| Years | Image | Event | Description | Keywords |
| 1647 | | Alice Young hung in Hartford | May be the first NE execution for witchchraft | witch, Hartford |
| 1648 | | Massachusetts executes Margaret Jones | This is the first known Massachusetts execution for witchcraft. John Winthrop described her "malignant touch." | witch |
| 1656 | | Ann Hibbens executed. | Hibbens was of somewhat higher status than witches executed earlier. There appears to have been a hiatus in executions for a few years after her death. | |
| 1662 | | Beginning of Hartford witch outbreak. | During 1662-63, accusations against 13 persons resulted in 4 executions. | witch, Hartford |
| 1671 | | Elizabeth Knapp "possessed of the Devil" | Samuel Willard, a minister at Groton, Massachusetts, wrote about Knapp's exorcism. | witch |
| 1692 | | Salem Witch Trials | | Salem, witch |
| 1692 | | Cotton Mather, "Wonders of the Invisible World" | | witch |
| 1697 | | Samuel Sewall repents of role in Salem trials | | witch |
| 1700 | | Robert Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World" | Calef's critique of the trials focused on the credulity and worldly ambition of Cotton Mather. | witch |
| 1702 | | John Hale publishes "A Modest Inquiry" | | witch |
| 1711 | | Massachusetts begins compensating victims of Salem witch trials. | | witch |
| 1764 | | Thomas Hutchinson, "History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay" | An important early history by the later Loyalist governor. Dealt with witchhunting and with the banishment of his ancestor, Anne Hutchinson. | witch, antinomianism, loyalist |
| 1820 | | Witch of New England published | This anonymous work was only the first of several literary treatments of the seventeenth-century witch hunts. Like others, it emphasized the dangers of delusion. | |
| 1820 | | Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana" reprinted | | witch, Puritanism |
| 1823 | | Calef's "More Wonders of the Invisible World" reprinted | | witch |
| Return to Top |
| 1829 | | Charles Goodrich, "A History of the United States of America" | Like other writers of the early republic, Goodrich saw the Salem witch trials as a consequence of fanaticism and delusion. | |
| 1831 | | Charles W. Upham, "Lectures on Witchcraft" | An account by a Unitarian minister who used the Salem story to warn against the dangers of religious and political zeal. | witch |
| 1831 | | John Greenleaf Whitter, "Legends of New England" | Based on earlier stories written for newspapers, Whittier dealt with witch beliefs as a form of folklore. | |
| 1847 | | John Greenleaf Whittier, "Supernaturalism of New England" | | witch, folklore |
| 1848 | | Thompkins Matteson's "Examination of a Witch" exhibited in New York | | witch, painting |
| 1851 | | Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The House of the Seven Gables" | | witch Salem |
| 1889 | | Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association presents a historical pageant | The historical vignettes included Anne Hutchinson's banishment, the Salem witch trials, and the courtship of Priscilla Alden, among other events. | witch, antinomian, Hutchinson, Alden, suffrage |
| 1908 | | House of Seven Gables Settlement Association founded | | witch, Salem, museum, immigration |
| 1953 | | Arthur Miller, "The Crucible" | See Web links for Arthur Miller, "Why I wrote 'The Crucible': An artist's answer to politics." and for a Massachusetts curriculum project that connects Miller's play to Salem.
Additional Information | witch, Salem |
| 1996 | | The Crucible filmed | | witch, Salem |
