Salem Witch TrialsSalem Witch TrialsWhat were the “witch trials?”What were the “witch trials?”

Why did it occur?Why did it occur?What is hysteria?What is hysteria?

Could, or does this happen now?Could, or does this happen now?What does it say about Salem? New England? The quality What does it say about Salem? New England? The quality

of life in the New World?of life in the New World?

O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could dieWhen all about thee Owned the hideous lie!

The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,Is breathing freer for thy sake today.

--Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier and inscribed on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca Nurse, one of the condemned "witches" of Salem.Retrieved 1/22/03 http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended.

Salem in the 1760's (School Street)

William Stoughton, judge

Cover of John Hale’s Book

The Hanging of George Burroughs

The Salem Witch House (1642), home of Jonathan Corwin

“Examination of a Witch”

The trial of Rebecca Nurse

The June 10, 1692 hanging of Bridget Bishop

The Trial of George Jacobs

Repentance of Judge Sewall, 1697