 10, she was taken to Proctor’s Ledge near Gallows Hill in Salem and “hanged by the neck until she was dead,” according to the report of the sheriff who escorted her.

2. Sarah Good

By then, signs of opposition to the Salem Witch Trials had begun to surface. Several ministers questioned whether the court relied too much on spectral evidence, or testimony about the ghostly figures witches supposedly sent to afflict their victims. “Everyone assumed there were specters who could do it,” says Margo Burns, a New Hampshire-based historian specializing in the Salem witch trials. “That was not disputed. But what was disputed was whether the devil could send the shape of an innocent person to afflict.”

Still, when the Court of Oyer and Terminer reconvened on June 28 after its success convicting Bishop, Sarah Good was quickly convicted and sentenced to death. Several of the afflicted girls claimed Good’s specter attacked them, and Tituba and several others had named her as a fellow witch in their confessions, claiming she flew on a broomstick and attended witches’ gatherings. On July 19, Good was carted to Gallows Hill and executed along with the churchgoing grandmother, Rebecca Nurse, and three other convicted witches.

A young woman accused of witchcraft by Puritan ministers appeals to Satan to save her in a 1692 trial.

3. Susannah Martin

Susannah Martin did not even live in Salem, but in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Like Bishop, she had been accused of witchcraft before, but the charges had been dropped for lack of evidence. Her bad reputation may have spread to Salem by 1692, when four of the afflicted girls in Salem accused her by name, claiming her specter had attacked them.

When the court asked them how they knew the specter was Martin’s, the girls said “‘Oh, she said her name was Goody Martin and she was from Amesbury,'” Burns recounts. “They didn't even have to recognize her.” Despite the general lack of evidence against her, Martin was also convicted and hanged on July 19, the same day as Sarah Good.

4. Martha Carrier

When the Court of Oyer and Terminer met for a third session in early August 1692, it heard the case of Martha Carrier of Andover, which would be home to more accused witches than any other town. “Her family was very unpopular,” Burns says of Carrier; they were thought to have brought smallpox to Andover. After Carrier was accused, the authorities interrogated her two teenage sons, torturing them into confessing to witchcraft themselves, and implicating their mother.

In The Wonders of the Invisible World, his famous account of the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather memorably called Carrier a “rampant hag” who aspired to be “Queen of Hell.” The court convicted Carrier in the same session as two prominent male victims of the witch hunts, John Proctor and Reverend George Burroughs, whom people suspected of being the ringleader of Salem’s witches. On August 19, Carrier went to Gallows Hill along with Proctor, Burroughs and two other men—she was the only woman executed that day.

5. Martha Cory

Like Rebecca Nurse, Martha Cory was far from the usual witch suspect, who tended to be a poor outcast. She was a covenanted member of her church, and was considered an upstanding member of the community. But Martha had attracted suspicion after she tried to stop her husband, Giles, from attending one of the early examinations in the witch trials, even going so far as to hide his saddle. Shortly after this, one of the afflicted girls accused Martha of bewitching her and turning her blind.

Martha’s defiant attitude turned court officials against her, and Giles refused to corroborate her testimony, and even testified against her—at least until he himself was accused. Less than two weeks after Martha was found guilty and sentenced to death, Giles was pressed to death after he refused to enter a plea in his own trial. On September 22, Martha Cory went to the gallows along with seven other convicted witches, in what would be the last hangings of the Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem witch trials concluded in 1693, after the Massachusetts General Court declared the trials unlawful and released those remaining in jail. The trials were a dark chapter in colonial American history and demonstrated the dangers of religious fanaticism and mass hysteria. The victims of the Salem witch trials were innocent people who fell victim to fear and injustice. Their stories serve as a reminder of the importance of due process and the need for evidence-based judgments in legal proceedings..

Reviews for "Victims of Hysteria: Understanding the Stories of the Salem Witch Trial Victims"

- Jennifer - 2 out of 5 stars - I was really excited to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials and the victims involved, but unfortunately this list didn't provide much substance. It felt more like a dry recitation of names rather than a comprehensive exploration of each individual's story. I was hoping for more background information, personal anecdotes, and a deeper analysis of the social and historical context surrounding the trials. Overall, I felt quite disappointed with this list.

- Michael - 3 out of 5 stars - While I appreciate the effort put into compiling this list, it lacked the depth I was looking for. I was hoping to gain a better understanding of each victim's personal experiences and the impact the trials had on their lives. Additionally, I found the format to be quite repetitive and dull, simply listing names without much context or analysis. This list certainly has potential, but I would recommend it as a starting point for further research rather than a comprehensive resource.

- Sarah - 1 out of 5 stars - I found this list to be incredibly disappointing. It provides nothing more than superficial information, simply listing the names of the Salem Witch Trial victims without any meaningful insight. I was hoping to learn about their stories, the injustices they faced, and the implications of the trials on society at that time. Unfortunately, this list fell short of my expectations, and I would not recommend it to anyone seeking a more thorough understanding of this dark period in history.

Composing a List of Tragedy: Uncovering the Salem Witch Trial Victims