The Salem Witch TrialsFind out what started the witch hunt of1692.

One freezing day in January of 1692, something strangehappened inside the Parris household of Salem Village,Massachusetts. As sleet and snow heaped higher outsidetheir door, Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail began to twitchand twist their bodies into strange shapes, speaking in wordsthat made no sense. Bettyʼs alarmed father, the ReverendParris, immediately called on a doctor to examine the girls. Thedoctorʼs diagnosis? The pair had been bewitched.

WITCH HUNT

Puritans walk through the snow-covered woods to get to church. PHOTOS.com, Getty Images

At the time, Salem Village was a small New England townpopulated mostly by Puritans, or religious individuals with abelief in the devil. The Puritan way of life was strict, and evensmall differences in behavior made people suspicious. Uponhearing about the Parris girlsʼ behavior, much of the Puritancommunity agreed that the duo had been victims ofwitchcraft.

When asked who had done this to them, Betty and Abigailblamed three townswomen, including Tituba, a NativeAmerican slave who worked in the Parris household. Titubawas known to have played fortune-telling games, which werestrictly forbidden by the Puritans. The other two accused

women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne, werenʼt well likedby the community either.

An elderly woman accused of witchcraft is taken to the courthouse by an officer of the law.Bettmann, Getty Images

ON TRIAL

A witness testifies against an accused witch during one of the many witchcraft trials of the

1690s. North Wind Picture Archives, Alamy Stock Photo

The three women were thrown in jail to await trial forpracticing witchcraft. During the trial, Tituba confessed tohaving seen the devil and also stated that there was a coven,or group, of witches in the Salem Village area. Good andOsbourne insisted they were innocent. The court didnʼtbelieve them, and found all three women guilty of practicingwitchcraft. The punishment was hanging.

As the weeks passed, other young girls claimed to have beeninfected by witchcraft too. They accused other townspeopleof torturing them, and a few of the so-called witches on trialeven named others as witches.

Women were not the only ones believed to be witches—menand children were accused too. By the end of the trials in

1693, 24 people had died, some in jail but most by hanging.

George Burroughs, a minister, was one of the few men accused of witchcraft during the trials.

This illustration shows him speaking at Witches Hill, the site of his execution. Classic Image,

Alamy Stock Photo

THE HYSTERIA FADES

Eventually, after seeming to realize how unfair the trials wereto the accused, the court refused to hear any more charges ofwitchcraft. All of the accused were finally pardoned in 1711.

An illustration shows a quiet street in the center of Salem, Massachusetts.

No oneʼs really sure why the witch craze spread the way it did,but it brought lasting changes to the United States legalsystem and the way evidence and witnesses were treated.The Salem Village hangings were the last executions ofaccused witches in the United States.

Text adapted from the National Geographic bookWitches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salemby Rosalyn Schnauzer.