1st March 1692: Salem witch trials begin in Massachusetts

Salem’s witch hysteria began in January 1692 when both the daughter and niece of the Reverend Samuel Parris each began to suffer violent fits. The local doctor couldn’t find a physical cause for their illness so blamed the supernatural. Other young girls in the community soon began to display similar symptoms, and three local women were accused of bewitching them.

Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba were brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Significantly, the three women were all in some way social outcasts – Tituba was a slave; Sarah Good was a homeless beggar and Sarah Osborne was a poor elderly woman who rarely attended church.

Although both Good and Osborne denied their guilt to magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, Tituba confessed to being ‘the Devil’s servant’. The reason for her confession is unclear, but it is presumed that she sought to act as an informer in a bid to save herself.

Over the next few weeks dozens more people were accused of witchcraft including the four-year old Dorothy Good, Sarah’s Good’s daughter, who was imprisoned for nine months before being released on bond for £50.

Of the three women first accused of witchcraft in Salem, only Sarah Good was executed. Sarah Osborne died in jail before her trial finished while Tituba was eventually freed from jail after an anonymous person paid her fees. In total twenty people were executed, and a further seven died in jail, before the paranoia came to an end.