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To see all events in all categories, click the "Entire Timeline" link at the top of the page. You can use the form to the left to search for sets of events by entering specific terms or to zoom in on a particular time period. View historical, literary, or commemorative events in New England's past by using the links in the legend below.
Legend: Commemorative Literary Historical

Years Image Event Description Keywords
1634   John Endecott defaces King's colors Radical Puritan John Endecott of Salem believed that the image of the cross was idolatrous. A website for the Popham Colony has a representation of such a flag. Endicott, Endecott, flag, Hawthorne, Puritans
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.  
1661   English Quaker William Leddra hanged in Boston. In response English Quakers sought a mandamus from King Charles II. A Salem Quaker, Samuel Shattock, who was then in England, delivered it to Governor Endecott. Quaker, Whittier
1662   Beginning of Hartford witch outbreak. During 1662-63, accusations against 13 persons resulted in 4 executions. witch, Hartford
1662   Deborah Wilson ran naked through the streets of Salem. This was one of several attempts at civil disobedience by Quakers who chose flamboyant efforts to witness against persecution. Like the others, Wilson as whipped at the cart tail. Quakers
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
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1799   East India Marine Society established in Salem, Massachusetts    
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
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
1904   Henry James visits the supposed House of the Seven Gables. James wrote, "Hawthorne's ladder at Salem, in fine, has now quite gone, and we but tread the air if we attempt to set our critical feet on its steps and its rounds.  
1908   House of Seven Gables Settlement Association founded   witch, Salem, museum, immigration
1942   Touro Synagogue designated a National Historic Site . . . the Georgian influenced building is situated on an angle within the property allowing worshippers standing in prayer before the Holy Ark to face east toward Jerusalem.  
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
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1996   The Crucible filmed   witch, Salem

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