All five innocent women had been convicted of witchcraft by the Court of Oyer

On this day, in the year 1692, Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth Howe, and Susannah Martin were hanged on Proctor’s Ledge at Gallows Hill. All five innocent women had been convicted of witchcraft by the Court of Oyer





and Terminer and sentenced to execution. 
Why did they do it? Why were innocent women executed on this warm summer day in 1692? It can be tempting to think back upon this time as one drastically different from our own. Today we scoff at the belief in witchcraft, thinking it a relic of a less enlightened time. It is hard to imagine how men and women turned on their neighbors, accusing them of a supernatural crime. 

It is essential to consider the basic human behavior which drove the Salem witch hunt. This was a time of escalated fear in colonial New England. An uncertain political landscape, ongoing wars with the Indigenous inhabitants and their French allies, outbreaks of disease, unusual weather patterns, and socioeconomic division made everyday life difficult and frightening. Tension was boiling by the winter of 1692. When the suggestion of witchcraft was made, it triggered an explosion. There is no reason to believe any of the individuals convicted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer were practicing witchcraft, as defined by the day. Instead, we see a classic example of scapegoating. Years of gossip, jealousy, conflict, and resentment resurfaced. And as a result, innocent people became the explanation for any number of misfortunes. 

This was only the second hanging day during the Salem witchcraft trials. More would soon be tried before the hastily formed Court of Oyer and Terminer, denied a fair trial and sentenced to death. On this day, as we remember the innocent women executed on July 19, 1692, let us consider how history relates to our own lives. There are enduring lessons in the tragedy of 1692 for those who are willing to learn.

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