Case file · Witch trials
Salem witch trials
The infamous Massachusetts trials that hanged 19 and pressed one to death.
1692 CE · 42.52, -70.90 · status: documented
The account
Sparked by afflicted girls' accusations, the panic spread through spectral evidence before the courts collapsed in shame.
The sceptical view
A real, documented historical persecution — the witchcraft accusations themselves had no basis; victims were condemned through torture, rivalry, delusion and fear.
Connections in the atlas
- George Burroughs, the minister from Maine
- Salem
- Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World
- Giles Corey pressed to death
- Ann Glover and the Goodwin children
- Tituba's confession
- Dorothy Good, the child prisoner
- Mary Eastey's petition
- 'Wonders of the Invisible World'
- Judge Sewall's public apology
- Execution site confirmed at Proctor's Ledge
- Elizabeth Johnson Jr. exonerated