From February 1692 to May 1693, 19 people were executed by hanging and one was stoned to death after being found guilty during the Salem Witch Trials.
From 1692 to 1693, it didn’t take much to spark suspicion of witchcraft in Salem. Sometimes, it just took town gossip to send victims of the Salem witch trials to the gallows. Other times, it only took a bad dream.
Over the course of that strange year, people living in and around Salem, Massachusetts clamored to charge each other with making deals with the Devil. By May 1693, over 200 people had been accused of practicing witchcraft or wizardry. And 20 unlucky souls had been executed as a result.
Those 20 victims of the Salem witch trials came from all walks of life. All stood accused — for various reasons — of being witches or wizards.
But who were they? And why were they chosen for execution? Here are eight noteworthy “Salem witches” who tragically lost their lives during the trials.
Sarah Good: One Of The First Victims Of The Salem Witch Trials
Sarah Good was one of the first women to be accused of witchcraft in Salem. Considered a social nuisance, Good and her family were essentially homeless. And Good often cursed at people who didn’t give her charity.
So when young girls in town started having violent, unexplainable “fits,” suspicion fell on Good. A doctor claimed that the girls were under an “evil hand.” And the girls said that Good and two other women, Sarah Osborne and Tituba (who was enslaved), had bewitched them.
While Good and Osborne denied the accusations, Tituba confessed.
Wikimedia CommonsTituba là một trong những người đầu tiên bị buộc tội là phù thủy và được cho là đã góp phần gây ra sự hoảng loạn này.
“The devil came to me and bid me serve him,” she said. Tituba added that not only were Osborne and Good witches — but they were just two of several witches who lived in or near the area.
Before long, hysteria seized the town. When Good went to trial, even her own husband implied that she was a witch — or at least on her way to becoming one. He said, “I with tears that she is enemy to all good.”
To many in Salem, Good seemed like a believable candidate to make a deal with the Devil. Not only was she a social outcast, but she also didn’t go to church and she wasn’t able to recite any psalms. When a minister asked her to confess to being a witch, Good screamed at him, saying:
“You’re a liar! I’m no more a witch than you are a wizard! If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink!”
Though Osborne died in jail, and Tituba was later released and sold to another slaveholder, Good was found guilty. On July 19, 1692, she and four other Salem witches were hanged. But they weren’t the first to die.
Bridget Bishop: The First Woman Hanged During The Salem Witch Trials
Public Domain“Execution of Bridget Bishop at Salem, 1692.” Illustration by Joseph Boggs Beale. Circa 1885.
Even before the Salem witch trials, many suspected that Bridget Bishop was a witch. Her second husband Thomas Oliver had even claimed as much, saying, “She was a bad wife… she sat up all night with the devil.”
It didn’t help Bishop’s case that Oliver — and her first husband — had died. Oliver’s children had even accused her of bewitching Oliver to death in 1679.
Although Bishop had avoided serious charges of witchcraft in earlier years, she wasn’t so lucky in 1692. That April, the “afflicted girls” in town accused her of bewitching them. And as soon as Bishop walked into court to defend herself, the girls almost immediately went into fits.
“How is it that your specter hurts those in this room?” demanded Magistrate John Hawthorne, referring to the evil spirit that witches could “control.”
“I am innocent to a witch,” Bishop responded. “I know not what a witch is.”
But witness after witness claimed the contrary. Ten of Bishop’s neighbors testified against her, accusing her of everything from sending her specter to attack them, to using poppets (voodoo dolls), to making items disappear.
One account from Bishop’s trial even declared that she caused a board to fall from the Salem meeting house — just by looking at it. And a physical examination of Bishop claimed to have found a “witch’s mark” on her body.
The people of Salem swiftly decided that Bishop was guilty. On June 10, she was brought to Gallows Hill and hanged. Her death warrant reads:
“On June 10, 1692, High Sheriff George Corwin took [Bridget Bishop] to the top of Gallows Hill and hanged her alone from the branches of a great oak tree. Now the honest men of Salem could sleep in peace, sure that the Shape of Bridget would trouble them no more.”
But the people of Salem would find plenty more “witches” to execute. And sometimes, they planned much worse deaths than hanging.
Giles And Martha Corey: The Couple Killed Within Days Of Each Other
Wikimedia CommonsGiles Corey was crushed to death with stones after refusing to cooperate during his trial.
Like many of the victims of the Salem witch trials, Giles Corey was an outsider. But he suffered an especially gruesome death. After refusing to plead guilty to practicing wizardry, he was “pressed” to death with stones.
Before his death, Giles had something of an infamous reputation in Salem. The 80-year-old farmer had stood trial for killing a farmhand years earlier, and church records even referred to him as a “scandalous person.”
Nevertheless, Giles reacted to the Salem witch trials like most other people in town. Curious and frightened, he attended many of the early examinations. Giles even felt hysterical enough about potential witchcraft that he agreed that his own wife, Martha, was probably a witch.
He testified against her, acknowledging that he’d had some animals fall mysteriously ill and that he had seen his wife behave strangely near a fire.
But then suspicion fell on him. A number of young women claimed that he’d bewitched them. And just like in Bishop’s case, they went into violent fits almost as soon as he walked into the courtroom.
“All the afflicted were seized now with fits, and troubled with pinches,” Reverend Samuel Parris wrote. “Then the court ordered his hands to be tied.”
The magistrate demanded: “What, is it not enough to act witchcraft at other times, but must you do it now in the face of authority?”
“I am a poor creature, and cannot help it,” Giles responded, but as he moved his head, the young women he’d “bewitched” echoed his movement.
Perhaps sensing the futility of defending himself, Giles eventually stopped cooperating. But because he refused to talk, he was given a sentence of peine forte et dure. In other words, he’d be pressed to death.
In September 1692, that’s exactly what happened. Giles was stripped naked and laid on the ground with a board covering his body. One by one, stones were stacked onto the board as Corey cried out, “More weight!” while he was crushed to death. It took him days to die on September 19, 1692.
In the end, his only goal was stopping authorities from taking his land so that his two sons-in-law would at least be left with something. And although he was able to ensure the prosperity of his surviving family members, he suffered an agonizing death in order to make that happen.
Martha Corey avoided this terrible fate. But she too was executed for being a witch. On September 22, she and seven others were hanged.
George Burroughs: The Minister Among The Salem Witches
Public DomainGeorge Burroughs, like many other victims of the Salem witch trials, was a polarizing figure in town.
At his execution on August 19, 1692, Reverend George Burroughs recited the Lord’s Prayer — shocking the crowd of spectators. After all, witches and wizards weren’t supposed to be able to say prayers.
Despite this final act, he was hanged that day along with four others. But how did a minister become a victim of the Salem witch hunt?
Burroughs, like many of the other Salem witches, had enemies in Salem. He’d served as the town’s minister from 1680 to 1683 but left on bad terms after he ran up debts for his wife’s funeral. As frenzy tore through the town in 1692, several “afflicted girls” claimed that Burroughs had bewitched them.
Although the minister had since moved to Maine, two lawmen arrested him and brought him back to Salem. On their return journey, a terrible storm convinced the lawmen that the Devil had tried to free him.
During his trial, Burroughs made a number of statements that convinced Salem residents of his guilt.
He denied that his house was haunted — but admitted it had toads (which were thought to be a popular witch’s pet). The minister also said that he’d only baptized his eldest child and that he couldn’t remember the last time that he had taken communion.
To make matters worse, 30 people testified against Burroughs. They accused him of being secretive, having super strength, and using a specter.
Several of the girls who accused Burroughs offered a very similar sworn statement — perhaps dictated by one of his enemies in town — which read:
“I beleve in my heart that Mr George Burroughs is a dreadfull wizzard and that he has often tormented me and also the above named parsons by his acts of witchcraft.”
The minister was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
Burroughs’ recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at his execution did give some people in the crowd pause. But after he finished speaking, Cotton Mather — a fellow minister who disliked Burroughs so much that he refused to call him by his full name — addressed the crowd.
Burroughs, Mather said, was no true minister. Mather insisted that the “devil has often been transformed into an angel of the light.”
Shortly thereafter, Burroughs was hanged.
Martha Carrier: The Defiant “Queen Of Hell”
Wikimedia CommonsThis 1853 painting depicting the “examination of a witch” was based on the Salem witch trials.
Martha Carrier lived in nearby Andover, not Salem. But she had an infamous reputation. Many believed that she’d brought smallpox to town around 1690.
“Carrier and some of her children are smitten with that contagious disease the small-pox,” town records stated. “[T]ake care that they do not spread the distemper with wicked carelessness which we are afraid they have already done.”
Though it’s impossible to know for certain why girls in Salem accused “Goody Carrier” of witchcraft, it’s possible that her association with smallpox set many people against her. On May 28, 1692, Carrier was arrested.
Her trial started a few days later. When she entered the courtroom, the girls who had accused her had violent fits.
“Goody Carrier, she bites me, pinches me, & tells me she would cut my throat,” one girl claimed. Another said that she saw 13 ghosts — representatives of the 13 people who had died of smallpox.
But Carrier was defiant. “I have not done it,” she said. Carrier added, “It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits.”
Despite Carrier’s strong stance, however, the tide of public opinion had turned against her. Mather later called her a “rampant hag” and the “Queen of Hell.” Her sons said she was a witch — after they had been tortured into confessing — and another Andover woman claimed that Carrier had become a witch six years ago and even attended “witch meetings.”
Thus, Carrier’s fate was sealed. On August 19, 1692, she was hanged alongside Reverend George Burroughs and three others. All of them professed their innocence. But their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Rebecca Nurse: The Churchgoing Grandmother
Public DomainUnlike other Salem witches, Rebecca Nurse was a well-liked and respected member of the community.
Most of the Salem witches were outsiders. But Rebecca Nurse was a well-liked member of the Salem community. Her arrest shocked many.
Nurse, like many of the others, was accused of witchcraft by a number of girls in town. But why? Some suspect that the accusation came from a feud between Nurse and another family in town. Others think that the girls targeted Nurse because she’d scolded them for practicing fortune-telling.
“We cannot imagine the cause of the alleged complaint of witchcraft,” noted An Account of the Life, Character, & c. of Reverend Samuel Parris, a tome on Salem’s minister. “She appears to have been an amiable and exemplary woman, and well educated for the times in which she lived.”
Regardless of her sterling credentials in Salem, Nurse stood accused of being a witch. And in 1692, that could be a death sentence.
“I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent and God will clear my innocence,” Nurse insisted at her trial. Calling herself as innocent as a “child unborn,” Nurse declared, “The Lord knows I have not hurt [anyone].”
At first, it seemed that Nurse’s testimony and reputation might save her life. Citizens even signed a petition in her support. But when the court declared her not guilty, the girls she’d “bewitched” had a new round of fits.
Nurse was soon hanged. But her story stands out among all the Salem witches. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Nurse is described as a kind, gentle woman — and a sign of how hysterical the Salem witch trials had become.
Mary Easty: The Woman Who Begged For Common Sense
Wikimedia CommonsAccusers often had “fits” during the Salem witch trials, as depicted here.
After Mary Easty (sometimes spelled Eastey) was found guilty of being a witch, she wrote a petition to the court. But surprisingly, she did not ask for a stay of execution in the letter. Rather, she pleaded with Salem authorities to think about what they were doing to innocent people.
Easty wrote, “I petition to your honours not for my own life for I know I must die.” She pleaded that no more “innocent blood be shed.”
Indeed, Easty seemed to be guilty by association more than anything else. Her sisters were also accused of witchcraft — including Rebecca Nurse — and their mother had been accused of witchcraft back in 1670.
Like Nurse, Easty had a good standing in the Salem community. And like Nurse, she was accused of being a witch by afflicted girls in town.
“How far have you complied with Satan whereby he takes this advantage against you?” the Salem magistrate asked Easty during her trial.
“Sir, I never complied but prayed against him all my days,” Easty insisted. “I have no compliance with Satan, in this.”
At first, the court seemed swayed by Easty’s testimony — just like they had with Nurse’s. But although they briefly released Easty, the girls who had accused her started having violent fits again. And so, like her sister, Easty was thrown back in jail and threatened with punishment.
However, the girls weren’t the only ones to accuse Easty of witchcraft. A man in town also testified against her, claiming that after he got into an argument with Easty five years earlier, something invisible attacked him.
To the court, this seemed to be enough. On September 22, 1692, Easty was hanged alongside other victims of the Salem witch trials. But her death in particular moved many in the community.
Robert Calef, who wrote a contemporary account of the trials, noted:
“When she took her last farewell of her husband, children and friends, was, as is reported by them present, as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could well be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present.”
But not everyone shed tears after the execution. According to Calef, one minister squinted at the dead bodies and said, “What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there.”
Mary Easty’s legacy has endured long since her death. She’s mentioned as a relative of Bathsheba in the 2013 film The Conjuring.
The Other Victims Of The Salem Witch Trials
TwitterA memorial for the people accused of being witches in Salem.
By the time the dust settled in Salem in 1693, 20 people had been executed.
In addition to Sarah Good, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, Rebecca Nurse, and Mary Easty, there were 12 others who were killed: Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, John Willard, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmot Redd, Margaret Scott, and Samuel Wardwell.
Most were unpopular outcasts. And most declared their innocence. Yet, one by one, the Salem witch trials found them guilty.
But why? And what caused the Salem witch trials in the first place?
Historians have offered a couple of possible explanations. One popular theory suggests that a series of catastrophes, including smallpox outbreaks and the Native American Wars, had put Salem residents on edge. Already paranoid, they easily succumbed to mass hysteria.
Another theory suggests that the Salem witch trials came about because of two feuding families: the Porters and the Putnams. Town politics became so intense and bitter that they resulted in a literal witch hunt.
But perhaps the most bizarre theory came out in the 1970s and involves fungus. The fungus ergot, when digested, can cause muscle spasms, delusions, and hallucinations. Salem offered the right conditions for it to flourish, and it’s possible that it grew in Salem’s rye and wheat supply.
Ultimately, however, it’s difficult to pinpoint the true reason why the Salem witch trials started. And any logical conclusion is little comfort to the descendants of the people who lost their lives — and their reputations.
However, Massachusetts has tried to make amends. Only a few years after the Salem witch trials, the town underwent a day of fasting and soul searching as penance for what had happened. And by 1711, the colony of Massachusetts passed a bill that restored the good names of the accused. Still, it took until 1957 for the state to issue a formal apology.
Today, the accused Salem witches are seen as victims of one of the most bizarre periods in American history. Faced with mass hysteria, vengeful neighbors, and evidence like “specters,” they stood little chance. Nevertheless, most of them professed their innocence until the end.
But perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the Salem witch trials is their mysterious origins. It happened once — who says it couldn’t happen again?