Salem Witch Trials

depicts two people being tried for witchcraft in Salem]]

*For the minor league baseball team, see* Salem Witches (baseball)*.*

The **Salem Witch Trials** (1692-1693) were a series of witch trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This was the biggest witch hunt ever to occur in New England.), and at least 5 died in prison. 

Eventually, several of the accusers (mostly teenage girls) admitted that their testimony and accusations were false. Today, the trials are often viewed as examples of mass hysteria and moral panic. Their ideas about witchcraft were closely tied to their religious beliefs: Most ministers in New England believed that all magic was diabolical, and that witches received powers from the Devil to [control] the weather, cause illness, destroy crops, and harm livestock. 

[They believed] witches made a covenant with the Devil that was similar to the covenant [that] church members made, and they deserved to be punished with death because ... they were “enemies to God, and all true religion.” 

The threat of witchcraft was believed to be particularly menacing in New England due to the special mission of Puritan colonists to create a godly society. The girls twisted themselves into strange shapes, screamed, and spoke meaningless words.  

A doctor concluded that witches had invaded Salem Village and were bewitching the girls. Tituba, an enslaved woman, was blamed and became the first person to be accused of witchcraft. A woman named Bridget Bishop was the next to be accused, and was the first to be executed. According to a 2025 article by Sarah Pruitt:I was taken very ill again all over & felt a great pricking in [the] soles of my feet, and after a while I saw apparently the shape of Margret Scott, who, as I was sitting in a chair by [the] fire pulled me with [the] chair, down backward to [the] ground, and tormented and pinched me very much.These symptoms may have been caused by mass hysteria.

#### George Burroughs 
In April 1692, a young woman accused Reverend George Burroughs of witchcraft. (Burroughs was a Harvard graduate who had been a minister in Salem Village in the early 1680s before moving back to Maine.) According to a 2024 research guide by Tricia Peone:

## Trials 
The Salem Witch Trials involved two kinds of trials. First, court hearings were held before local magistrates; then trials were held in county court. 

The trials were held in Salem, and accused witches from surrounding areas were brought to Salem to be tried for witchcraft. The best-known trials were held by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. All twenty-six people who went to trial before this court were convicted. 

In 1693, there were also four sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature in Salem. During these court sessions, thirty-one accused witches were tried for practicing witchcraft, but only three were convicted.

Sometimes, "trials" that sentenced people to death lasted just 15 minutes.

## Victims 
During the Trials, over 150 people accused of witchcraft were arrested and put in jail. 

In the Trials:

* 29 people were found guilty of witchcraft, which was a capital felony, punishable by death
* 19 of these people (14 women and 5 men) were hanged on Gallows Hill in present-day Salem, Massachusetts
* At least 5 accused witches died in prison
* Another (Giles Corey) was crushed to death under heavy stones after he refused to plead guilty or not guilty

By late 1692, the trials had gotten so out of control that the accusers began to accuse prominent and well-connected individuals, including the wife of Governor William Phips. After this shift in targets, people began to think about the proceedings more critically. Increase Mather, a respected minister, published "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits," where he questioned whether spectral evidence was really reliable. This type of evidence had been central to the Salem convictions.

## Explanations 
Historians have proposed many explanations for Salem's sudden witch panic.

### Factors related to the accusers 
The accusers may have been impacted by any of these factors:

* Boredom
* Child abuse 

However, many other factors may have contributed, including:
* Socioeconomic problems

## Related pages 
*The Scarlet Letter
* Witch
* Witchcraft
* Witch hunt
* Mass hysteria
* Moral panic
* Puritanism

## References