Salem Witch Trials Facts: 22 True Facts About the 1692 Hysteria

How the Salem Witch Trials Started

It began in one minister’s household in Salem Village in the winter of 1692.

1. Four girls started it, the youngest was nine The first accusations came from four girls: Betty Parris (9), Abigail Williams (11), Ann Putnam Jr. (12) and Elizabeth Hubbard (17). They said local women were causing them physical and mental harm through witchcraft, a condition called “affliction”. ↳ Salem witch trials
2. A “witch cake” was baked and fed to a dog Early on, a neighbour of the Rev. Samuel Parris had John Indian, a man enslaved by Parris, make a witch cake. One account says it was made from rye meal and the urine of the afflicted girls and fed to a dog, as “a means to discover witchcraft”. ↳ Salem witch trials
3. The first confession came after a beating Tituba, a woman enslaved by Parris, was the first person to confess to witchcraft in Salem Village. She at first denied it and confessed to making the witch cake only after Parris beat her. She named Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, was held for over a year and was never tried. ↳ Tituba
4. Dreams and visions counted as evidence The court accepted spectral evidence: testimony from people who said a named neighbour’s spirit or image had tormented them. It was taken to mean the accused had let the Devil use their shape, and once a court accepted it, it was virtually impossible to refute. ↳ Spectral evidence
5. Salem Village is not the Salem you can visit The accusations began in Salem Village, which is now the town of Danvers. The trials and the hangings took place in Salem Town, today’s Salem, and arrests spread to many other towns, notably Andover and Topsfield. ↳ Salem witch trials

Facts About the Accused

Age, reputation and rank protected no one for long.

6. A four-year-old was jailed as a witch Dorothy Good was four when she and her mother Sarah were accused. She was questioned by magistrates, said she was a witch, and became the youngest person jailed during the trials. She was held from March 24 until December 10, 1692, released on a £50 bond and never tried. ↳ Dorothy Good
7. She said her snake sucked blood from her finger In jail, Dorothy Good told officials she had a snake, given to her by her mother, that talked to her and sucked blood from her finger. They took it to be her “familiar”, a witch’s spirit servant in animal form. Two of the girls also claimed the child bit them. ↳ Dorothy Good
8. A jury found her not guilty, then changed its mind Rebecca Nurse, a respected 71-year-old, was found not guilty. After an outcry and new fits from the afflicted, the jury deliberated again and asked her about a remark. Nurse was hard of hearing and did not hear the question. The verdict changed, and she was hanged on July 19, 1692. ↳ Rebecca Nurse
9. One woman was called the “Queen of Hell” Martha Carrier of Andover was accused of leading a 300-strong witch army, of killing and sickening people with occult powers, and of being promised the position of “Queen of Hell”. She was hanged in August 1692. ↳ Martha Carrier
10. A pregnancy delayed one execution John and Elizabeth Proctor were both sentenced to death on August 5, 1692. Elizabeth was pregnant, so her execution was put off until after the birth. John was hanged on August 19. In 1693 the governor freed 153 prisoners, Elizabeth among them. ↳ Elizabeth Proctor
11. Even the governor’s wife was named In late October 1692, Governor William Phips’s own wife, Lady Mary Phips, was among those who had been “called out upon”. Around then Phips ordered that the special court must fall, and after his order there were no more executions. ↳ Salem witch trials

Facts About the Executions

The numbers are small next to Europe’s witch hunts, but each death is recorded by name.

12. Nineteen were hanged and at least five died in jail More than 200 people were accused and 30 were found guilty. Nineteen were hanged, fourteen women and five men. Giles Corey died under torture, and at least five people died in disease-ridden jails without trial. It was the deadliest witch hunt in colonial North America. ↳ Salem witch trials
13. The first to hang was a midwife Bridget Bishop’s trial was the first case before the new Court of Oyer and Terminer. It began on June 2, 1692 and lasted eight days. She was hanged on June 10, 1692, the first person executed in the Salem witch trials. ↳ Bridget Bishop
14. A man was crushed under stones for days Giles Corey refused to plead guilty or not guilty, so he was pressed: boards were laid on him and heavy stones piled on top. Asked three times to plead, he is said to have answered “More weight”, though accounts of his last words differ. He died on September 19, 1692. ↳ Giles Corey
15. The sheriff stood on the stones A witness, Robert Calef, later wrote that Giles Corey’s tongue was pressed out of his mouth and the sheriff forced it back in with his cane. The sheriff, George Corwin, sometimes stood on the stones himself. ↳ Giles Corey
16. A minister recited the Lord’s Prayer on the gallows George Burroughs, the only minister executed, stood on the ladder and recited the Lord’s Prayer without a single mistake, something a witch was believed unable to do. The crowd was shaken, and Cotton Mather, on horseback, reminded them that Burroughs had been convicted. He was hanged on August 19, 1692. ↳ George Burroughs
17. A curse that may never have been spoken Legend says Sarah Good told a judge, “if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink”, and that he later choked on his own blood. The line does not appear in any contemporary report of her execution, so treat it as legend. ↳ Sarah Good

What Happened After the Trials

Apologies came within years. The last conviction was not reversed for three centuries.

18. One woman died in jail before any trial Sarah Osborne, one of the first three women accused, did not confess and did not accuse anyone. She died in jail on May 29, 1692, believed to be 49, before the special court had even started its trials. ↳ Sarah Osborne
19. A judge stood up in church to admit his guilt Judge Samuel Sewall came to believe he had ruled on insubstantial evidence. On January 14, 1697, he stood in his meeting house while his minister read out his confession of guilt. ↳ Samuel Sewall
20. An accuser apologized in front of the congregation Ann Putnam Jr., an accuser at 12, made a public confession on August 25, 1706, at the Salem meeting-house. It was read aloud to a large congregation while she stood in her place. ↳ Ann Putnam Jr.
21. A judge’s descendant became a famous writer Magistrate John Hathorne examined many of the accused and, unlike Sewall, is not known to have repented. He was a patrilineal ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter. ↳ John Hathorne
22. The last “witch” was cleared in 2022 In 1711 the colony reversed the judgments against 22 people and later authorized £578 12s in compensation. A 2001 act cleared the rest but left out Elizabeth Johnson Jr. She was exonerated in 2022, 329 years after her conviction, after pressure from schoolchildren who found the gap. ↳ Salem witch trials

How to Use These Salem Witch Trials Facts

Read one fact before a Halloween story, turn the list into a history quiz, or ask the class to guess which facts about the Salem witch trials are true before you show the source. Each takes 15 to 30 seconds to read aloud. Want more true facts with a chill? Try our Halloween facts, creepy facts that sound fake but are true or weird history facts. Making videos? Our weird facts Shorts scripts turn facts like these into 30-second voiceovers, and our true scary stories tell real cases at length.

How We Checked These Facts

Every fact links to the source we checked it against on October 22, 2026, a Wikipedia article with its own citations to the historical record. Names, ages and dates are given as that source states them. Where the record is uncertain, such as Giles Corey’s last words or Sarah Good’s curse, we say so. If you spot an error, tell us through the contact page.

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