Salem Witch Trials

9 year old Elizabeth Parris & 11 year old Abigail Williams began to show strange behavior blasphemous screaming, convulsive seizures, trance-like states & mysterious spells) Within a short time, several other Salem girls began to demonstrate similar behavior.

Warrants were sent out for Tituba, the afflicted girls' washwoman, Sarah Good & Sarah Osborne.

Magistrates John Hathorne & Jonathan Corwin examined Tituba, Sarah Good, & Sarah Osborne a meeting house in Salem Village. Tituba confessed to practicing witchcraft.

Martha Corey is accused of witchcraft. Rebecca Nurse & Elizabeth Proctor were denounced as a witch. Sarah Cloyce, Rebecca Nurse's sister, was accused of witchcraft.

Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey, Mary Warren, Nehemiah Abbott, William, Deliverance Hobbs, Edward, Sarah Bishop, Mary Easty, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, Mary English, Sarah Morey, Lydia Dustin, Susannah Martin, Dorcas Hoar, Burroughs, George Jacobs, Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret.

Arrested in Wells, Maine.

Mary Easty was released from prison. But due to the outcries and protests of her accusers, she was arrested a second time.

Governor Phips set up a special Court of Oyer and Terminer comprised of seven judges to try the witchcraft cases. These magistrates based their judgments and evaluations on various kinds of intangible evidence, including direct confessions, supernatural attributes (such as "witchmarks") & reactions of the afflicted girls.

Martha Carrier, John Alden, Wilmott Redd, Elizabeth Howe, and Phillip English were examined before Hathorne, Corwin, and Gedney.

Initial session of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Bridget Bishop was the first to be pronounced guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death.
Bridget Bishop was hanged in Salem, the first official execution of the Salem witch trials.