THE

SALEM
W I TC H
TRIALS
The great age of W I TC H H U N T S in Europe and America
spanned roughly from 1 4 0 0 TO 1 7 7 5 .

From Russia to
Bermuda, from
Scotland to Brazil,
witch hunts took place
throughout the world.

100,000 50,000
and at least

people were prosecuted for witchcraft people were sentenced to death

156 THERE WERE 25 TOTAL DEATHS

were either formally
denounced or charged BETWEEN 1692-1693
with witchcraft

5 died in prison while

awaiting trial

1 pressed to death 19 were hanged for witchcraft

16
were informally
cried out on, 14 of the hanged
were women

5
but never
charged
of the hanged
were men

29 %
of the accused
in 1692 were immediate
5
Ministers

Ministers’ wives
family or extended
kin of ministers. BREAKDOWN
4
OF THE 29%
Ministers’ daughters
A substantial number of 3
ministers and their relatives were
accused of witchcraft. This pattern 1 Son of a minister
of accusation suggests that the

30 witchcraft crisis was in part a 2 Ministers’ brothers

Extended family rebellion against the existing
religious and political leadership
of Massachusetts Bay. 5 Grandchildren
of ministers

Read more about the Salem Witch Trials and their lasting influence on
America’s cultural imagination in A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials
and the American Experience.

Available October 2014 wherever books are sold.

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