- January 20
- Nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams began to exhibit
strange behavior, such as blasphemous screaming, convulsive seizures, trance-like states
and mysterious spells. Within a short time, several other Salem girls began to demonstrate
similar behavior.
- Mid-February
- Unable to determine any physical cause for the symptoms and dreadful behavior,
physicians concluded that the girls were under the influence of Satan.
- Late February
- Prayer services and community fasting were conducted by Reverend Samuel Parris in hopes
of relieving the evil forces that plague them. In an effort to expose the
"witches", John Indian baked a witch cake made with rye meal and the afflicted
girls' urine. This counter-magic was meant to reveal the identities of the
"witches" to the afflicted girls.
Pressured to identify the source of their
affliction, the girls named three women, including Tituba, Parris' Carib Indian slave, as
witches. On February 29, warrants were issued for the arrests of 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.
- March 1
- Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah
Osborne in the meeting house in Salem Village. Tituba confessed to practicing witchcraft.
Over
the next weeks, other townspeople came forward and testified that they, too, had been
harmed by or had seen strange apparitions of some of the community members. As the witch
hunt continued, accusations were made against many different people.
Frequently denounced were women whose behavior or economic circumstances were somehow
disturbing to the social order and conventions of the time. Some of the accused had
previous records of criminal activity, including witchcraft, but others were faithful
churchgoers and people of high standing in the community.
- March 12
- Martha Corey is accused of witchcraft.
- March 19
- Rebecca Nurse was denounced as a witch.
- March 21
- Martha Corey was examined before Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin.
- March 24
- Rebecca Nurse was examined before Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin.
- March 28
- Elizabeth Proctor was denounced as a witch.
- April 3
- Sarah Cloyce, Rebecca Nurse's sister, was accused of witchcraft.
- April 11
- Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce were examined before Hathorne, Corwin, Deputy
Governor Thomas Danforth, and Captain Samuel Sewall. During this examination, John Proctor
was also accused and imprisoned.
- April 19
- Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey, and Mary Warren were examined. Only Abigail
Hobbs confessed.
William Hobbs
"I can deny it to my dying day."
- April 22
- Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Easty,
Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, and Mary English were examined before Hathorne and Corwin. Only
Nehemiah Abbott was cleared of charges.
- May 2
- Sarah Morey, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin, and Dorcas Hoar were examined by Hathorne
and Corwin.
Dorcas Hoar
"I will speak the truth as long as I live."
- May 4
- George Burroughs was arrested in Wells, Maine.
- May 9
- Burroughs was examined by Hathorne, Corwin, Sewall, and William Stoughton. One of the
afflicted girls, Sarah Churchill, was also examined.
- May 10
- George Jacobs, Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret were examined before Hathorne and
Corwin. Margaret confessed and testified that her grandfather and George Burroughs were
both witches.
Sarah Osborne died in prison in Boston.
Margaret Jacobs
"... They told me if I would not confess I should be put down into the dungeon
and would be hanged, but if I would confess I should save my life."
- May 14
- Increase Mather returned from England, bringing with him a new charter and the new
governor, Sir William Phips.
- May 18
- Mary Easty was released from prison. Yet, due to the outcries and protests of her
accusers, she was arrested a second time.
- May 27
- Governor Phips set up a special Court of Oyer and Terminer comprised of seven judges to
try the witchcraft cases. Appointed were Lieutenant Governor William Stoughon, Nathaniel
Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John
Richards, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin.
These magistrates based their judgments
and evaluations on various kinds of intangible evidence, including direct confessions,
supernatural attributes (such as "witchmarks"), and reactions of the afflicted
girls. Spectral evidence, based on the assumption that the Devil could assume the
"specter" of an innocent person, was relied upon despite its controversial
nature.
- May 31
- Martha Carrier, John Alden, Wilmott Redd, Elizabeth Howe, and Phillip English were
examined before Hathorne, Corwin, and Gedney.
- June 2
- Initial session of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Bridget Bishop was the first to be
pronounced guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death.
- Early June
- Soon after Bridget Bishop's trial, Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned from the court,
dissatisfied with its proceedings.
- June 10
- Bridget Bishop was hanged in Salem, the first official execution of the Salem witch
trials.
Bridget Bishop
"I am no witch. I am innocent. I know nothing of it."
Following her death, accusations of witchcraft escalated, but the trials were not
unopposed. Several townspeople signed petitions on behalf of accused people they believed
to be innocent.
- June 29-30
- Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good and Elizabeth Howe were tried
for witchcraft and condemned.
Rebecca Nurse
"Oh Lord, help me! It is false. I am clear. For my life now lies in your
hands...."
- Mid-July
- In an effort to expose the witches afflicting his life, Joseph Ballard of nearby Andover
enlisted the aid of the accusing girls of Salem. This action marked the beginning of the
Andover witch hunt.
- July 19
- Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good, and Sarah Wildes were
executed.
Elizabeth Howe
"If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent..."
Susannah Martin
I have no hand in witchcraft."
- August 2-6
- George Jacobs, Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John and Elizabeth Proctor, and
John Willard were tried for witchcraft and condemned.
Martha
Carrier
"...I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that
are out of their wits."
- August 19
- George Jacobs, Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Proctor, and John Willard
were hanged on Gallows Hill.
George Jacobs
"Because I am falsely accused. I never did it."
- September 9
- Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury
were tried and condemned.
Mary Bradbury
"I do plead not guilty. I am wholly innocent of such wickedness."
- September 17
- Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulkner, Rebecca
Eames, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster, and Abigail Hobbs were tried and condemned.
- September 19
- Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing a trial.
- September 21
- Dorcas Hoar was the first of those pleading innocent to confess. Her execution was
delayed.
- September 22
- Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd,
Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were hanged.
- October 8
- After 20 people had been executed in the Salem witch hunt, Thomas Brattle wrote a letter
criticizing the witchcraft trials. This letter had great impact on Governor Phips, who
ordered that reliance on spectral and intangible evidence no longer be allowed in trials.
- October 29
- Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
- November 25
- The General Court of the colony created the Superior Court to try the remaining
witchcraft cases which took place in May, 1693. This time no one was convicted.
Mary Easty
"...if it be possible no more innocent blood be shed...
...I am clear of this sin."
