THERE WERE 25 TOTAL DEATHS BETWEEN 1692-1693

people were sentenced to death

SALEM WITCH TRIALS

THE

Read more about the Salem Witch Trials and their lasting influence on America’s cultural imagination in A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.

Available October 2014 wherever books are sold.

people were prosecuted for witchcraft

100,000 50,000

and

at le

ast

19 were hanged for witchcraft1 pressed to death

5 died in prison while awaiting trial

5 14

1

The great age of WITCH HUNTS in Europe and America

spanned roughly from 1400 TO 1775.

of the accused in 1692 were immediatefamily or extended kin of ministers.

29%

A substantial number of ministers and their relatives were accused of witchcraft. This pattern

of accusation suggests that the witchcraft crisis was in part a rebellion against the existing

religious and political leadership of Massachusetts Bay.

5

5

4

30

3

21

Ministers

Ministers’ wives

Ministers’ daughters

Son of a minister

Ministers’ brothers

Grandchildren of ministers

Extended family

BREAKDOWN OF THE 29%

From Russia to Bermuda, from Scotland to Brazil, witch hunts took place throughout the world.

of the hangedwere men

of the hangedwere womenwere informally

cried out on, but never charged

156were either formally denounced or charged with witchcraft

16