The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to 1693

Though not the largest outbreak of witch-hunting ever to occur, the Salem Witch Trials remain the most famous around the world. During the witch-hunt of 1692 to 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, at least 156 people were formally accused of witchcraft and many others were rumored to be witches.

Though the origins of the witch hunt go back centuries to the beginning of witch-hunting in late medieval Europe and causes include global geopolitical factors going back at least as far, the primary events of the Salem Witch-Hunt began in January 1692, when two children in the household of Salem Village minister Samuel Parris began behaving strangely due to unexplained afflictions, as they were known. The first legal complaints of witchcraft of this hunt were filed on February 29, 1692, and the final trials were held in May 1693.