The Salem Witch Trials

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 — a community gripped by fear, accusation, and the shadow of the gallows.

Between February 1692 and May 1693, more than 200 people were accused of practising witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. Nineteen were hanged. One man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death with heavy stones for refusing to enter a plea. At least five others died in prison.

It began with a group of young girls in Salem Village who began exhibiting strange behaviour — convulsions, hallucinations, and claims of being tormented by invisible forces. When they accused local women of bewitching them, the Puritan community's deep fear of the devil did the rest.

The trials exposed the dangers of mass hysteria, the fragility of justice under religious authority, and the devastating cost of accusation without evidence. By the time the hysteria subsided, it had torn apart families, destroyed reputations, and left a permanent scar on American history.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — George Santayana

Key Facts

• Date: February 1692 – May 1693
• Location: Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts
• Accused: Over 200 people
• Executed: 19 by hanging, 1 by pressing
• Legacy: A defining moment in American legal and cultural history; the term "witch hunt" enters the language