The Salem Witch Trials

More than 300 years ago, Salem Village, MA, was the site of one of America’s most infamous cases of mass hysteria: the Salem Witch Trials.

Hundreds were accused of witchcraft between 1692 and mid-1693, the crime being one that carried the punishment of execution in Puritan New England. A handful of bizarre illnesses escalated into hysteria, splitting families and pitting neighbor against neighbor.

Witches in Salem

In early 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris became mysteriously ill. The girls, who were 9 and 11, made strange noises, threw things, screamed and twisted themselves into odd positions. Another 12-year-old girl quickly developed the same symptoms.

A local doctor gave the startling diagnosis that they had been afflicted by the supernatural. By the end of February, the terrified girls accused three women of making them sick: a Caribbean slave named Tituba; a homeless woman named Sarah Good; and a poor, elderly woman named Sarah Osborne.

All three women were questioned by the local magistrates. Good and Osborne denied their guilt, but Tituba confessed to having signed a pact with the devil. “The devil came to me and bid me serve him,” she said, warning that other witches were working to bring down the Puritans, according to the magazine Smithsonian.

Mass Hysteria

Tituba’s confession rocked the inhabitants of Salem Village to its core, unleashing a wave of paranoia. The accusations multiplied as panic swept through the Puritan community. Scores of residents of Salem and nearby towns were questioned, and those accused of witchcraft included loyal church attendee Martha Corey and Good’s 4-year-old daughter Dorothy.

In May 1692, Gov. William Phips created a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, to “hear and determine” serious criminal cases of witchcraft. The first person tried was Bridget Bishop, who maintained she was “as innocent as the child unborn.” Her defense did not work: Bishop was convicted and hanged on June 10, 1692.

Between July and September, another 18 people were hanged for witchcraft. In all the chaos, some voices of reason did emerge, including those of minister Cotton Mather and his father Increase Mather, who advised against using “spectral evidence” — that is, testimony regarding dreams or visions — as part of the court’s examination of purported witches.

“It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned,” the older Mather said.

Phips would eventually step in and put a stop to further arrests after his own wife was accused of witchcraft. On Oct. 29, he brought an end to the Court of Oyer and Terminer. It was replaced by a Superior Court of Judicature that did not allow the use of spectral evidence. Only three of the remaining 56 defendants were convicted.

By May 1693, after 19 men and women had been executed, Phips pardoned all who were still imprisoned for witchcraft.

The Salem Witch Trials are widely considered one of the darkest chapters in American history. While it is unclear what caused the mysterious illness that triggered the witch hunt, the trials serve as a warning about the dangers of mass hysteria.

1. The Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts more than 300 years ago.
2. Hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft between 1692 and 1693, and 19 people were executed for the spiritual crime.
3. A doctor blamed the supernatural for a mysterious illness afflicting three local girls, triggering the year-long witch hunt.