--------------------------------Salem Witch Trials------------------------------- |ARTICLE|BIBLIOGRAPHY|CHRONOLOGY|LIST of the DEAD|MISCELLANEA|WEBSITE REFERENCES| This Halloween is Brought to You by the Happy-Go-Lucky People from 1692 Copyright (c) by Dave Ayotte Although I have always found the Salem Witch Trials to be one of the most fascinating cases of the unexplained, I very rarely read anything about them anymore. Every time I see a small child pretending to be a witch on Halloween it always brings a tear to my eyes. Little do they know in their innocent little hearts the troubles their pretensions might have caused them if we were still back in the latter half of the 17th Century. The reasons for this are mostly because of the sad cases associated with the Salem Witch Trials and especially those of Giles Cory and Mary Easty. MAR-23--- 1692 [SUN]----Salem Marshal Deputy Samuel Brabrook arrests four-year-old Dorcas Good. MAR-24--- 1692 [MON]----Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good's four-and-a-half- year-old daughter Dorcas Good are examined by Hathorne and Corwin and then thrown into prison. At some point during her eight month stay in the dungeons, Dorcas went insane. Halloween is most definitely a fun time for adults and kids alike. Besides Christmas, it's my favourite time of the year. However, when it comes to mixing the illusion of happiness and fun with the realities and harshness of life, Halloween beats Christmas hands down. Whether it's watching scary movies, telling or listening to ghost stories, carving out pumpkins, or sneaking up to that scary old house at the end of the block with the squeaky gate, or just dressing up like a ghost, an alien, cowboy, Native American, princess, Freddy, a warlock, or even a witch; nothing can compete with a good old-fashion Halloween scare. All of that is fun and scary stuff don't you think? But, no matter how much fun all that scary stuff can be on Halloween, it does have a sober side to it. When I first started looking into the Salem Witch Trials, that's when my happy Halloween thoughts were first hijacked and forced to travel down the rough and dirty back roads of human meanness, and also when I began to realize the underlying darkness behind some of the seemingly harmless and funny characters that populated the Halloween landscape. Take witches for example --oh boy, especially witches. Oh sure when you see one trick or treating on Halloween night, it's usually a young little girl wearing a black dress, a pointy black hat and sometimes carrying a broom. "Oh how cute", or "What a pretty little witch you are", or "You are such a little cutie" is usually what you hear or say. Are these the images you have of what a witch is? Or, do you picture a voodoo queen living in a swamp shack outside of New Orleans somewhere deep in the bayous of the Mississippi delta? Or, do you see three witch hags cackling over a boiling cauldron filled with batwings and eyes of newt like the ones described in Shakespeare's "Macbeth"? Or, are they all beautiful woman like the ones portrayed by Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer in George Miller's "The Witches of Eastwick"? Or, is your image more like the funny side you see in some of the TV series being run nowadays like "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"? Talking about "Sabrina", has anyone seen the "Archies" comic book series the show is based on? The question I have is why hasn't Archie or Jughead or Betty or Veronica or Reggie, Midge, Moose, or even Dilton ever made an appearance? I mean they all went to Riverdale High School didn't they? Just curious. Actually, witches are a combination of all the above mixed in with a couple hundred different pages randomly selected from any telephone book in the United States or the world. In other words, there is no real generalized version of what a real witch looks like or how they act. They can look like you, me or anyone on your block or in your city. They aren't all cute either or ugly or any different from anyone you know or anyone that anyone knew throughout history. What you think a witch is can depend on your personal experiences, opinions, exposure, and religious upbringing. In reality, what a witch really looks like or how they act depends not on what we each think, but upon the individual witch. It's been my experience that witches aren't bad or evil or even intentionally evil in even the smallest way. As a matter of fact, I consider myself a student of the craft. The modern definition of a witch, as I understand it, is someone who wants to become one with the universe and use the energy that flows through it for the good of the cosmos or a universal good or a good that transcends the here and now or something like that. Atleast, that's how I've conducted my life ever since I've begun learning and practicing the art of witchcraft. Maybe I'm so close to the art of being a witch, that I am blinded by my biases. But, I do have to say (for what it's worth) that I have yet to meet a fellow witch who isn't a loving and caring friend and neighbour and more than happy to take the time to help me furthur my studies. You can take that (like I just said) for what you think it's worth. But that wasn't the case back in 1692. Back then, being a witch wasn't "funny" or "cute" like it sometimes is today --not by a long shot. Not to say that witches were evil back then. They were just perceived as such by Puritans and many other religious groups of the day. The practice of witchcraft was even considered by English law, during that time, to be a capital crime. The Salem Witch Trials are an excellent example of how witches were misperceived and feared because they were thought to be evil and in league with the devil. Even though you still hear or read in the news today about someone who is stoned to death because they were thought to be a witch, it still isn't as rampant or as widespread as it was back during the Salem Witch Trials. It was a scary time to be alive. Even if you weren't a witch. Colonists lived every day with the fear, always scratching at the very back of their brains, that at any minute they could be slaughtered by a rowdy band of Native Americans (not realizing that Native Americans had the same fears also), or the fear that they could be strickened and die from any of the hundreds and hundreds of unseen diseases and ailments which were floating around like invisible devils. The horrors of the black plague were still a relatively recent memory, and since the science of microbiology was still years away, witches turned out to be the perfect scapegoat. Mix in all the political, social, and religious turmoil occuring at the local level and throughout the state of Massachusetts and the rest of the colonies at that time, and you have the perfect recipe for the explosive disaster that was soon to follow. --------- 1629 ---------Salem, Massachusetts is settled. --------- 1641 ---------English law makes witchcraft a capital crime. --------- 1684 ---------England declares that the colonies may not self-govern. --------- 1688 ---------Following an argument with laundress Goody Glover, Martha Goodwin, 13, begins exhibiting bizarre behaviour. Days later her younger brother and two sisters exhibit similar behaviour. Glover is arrested and tried for bewitching the Goodwin children. Reverend Cotton Mather meets twice with Glover following her arrest in an attempt to persuade her to repent her witchcraft. Glover is hanged. Mather takes Martha Goodwin into his house. Her bizarre behaviour continues and worsens. --------- 1689 ---------Cotton Mather publishes "Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions" which is considered, if not the first than, one of the first books relating to the paranormal. "Providences" is based on his study and observations concerning the Goodwin case. NOV------ 1689 ---------Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem. Parris moves to Salem from Boston, where "Memorable Providence" was published. OCT-16--- 1691 [TUE]----Villagers vow to drive Parris out of Salem and stop contributing to his salary. Most everyone pretty much knows most of the basic facts, but in case you don't; on January 20, 1692, two Salem children (nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams) begin behaving strangely. In February, Doctor Griggs (mostly because he couldn't find any real physical cause) suggested that witchcraft may be the root cause of all this strange behaviour. Not too long after the Doctor made his suggestion, Ann Putnam, Jr and several other young girls joined Parris and Williams to begin exhibiting their own strange behaviours, and then the accusations started. FEB-LATE- 1692 ---------Pressured by ministers and townspeople to say who caused her odd behaviour, Elizabeth identifies Tituba. The girls later accuse Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of witchcraft. FEB-LATE- 1692 ---------Prayer services and community fasting were conducted by Reverend Samuel Parris in hopes of relieving the evil forces that plagued them. FEB-25--- 1692 [MON]----Tituba (some sources name John Indian), at the request of neighbour Mary Sibley, bakes a "witch cake" and feeds it to a dog. According to an English folk remedy, feeding a dog this kind of cake, which contained the urine of the afflicted, would (depending on which source you read) counteract the spell put on Elizabeth and Abigail. The reason (again, depending upon which source you read) the cake is fed to a dog is because the dog is believed a "familiar" of the Devil. This counter-magic (again, depending upon which source you read) was also meant to reveal the identities of the "witches" to the afflicted girls. FEB-29--- 1692 [FRI]----Arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Although Osborne and Good maintained innocence, Tituba confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her "sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog". What's more, Tituba testified that there was a conspiracy of witches at work in Salem. MAR-11--- 1692 [TUE]----Ann Putnam, Jr. shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Mary Warren later allege affliction as well. MAR-12--- 1692 [WED]----Ann Putnam, Jr. accuses Martha Cory of witchcraft. MAR-19--- 1692 [WED]----Abigail Williams denounces Rebecca Nurse as a witch. By the end of October, atleast 200 people (and maybe more) were accused of witchcraft and around 150 were jailed as a result of these accusations. Out of these 150 people, 19 were executed, 1 was pressed to death, and 4 died in prison. The number of those who died in prison varies from four to seventeen, and the actual number and names depends on which source you read, but atleast four are universally accepted as actually dying in prison as a result of the Salem witch hunt hysteria. Yes, you read that right. Within the span of seven months, from late February until September 22nd, twenty people were accused and executed or pressed to death because they were thought to be witches. It should be mentioned that all those who were executed, were executed not because they were witches, but because they refused to admit that they were witches. Those who confessed were kept alive so they could point out more witches who were later arrested and then brought in for questioning, and then hanged if they didn't confess. This looping travesty of injustice and illogic so horrendously and viciously fed off itself that to this day, it's still heatedly debated whether or not it was all driven by either religious fervor or personal vendettas or both. All we can do is acknowledge that it is another very sad historical example of how theocratic fanaticism can very easily be allowed to run amok. Even with all those stories of zealotry gone mad, the two victims that have forever stuck with me are Giles Cory and Mary Easty. Their stories are equally sad not only because in my opinion they were innocent, but probably more so because they could easily have avoided the whole death penalty scene by simply admitting they were witches. But, admitting to such a crime was so repugnant to them that they decided to die rather than confess. Of the twenty people who were executed, Giles Cory is an interesting case, not only because he was not officially executed, but because of the reasons and the way he died. At the time, if someone were found guilty at the trial then all their property could be seized by the courts, and thus Cory would have had nothing to leave his family. I'm not sure whether this applied in all criminal cases, but it did apply in this specific case. Cory saw how all the other trials had gone and realized that no matter how he pleaded, he was going to be found guilty and hanged and his family would lose everything. Unless he confessed, but like I said earlier, this was not an option to him, so he figured the only way to stop what was going to happen was to refuse to plead. By refusing to plead, he couldn't be tried, which meant he couldn't be found guilty, and as a result, his property would stay with his family. When the court found that he wasn't going to plead, they administered the Piene Forte Et Durebe (pressed to death) until he was forced to plead. Being an obstinate old cuss by nature and angered by not only being tricked into testifying against his wife, but also the real possibility that his family would lose everything; Giles Cory kept his mouth shut even as rock after rock was placed on top of his chest. After almost forty eight hours under all that weight, his rib cage finally cracked crushing all the air out of his lungs and he died. Which brings us to the Mary Easty case. As I said earlier, even though you could paint everyone who was accused as a tragic figure, and even though Cory's death was a horrifying case in and of itself, whenever I think of the Salem cases, Mary Easty's story touches my heart more uniquely and more deeply than anyone else's. On March 19th when Abigail Williams accused Rebecca Nurse of being a witch, Mary Easty stuck up for her sister and denounced her accusers. A month later on April 22, Mary Easty was herself accused and brought in for questioning. After her examination, she was committed to prison to await trial. For some unknown reason, she was released on May 18th. Her accusers threw such a tirade of fits that after two days of sweet freedom, she was awoken in the middle of the night and almost literally dragged screaming from her husband's arms and thrown back into prison. On September 9th after a short trial, she was pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang. Not too long after the trial, Dorcas Hoar, one of those tried and sentenced along with Mary Easty, broke down and, in order to save herself from the gallows, confessed to being a witch. Mary refused to confess and in an eloquent yet simple petition to the court begged them, not for her own life for she knew she was lost, but that they reconsider their actions and stop the spilling of more innocent blood. Her petition is one of the most haunting things I have ever read and one of the reasons why Halloween is not only a time of fun and happiness for me, but also a time of quiet and sober reflection. If you never want to cry on Halloween or feel the sadness of utter despair on such a happy and joyful holiday, I beg of you not to read the rest of her story. Whenever I picture her in a dark, dank prison cell, knowing she will soon die and never again be able to see or be with her husband or kids ever again, writing the following words, I am never able to stop myself from crying: "The humbl petition of mary Eastick unto his Excellency's S'r W'm Phipps to the honour'd Judge and Bench now Sitting in Judicature in Salem and the Reverend ministers humbly sheweth "That whereas your poor and humble petitioner being condemned to die Doe humbly begg of you to take it into your Judicious and pious considerations that your Poor and humble petitioner knowing my own Innocencye Blised be the Lord for it and seeing plainly the wiles and subtility of my accusers by my Selfe can not but Judge charitably of others that are going the same way of my selfe if the Lord stepps not mightily in i was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for and then cleared by the afflicted persons as some of your honours know and in two dayes time I was cryed out upon by them and have been confined and now am condemned to die the Lord above knows my Innocence then and Likewise does now as att the great day will be know to men and Angells -- I Petition to your honours not for my own life for I know I must die and my appointed time is sett but the Lord he knowes it is that if it be possible no more Innocent blood may be shed which undoubtidly cannot be Avoyded In the way and course you goe in I question not but your honours does to the uttmost of your Powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches and would not be gulty of Innocent blood for the world but by my own Innocency I know you are in this great work if it be his blessed you that no more Innocent blood be shed I would humbly begg of you that your honors would be plesed to examine theis Afflicted Persons strictly and keep them apart some time and Likewise to try some of these confesing wichis I being confident there is severall of them has belyed themselves and others as will appeare if not in this wor[l]d I am sure in the world to come whither I am now agoing and I Question not but youle see and alteration of thes things they my selfe and others having made a League with the Divel we cannot confesse I know and the Lord knowes as will shortly appeare they belye me and so I Question not but they doe others the Lord above who is the Searcher of all hearts knows that as I shall answer att the Tribunall seat that I know not the least thinge of witchcraft therfore I cannot I dare not belye my own soule I beg your honers not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dy ing Innocent person and I Question not but the Lord will give a blesing to yor endevers." [reverse side] "To his Excellency S'r W'm Phipps: Govern'r and to the honoured Judge and Magistrates now setting in Judicature in Salem." Like all the petitions and pleas that came before hers, the court coldly ignored her and on September 22nd she and all those who were sentenced with her were taken to the hanging tree. All along the way, her accusers and many of the townfolks harrased and tormented them mercilessly all the way to the top of Gallows Hill. When they arrived and before her sentence was carried out, Mary Easty prayed for the end of the witch hunts and executions. Easty's last words with her husband and children were so heart breaking that the many who were there expressed them "as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present." Mary Easty was then hanged and literally strangled painfully at the end of the rope for more than five minutes while everyone watched silently until finally, and mercifully, she died. Her body was then cut down and unceremoniously pushed into a crevice on top of all the other bodies of all those who had been hanged before her. -----------------------------------BIBLIOGRAPHY---------------------------------- |ARTICLE|BIBLIOGRAPHY|CHRONOLOGY|LIST of the DEAD|MISCELLANEA|WEBSITE REFERENCES| A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials Copyright (c) 1995 by Frances Hill Originally Published: New York: Doubleday A division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN 0-306-80797-1 ------------------------------------CHRONOLOGY----------------------------------- |ARTICLE|BIBLIOGRAPHY|CHRONOLOGY|LIST of the DEAD|MISCELLANEA|WEBSITE REFERENCES| Taken from many sources but mostly from the following websites: http://web.archive.org/web/20050224015735/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASAL_CH.HTM http://web.archive.org/web/20050224015735/http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/default.htm --------- 1629 ---------Salem, Massachusetts is settled. --------- 1641 ---------English law makes witchcraft a capital crime. --------- 1684 ---------England declares that the colonies may not self-govern. --------- 1688 ---------Following an argument with laundress Goody Glover, Martha Goodwin, 13, begins exhibiting bizarre behaviour. Days later her younger brother and two sisters exhibit similar behaviour. Glover is arrested and tried for bewitching the Goodwin children. Reverend Cotton Mather meets twice with Glover following her arrest in an attempt to persuade her to repent her witchcraft. Glover is hanged. Mather takes Martha Goodwin into his house. Her bizarre behaviour continues and worsens. --------- 1689 ---------Cotton Mather publishes "Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions" which is considered, if not the first than, one of the first books relating to the paranormal. "Providences" is based on his study and observations concerning the Goodwin case. NOV------ 1689 ---------Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem. Parris moves to Salem from Boston, where "Memorable Providence" was published. OCT-16--- 1691 [TUE]----Villagers vow to drive Parris out of Salem and stop contributing to his salary. JAN-20--- 1692 [SUN]----Eleven-year-old Abigail Williams and nine-year- old Elizabeth Parris begin exhibiting strange behaviour (much as the Goodwin children had acted four years earlier) such as blasphemous screaming, convulsive seizures, trance-like states and mysterious spells. Within a short time, several other Salem girls began to demonstrate similar behaviour. FEB-MID-- 1692 ---------Doctor Griggs; who attends to the "afflicted" girls, and because he is unable to determine any physical cause for the symptoms and dreadful behaviour; concludes (depending on the source you read) that the girls were under the influence of Satan. At the same time (again, depending upon the source you read), he also suggests that witchcraft may be the cause of their strange behaviour. FEB-LATE- 1692 ---------Pressured by ministers and townspeople to say who caused her odd behaviour, Elizabeth identifies Tituba. The girls later accuse Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of witchcraft. FEB-LATE- 1692 ---------Prayer services and community fasting were conducted by Reverend Samuel Parris in hopes of relieving the evil forces that plagued them. FEB-25--- 1692 [MON]----Tituba (some sources name John Indian), at the request of neighbour Mary Sibley, bakes a "witch cake" and feeds it to a dog. According to an English folk remedy, feeding a dog this kind of cake, which contained the urine of the afflicted, would (depending on which source you read) counteract the spell put on Elizabeth and Abigail. The reason (again, depending upon which source you read) the cake is fed to a dog is because the dog is believed a "familiar" of the Devil. This counter-magic (again, depending upon which source you read) was also meant to reveal the identities of the "witches" to the afflicted girls. FEB-29--- 1692 [FRI]----Arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Although Osborne and Good maintained innocence, Tituba confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her "sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog". What's more, Tituba testified that there was a conspiracy of witches at work in Salem. MAR-11--- 1692 [TUE]----Ann Putnam, Jr. shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Mary Warren later allege affliction as well. MAR-12--- 1692 [WED]----Ann Putnam, Jr. accuses Martha Cory of witchcraft. MAR-19--- 1692 [WED]----Abigail Williams denounces Rebecca Nurse as a witch. MAR-21--- 1692 [FRI]----Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin examine Martha Cory. MAR-23--- 1692 [SUN]----Salem Marshal Deputy Samuel Brabrook arrests four-year-old Dorcas Good. MAR-24--- 1692 [MON]----Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good's four-and-a-half- year-old daughter Dorcas Good are examined by Hathorne and Corwin and then thrown into prison. At some point during her eight month stay in the dungeons, Dorcas went insane. MAR-28--- 1692 [FRI]----Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft. APR-03--- 1692 [THU]----Sarah Cloyce, after defending her sister, Rebecca Nurse, is accused of witchcraft. APR-11--- 1692 [FRI]----Hathorne and Corwin examine Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor. On the same day Elizabeth's husband, John, who protested the examination of his wife, becomes the first man accused of witchcraft and is incarcerated. APR-EARLY 1692 ---------The Proctors' servant and accuser, Mary Warren, admits lying and accuses the other accusing girls of lying. APR-13--- 1692 [SUN]----Ann Putnam, Jr. accuses Giles Cory of witchcraft and alleges that a man who died at Cory's house also haunts her. APR-19--- 1692 [SAT]----Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Cory and Mary Warren are examined. Deliverance Hobbs confesses to practicing witchcraft. Mary Warren reverses her statement made in early April and rejoins the accusers. APR-22--- 1692 [TUE]----Mary Easty, another of Rebecca Nurse's sisters who defended her, is examined by Hathorne and Corwin. Hathorne and Corwin also examine Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, and Mary English. APR-30--- 1692 [WED]----Several girls accuse former Salem minister George Burroughs of witchcraft. MAY-02--- 1692 [FRI]----Hathorne and Corwin examine Sarah Morey, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin and Dorcas Hoar. MAY-04--- 1692 [SUN]----George Burroughs is arrested in Maine. MAY-07--- 1692 [WED]----George Burroughs is returned to Salem and placed in jail. MAY-09--- 1692 [FRI]----Corwin and Hathorne examine Burroughs and Sarah Churchill. Burroughs is moved to a Boston jail. MAY-10--- 1692 [SAT]----Corwin and Hathorne examine George Jacobs and his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs. Sarah Osborne dies in prison. MAY-14--- 1692 [WED]----Increase Mather and Sir William Phipps, the newly elected governor of the colony, arrive in Boston. They bring with them a charter ending the 1684 prohibition of self-governance within the colony. MAY-18--- 1692 [SUN]----Mary Easty is released from prison. Following protest by her accusers, she is again arrested. Roger Toothaker is also arrested on charges of witchcraft. MAY-27--- 1692 [TUE]----Phipps issues a commission for a Court of Oyer and Terminer and appoints as judges John Hathorne, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gednew, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, and Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton. MAY-31--- 1692 [SAT]----Hathorne, Corwin and Gednew examine Martha Carrier, John Alden, Wilmott Redd, Elizabeth Howe and Phillip English. English and Alden later escape prison and do not return to Salem until after the trials end. JUN-02--- 1692 [MON]----Bridget Bishop is the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft. She is sentenced to die. JUN-08--- 1692 [SUN]----Eighteen year old Elizabeth Booth shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. JUN-10--- 1692 [TUE]----Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill. Following the hanging Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns from the court and is replaced by Corwin. JUN-15--- 1692 [SUN]----Cotton Mather writes a letter requesting the court not use spectral evidence as a standard and urging that the trials be speedy. The Court of Oyer and Terminer pays more attention to the request for speed and less attention to the criticism of spectral evidence. JUN 16--- 1692 [MON]----Roger Toothaker dies in prison. JUN-29-30 1692 ---------Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe are tried, pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang. JUL-19--- 1692 [SAT]----Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good and Sarah Wildes are hanged at Gallows Hill. AUG-05--- 1692 [TUE]----George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard and John and Elizabeth Proctor are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang. AUG-19--- 1692 [TUE]----George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard and John Proctor are hanged on Gallows Hill. Elizabeth Proctor is not hanged because she is pregnant. AUG-20--- 1692 [WED]----Margaret Jacobs recants the testimony that led to the execution of her grandfather George Jacobs and Burroughs. SEP-09--- 1692 [TUE]----Martha Cory, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Dorcas Hoar and Mary Bradbury are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang. SEP-MID-- 1692 ---------Giles Cory is indicted. SEP-17--- 1692 [WED]----Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulkner, Rebecca Earnes, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster and Abigail Hobbs are tried and sentenced to hang. SEP-19--- 1692 [FRI]----Sheriffs administer Piene Forte Et Dure (pressing) to Giles Cory after he refuses to enter a plea to the charges of witchcraft against him. SEP-22--- 1692 [MON]----Martha Cory, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Willmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker are hanged. Hoar escapes execution by confessing. OCT-03--- 1692 [FRI]----The Reverend Increase Mather, President of Harvard College and father to Cotton Mather, denounces the use of spectral evidence. OCT-08--- 1692 [WED]----Governor Phipps orders that spectral evidence no longer be admitted in witchcraft trials. OCT-29--- 1692 [WED]----Phipps prohibits further arrests, releases many accused witches, and dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer. NOV-25--- 1692 [TUE]----The General Court establishes a Superior Court to try remaining witches. DEC-03--- 1692 [WED]----Ann Foster dies in prison. JAN-03--- 1693 [SAT]----Judge Stoughton orders execution of all suspected witches who were exempted by their pregnancy. Phipps denied enforcement of the order causing Stoughton to leave the bench. JAN------ 1693 ---------49 of the 52 surviving people brought into court on witchcraft charges are released because their arrests were based on spectral evidence. MAR-10--- 1693 [TUE]----Lydia Dustin dies in prison. --------- 1693 ---------Tituba is released from jail and sold to a new master. MAY------ 1693 ---------Phipps pardons those still in prison on witchcraft charges. JAN-14--- 1697 [MON]----The General Court orders a day of fasting and soul-searching for the tragedy at Salem. Moved, Samuel Sewall publicly confesses error and guilt. --------- 1697 ---------Minister Samuel Parris is ousted as minister in Salem and replaced by Joseph Green. --------- 1702 ---------The General Court declares the 1692 trials unlawful. --------- 1706 ---------Ann Putnam, Jr., one of the leading accusers, publicly apologizes for her actions in 1692. --------- 1711 ---------The colony passes a legislative bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused of witchcraft and grants 600 pounds in restitution to their heirs. --------- 1752 ---------Salem Village is renamed Danvers. --------- 1957 ---------Massachusetts formally apologizes for the events of 1692. --------- 1992 ---------On the 300th anniversary of the trials, a witchcraft memorial designed by James Cutler is dedicated in Salem. ---------------------------------LIST OF THE DEAD-------------------------------- |ARTICLE|BIBLIOGRAPHY|CHRONOLOGY|LIST of the DEAD|MISCELLANEA|WEBSITE REFERENCES| (death by hanging unless otherwise noted) [F=Female M=Male] JUN-10 1692 [TUE] 01) F-Bridget Bishop JUL-19 1692 [SAT] 02) F-Rebecca Nurse 03) F-Sarah Good 04) F-Susannah Martin 05) F-Elizabeth Howe 06) F-Sarah Wildes AUG-19 1692 [TUE] 07) M-George Burroughs 08) F-Martha Carrier 09) M-John Willard 10) M-George Jacobs 11) M-John Proctor SEP-19 1692 [FRI] 12) M-Giles Cory (pressed to death) SEP-22 1692 [MON] 13) F-Martha Cory 14) F-Mary Easty 15) F-Ann Pudeator 16) F-Alice Parker 17) F-Mary Parker 18) M-Wilmott Redd 19) F-Margaret Scott 20) M-Samuel Wardwell Other accused witches who died in prison: 01) F-Sarah Osborne MAY-10 1692 [SAT] 02) M-Roger Toothaker JUN-16 1692 [MON] 03) F-Ann Foster DEC-03 1692 [WED] 04) F-Lydia Dustin MAR-10 1693 [TUE] (As many as thirteen** others may have died in prison.) **sources conflict as to the exact number of prison deaths An unnamed infant of Sarah Good dies prior to JUL-19-1692 [SAT] ------------------------------------MISCELLANEA---------------------------------- |ARTICLE|BIBLIOGRAPHY|CHRONOLOGY|LIST of the DEAD|MISCELLANEA|WEBSITE REFERENCES| The names Cory, Phipps, Easty, and Lydia are spelled differently depending upon the source you quote. I use the spelling that is used in the book, "A Delusion of Satan", which is listed in my bibliography. --------------------------------WEBSITE REFERENCES------------------------------- |ARTICLE|BIBLIOGRAPHY|CHRONOLOGY|LIST of the DEAD|MISCELLANEA|WEBSITE REFERENCES| The Main Salem Witchtrial Website which I referenced and researched for this article can be found at this web addy: http://web.archive.org/web/20050224015735/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 In three volumes. Edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Published by Da Capo Press, New York, 1977, and reproduced at the following website with permission: http://web.archive.org/web/20050224015735/http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/transcripts.html The petition of Mary Easty was taken (and quoted in its entirety) from the following website: http://web.archive.org/web/20050224015735/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_E&P.HTM "Memorable Providences, Relating To Witchcrafts And Possessions" (1689) by Cotton Mather can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/20050224015735/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_MATH.HTM ----------LAST UPDATED OCT-25-2002