Witchcraft in Salem

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM

CHRONOLOGY

1689 Samuel Parris arrives in Salem Village and is ordained as minister of the newly formed Salem Church.
1692
January Young girls in Parris’s household begin acting strangely.
February Parris’s servants bake witch cake to heal girls. Other girls in community become involved, and first charges of witchcraft are made. Aggressive interrogations begin.
March Three women are sent to prison and others are charged. Afflictions prompt day of prayer. Reverend Deodat Lawson and Parris deliver sermons that stir up the populace. Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Good’s four-year-old daughter are examined and sent to prison.
April John and Elizabeth Proctor, Giles Corey, and George Burroughs are among the twenty-three more people jailed.
May Governor William Phips appoints panel of judges to hear cases as arrests mount.
June Bridget Bishop is the first one hanged. A group of ministers in Boston convey their alarm to the governor. Fi...