Qualla: Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Howard Pyle, Public domain. Dorothy Good was four years old when the magistrates questioned her. Her answers -- confused, childish, misunderstood -- were taken as a confession that implicated her own mother, Sarah, who would hang on July 19, 1692. Between February of that year and May of the next, the village of Salem and its surrounding communities spiraled into a prosecutorial frenzy that saw more than 200 people accused of witchcraft, 30 found guilty, and 20 killed. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America, and it began with the strange behavior of four girls in a minister's household.

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Image: Howard Pyle | Public domain

Salem Witch Trials: A Village Already Burning

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rizka, CC BY-SA 4.0. Salem Village -- present-day Danvers, Massachusetts -- was not a peaceful place before the accusations started. Neighbors fought over property lines, grazing rights, and church privileges. The settlement had burned through three ministers in quick succession; the first two left a...

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Image: Rizka | CC BY-SA 4.0

Salem Witch Trials: The Afflicted and the Accused

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Betty Parris, age nine. Abigail Williams, eleven. Ann Putnam Jr., twelve. Elizabeth Hubbard, seventeen. They contorted their bodies, crawled under furniture, complained of being pinched and pricked with invisible pins. A doctor -- likely William Griggs -- could find no physical c...

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Image: Public domain

Salem Witch Trials: The Court of Oyer and Terminer

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unidentified painter, Public domain. On June 2, 1692, the newly created Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in Salem Town under Chief Magistrate William Stoughton, the colony's lieutenant governor. Bridget Bishop was the first to face the grand jury. She wore black clothing and 'odd costumes,' which violated the Pur...

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Image: Unidentified painter | Public domain

Salem Witch Trials: When the Wheel Turned

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francis Helminski, CC BY-SA 4.0. The trials collapsed under their own momentum. As accusations reached into the ranks of prominent citizens, leading clergymen began questioning the validity of spectral evidence -- testimony claiming the accused's spirit had appeared to torment the accuser. Governor William Phips...

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Image: Francis Helminski | CC BY-SA 4.0

Salem Witch Trials: The Ground Remembers

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unattributed, Public domain. Salem today wears its history openly, sometimes solemnly and sometimes commercially. A memorial park dedicated in 1992 on the 300th anniversary of the trials bears stone benches inscribed with the victims' names and their protests of innocence. In Danvers, a separate memorial hon...

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Image: unattributed | Public domain