1. Salem Witch Trials
Salem, Massachusetts
1692

2. Salem—the Village History
1620: The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock.
1641: English law makes witchcraft a capital crime.
November, 1689: Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem, and Salem Village Church is formed.

3. The Year-1692
January
Parris’ daughter, Betty, and niece, Abigail Williams begin acting strangely and babbling incoherently. The village physician can find no physical problems with the girls.
The Physician therefore cites the culprit as a spiritual matter.

4. The Devil’s Work
Parris soon learns that Tituba, his slave, has been exposing the girls to stories/religious traditions from her homeland in Barbados.
Other girls begin acting strangely, fainting, screaming out in church, etc.
Soon, the girls claim to see the ‘specters’ of townspeople haunting them, in some cases even torturing them. The first accusations were directed towards Sarah Good and Sarah Osburne, both older women who seldom attended church.

5. The Investigations Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin:
physically examine Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne for "witch’s teats."
“Witches teats” are imperfections on the bodies of afflicted or possessed persons.
George Beard’s description of medical instruments used include:
“examination with pins, all over the body, in order to detect the shriveled, callous and non-sensitive places, which were supposed to be diagnostic signs of bewitchment.[1]”

6. Indictments: Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey
March 21, 1692: Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin examine Martha Corey. She is sent to prison.
They accuse 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse of bewitching them. Rebecca Nurse is the area nurse; she attended Parris’ daughter bedside early in 1692.

7. A 4 year-old witch
The daughter of Sarah Good is imprisoned for witchcraft after admitting guilt.
Many of those accused of witchery awaited their fates inside small prison cells, approximately 6 by 4 feet.
She is one of the four people who died in such prisons.

8. Executions Soon, twenty-three suspected Salem witches are in jail.
These include John and Elizabeth Proctor, Bridget Bishop, and Giles Corey.
Bridget Bishop is the first to be hanged on Gallows Hill.

9. On Trial for Life
July 23, Several convicted “witches” write petitions to the magistrates for release.
John Proctor writes of about the atrocities that led to their confessions.
An excerpt reads,
“my son, William Proctor, when he was examined, because he would not confess that he was guilty, when he was innocent, they tied him neck and heels till the blood gushed out of his nose, and would have kept him so 24 hours.”

10. John Proctor at his confession
“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! (…) How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”
~John Proctor in Miller’s Crucible
Puritan’s often believed in a “good name,” as an endeavor of a good Christian life.

11. Testimony of Confessions
Some of those admitted that they were in league with the devil; that they had signed the devil’s book.
“These confessions, were mostly insincere, and were wrung and pressed out of the victims in order that they might save their lives.” ~George Beard

12. The sentences are carried out.
August 19: George Burroughs, John Proctor, John Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier are hanged. Elizabeth Proctor is spared because she is pregnant.
September 9: Six more tried and sentenced to death, including Martha Corey.

13. September 17: Nine more are tried and sentenced to death
September 17: Nine more are tried and sentenced to death. Giles Corey refuses to stand trial.
September 19: Corey is pressed to death. This tortuous and inhuman punishment involves a stone to be placed on the chest of a man. As a result, the stone crushes a man’s heart and cavity.

14. Giles Corey’s death
Giles Corey refused to give testimony at the 1692 Witch Trials.
He would neither confess nor deny the charges brought upon him.
So, in order to obtain a statement, he was taken outside, a board placed across his body, and heavy stones piled on top It is said that his only words before he was crushed to death were: "More weight!"

15. The trials end…in 1693
January 1693: 49 of the 52 surviving people brought into court on witchcraft charges are released because their arrests were based on spectral evidence.
April 25: The court sits in Boston. None found guilty.
May: Sir William Phipps orders the release of all accused witches remaining in jail, on payment of their fees.
A total of 19 townspeople are hanged; 156 imprisoned.

16. ~The Salem Witch Trial: Reader
Conclusion
1697: Samuel Parris is ousted from Salem Village Church and leaves the village.
Proctor’s petition before death:
The innocency of our case with the enmity of our accusers and our judges and jury, whom nothing but our innocent blood will serve their turn, having condemned us already before our trials…makes us bold to beg and implore favourable assistance of this our humble petition to his Excellency, that if it be possible our innocent blood may be spared.”
~The Salem Witch Trial: Reader