Interesting Facts about the Salem Witch Trials The governor pardoned the rest of the accused witches and they were released from jail. After months of trials, the governor finally decided to put an end to the trials with the last trials being held in May of 1693. Over 150 more were jailed and some people died due to poor conditions in jail.Īs more and more people were being accused, the public began to realize that innocent people were being condemned to death.
An 80 year-old man named Giles Corey was crushed to death when this test was used on him.Īt least 20 people were put to death during the trials. Unfortunately, the person being pressed couldn't breathe to give a confession even if they wanted to. This was supposed to force the confession out of the witch. Pressing - In this test, heavy stones would be placed on the accused.Of course, if they didn't float, they would drown. If they floated, they were considered a witch. Submersion - In this test the accused was bound and dropped in the water.Spectral evidence - The accused would claim to have seen the witch in their dreams working with the devil.
Lord's Prayer - If a person could not recite the Lord's Prayer without error, they were considered a witch.Confession by Dunking - They would dunk an accused witch in water until they finally confessed.Touch test - The person afflicted with fits would become calm when touching the witch who cast the spell on them.There were a number of tests used to determine if a person was a witch: Hundreds of people were accused of being witches and the local pastors of the Puritan churches began to have trials to determine who was and who wasn't a witch. People began to blame everything bad that happened on witchcraft. It didn't help that Tituba, the girls' servant, confessed to being a witch and making a deal with the devil. Soon the entire town of Salem and the villages around them were in a panic. They said that three women in the village had cast spells on them: Tituba, the girls' servant who told them stories of witchcraft and probably gave them the idea Sarah Good, a local beggar and homeless person and Sarah Osborne, an old lady who rarely came to church. The girls blamed their condition on witchcraft. When they interrupted church, the people in Salem knew the devil was at work. They claimed they felt as if they were being pinched and stuck with pins. They would twitch and scream and make strange animal noises. The witch trials in Salem began when two little girls, Betty Parris (age 9) and Abigail Williams (age 11), began to have strange fits. Throughout the late Middle Ages and into the 1600s, thousands of people were executed in Europe for being witches. This fear was not new to the United States. Crafts Did the people really believe in witches?ĭuring the late 17th century, the Puritans of New England believed that witchcraft was the work of the devil and was very real.
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