February 1692

Two children in Reverend Parris home and later several other girls develop a mysterious illness. The girls report terrible attacks from invisible specters and the physician of Salem diagnoses the girls bewitchment. The girls accused Tituba, the family's slave, Sarah Osborne who hadn’t attended church in several years because of an illness and Sarah Good who lives in poverty.

March 1692

Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne are physically examined. First, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne maintained they're innocence. Under extreme pressure Tituba confesses, implicates Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, and tells the magistrates there are more witches, though she is unsure of their identities. More arrests follow. At first, the girls seem to be doing better. Then they are attacked again by specters and call more names. Salem Town and Village are now convinced they are under the attack from the devil. The first well-respected church members are arrested for witchcraft and sent to jail.

April 1692

Several more suspected witches are arrested. Abigail Hobbs breaks down, making her the second person to confess. The fear that the entire region is under attack from the devil is spreading. In the coming weeks more and more will be arrested, not just from Salem, but from towns and villages miles away.

May 1692

Even though, as in many other witch hunts, women who do not fit social norms are persecuted, almost anyone could now become a victim of persecution.Rev. George Burroughs former minister of Salem Village for three years faces witchcraft charges. This month Sarah Osborne dies in prison, being the first causality of the Salem witch trials. After a new governor arrives in Massachusetts the new court „Court of Oyer and Terminer“ is formed, to try the growing number of witchcraft cases.

Died in May

• Sarah Osborne: † 10. May 1692, died in prison

June 1692

Bridget Bishop is the first woman to be tried, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. presumably due to his dissatisfaction with the court’s proceedings one of the judges resigns. Bridget Bishop is executed on the 10th of June. As a possible reaction to the first execution, accusations drop rapidly through the month. Against the advise of several ministers the court continues to rely heavily on spectral evidence.

Died in June

• Bridget Bishop: † 06. June 1692, hanged
• Roger Toothaker: † 06. June 1692, died in prison

July 1692

After a major decline of accusations the month before after the first execution, numbers picking up again. Six more women are found guilty of witchcraft and executed by hanging. After being asked by a revenant to confess on the gallows, Sarah Good answers “You are a liar! I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink!”

Died in July

• Sarah Goods newborn: † July 1692, died in prison
• Sarah Good: † 19. July 1692, hanged
• Elizabeth How: † 19. July 1692, hanged
• Susannah Martin: † 19. July 1692, hanged
• Rebecca Nurse: † 19. July 1692, hanged
• Sarah Wilds: † 19. July 1692, hanged

August 1692

More people are hanged. Although George Burroughs recites the Lord’s Prayer perfectly on the gallows (a task witches were allegedly unable to complete without error), Cotton Mather insisted that, “…the Devil has often been transformed into an Angel of Light.”

Died in August

• George Burroughs: † 19. August 1692, hanged
• Martha Carrier: † 19. August 1692, hanged
• George Jacobs Sr: † 19. August 1692, hanged
• John Proctor: † 19. August 1692, hanged
• John Willard: † 19. August 1692, hanged

September 1692

For the last time people are executed during the trials. After refusing to recognize the authority of the court the 71-year-old Giles Corey is pressed to death under heavy stones. This is the only time this torture is used in colonial New England.

Died in September

• Giles Corey: † 19. September 1692, Pressed to death
• Martha Corey: † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Mary Easty: † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Alice Parker: † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Ann Pudeator † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Mary Parker: † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Margaret Scott: † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Samuel Wardwell: † 22. September 1692, hanged
• Wilmott Redd: † 22. September 1692, hanged

October 1692

Eight children in custody are released on £2,500 bail. Bosten minister Mather tries to stop the trials, writing that “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned…”. With public opinion turning against the trials, Governor Phips dissolves the court of Oyer and Terminer.

November 1692

Governor Phips tries to put a stop to the arrests. With the court resolved many people waiting in jail for a decision what will happen with them. The imprisoned are charged for their room, board and their chains.

December 1692

The Lower House passes a new act, still maintaining that witchcraft can be punished by death. However for minor acts of magic would just result to penalties. Governor Phips is forming a final superior court for the remaining cases and decides, that this new court will no longer accept spectral evidence.

Died in September

• Ann Foster: † 03. December 1692, died in prison

1693 & following

Elizabeth Proctor gives birth to a boy while in prison while awaiting trial. Of the fifty-six persons still accused of witchcraft the new court finds fifty-three not guilty. Governor Phips finally issues reprieves for the last eight awaiting execution at the end of January 1693. Upon paying their jail fees, all accused of witchcraft are now free to go. However not every person is able to pay the fees. Lydia Dustin dies three months later in jail awaiting her release.

Minister Parris steps down in April. 1694 twelve of the jurors of the Court of Oyer and Terminer sign a statement of apology for their role in the witch trials and in 1711 the afflicted witness Ann Putnam Jr. acknowledges publicly her wrongdoing, blaming her actions to a delusion of the devil. The survivors and the families of the victims who were executed fight for years to clear the names of their loved once and to recover their property. In October 2001 the names of all of those wrongly convicted of witchcraft were formally cleared.

Died in September

• Lydia Dustin: † 10. March 1693, died in prison