Individuals involved in the Salem witch trials of 1692: accusers, accused, judges and others in Salem Village and the wider Puritan community. Includes biographies, testimony, petitions and other documents.
A selection of the best books to read to learn more about the New England witch hunts. Some books look at why most of the accused were women; others focus on alternate explanations, including legal rules, disease, psychology, religion and so forth.
Bridget Bishop biography - a profile of Bridget Bishop, accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials, and the first to be hanged.
Lydia Dustin biography - a profile of Lydia Dustin, who died in prison after being accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials.
A list of the "afflicted" with their villages identified.
A list of the "afflicted" girls who testified in the Salem trials. Links take you to transcripts of cases in which they were involved.
From Paul Boyer and Steven Nissenbaum's 1997 work, a selected list.
Some basic facts about key figures: Bridget Bishop, Ann Foster, Elizabeth Proctor, George Burroughs, Dorcas Good, John Proctor, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Tituba, Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, Samuel Parris and Bridget Bishop.
Index to a few biographies of individuals connected with the Salem witch trials. Women include Tituba, Ann Putnam, Bridget Bishop, Mary Easty, Sarah Good and Rebecca Nurse.
An exhaustive list of those against whom warrants or complaints were filed. Includes their name, town and the date of the initial complaint or warrant.
A list of those who testified in defense of accused witches, signed a petition in their favor, giving skeptical testimony and other defenders.
A list of the men who served as chief judge and associate judges during the Salem witch trials, 1692, plus the attorneys-general and the sheriff of Essex County.
A list of individuals who served on the jury, May-October 1692.
A list of the accused in the Salem witch trials.
Cases of Mary Easty, Sarah Good and Dorcas Good are included in the petitions, and decisions for Elizabeth How, George Jacobs, Mary Easty, George Burroughs, Giles Corey, Rebeccah Nurse, John Willard, Sarah Good, Martha Carrier, Samuel Wardwell and wife, John Proctor and wife, Sarah Wild, Mary Bradbury, Abigail Foster, Anne Foster, Rebeccah Eames, Dorcas Hoar, Mary Post and Mary Lacey.
Page includes the text of petitions of Mary Easty and John Proctor, questioning their convictions and asserting their innocence.
A list of Puritan ministers involved in the trials or in petitions about the trials.
A list of those executed in Salem, including their execution dates. Also includes a list of those who died in prison.
Exposure of one death warrant, supposedly from Salem, 1692, as a fake.
Reproduction and transcription of the April 4, 1692, document accusing two women of witchcraft.
Biography of farmer Giles Corey, accused witch at Salem whose execution was to be pressed to death, a consequence of his steadfast refusal to stand trial.
He helped remove George Burroughs as Salem Village minister, helped bring in minister Samuel Parris, served as justice of the peace in examining many of the witch trial witnesses, and pronounced death sentences. He was an ancestor of author Nathaniel Hawthorne who added the "w" to his name "to distance himself from Hathorne because of the role he played in the Salem trials."
Biography of an accused Salem witch who confessed and then served as a witness against other witches, including her husband and the Rev. George Burroughs.
Central figure in the Salem witch trials, Parris' daughter, niece and slaves were among other key figures, accusers and accused. His sermons on Satan and witchcraft certainly added to the suspicions and the divisions between villagers.
Biography of the governor of Massachusetts during the time of the witchcraft accusations in Salem. He ordered in October 1692 that spectral evidence no longer be considered, and later prohibited further arrests and pardoned the remaining suspects of Salem Village.
October 1692 and the following February, Governor Phips issued these rulings which helped to stop the Salem witch trials.
Image, very brief biography (no mention of Salem), and an extended bibliography.
One of the judges at Salem Village, his diary is key evidence for those trying to understand the trials. He later apologized for his part in the trials. This page includes mention of Sewall's anti-slavery and equality arguments.
Chief Justice of Massachusetts and a judge in the Salem witch trials, his lack of legal expertise is sometimes blamed for the unusual courtroom procedures at Salem Village in 1692.
