Being found guilty of “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcrafte and Sorceries”, on this date in 1692, Bridget Bishop was the first person hanged during the Salem witch trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In that year alone, the Colony executed 14 women, 5 men and 2 dogs for witchcraft. The Colony’s judges wanted to execute cats as well, widely acknowledged as evil, but the animals were too powerful. The “witches” - mostly young women with weak immune systems - exhibited convulsions, hallucinations, strange utterances and muscle spasms. There was a devil at work, but not the one everybody thought.
© 2024 John Oliver
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