Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bol obam Here. From the frightful implications in the Blair Witch Project to the decidedly wholesome Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz, Magical mavens are at the center of some of our most enduring and endearing stories. There are also modern day practitioners of witchcraft, a term used to describe many groups and individuals, and most of whom focus on positivity and using magic
for good. There was a time, however, when being considered a witch was a veritable death sentence. Take Salem Village, Massachusetts. In two young girls, nine year old Elizabeth Harris and eleven year old Abigail Williams, began having fits, which included body spasms and uncontrolled screaming. The town doctor diagnosed them as being afflicted by black magic and accused them of practicing witchcraft, notion that didn't sit too well in the
Puritan settlement. A Contrary to legend, however, these so called witches were not burned at the stake. In fact, none of the men, women, or children accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem were killed that way. Most likely the recounting of the Salem witch Trials became intertwined with stories of actual executions by fire in Europe. During European witch trials between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, people accused of witchcraft
were commonly burned at the stake. Occasionally they were hanged before being burned. The punishment was in accordance with the Holy Roman Empire's laws, which contended that the punishment for witchcraft was death by fire. A church and civic leaders led the charge, executing as many as fifty thousand people across Europe in what's now France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Scotland. So what actually happened to the colonists accused during the
Salem witch Trials. Nineteen died by hanging their bodies swaying on the infamous gallows Hill. Of five were hanged on August nineteenth of six ninety two alone. One elderly man was stoned to death, and others died in jail while waiting for their day in court. Bridget Bishop was the first to be hanged on June tenth, although her exact misdeeds seemed to amount to no more than rumor and speculation.
Her case became a template for those that followed. A bishop was accused by the girls afflicted with black magic, but she denied their claims. Then a witness came forward to support the accusers, followed by more townspeople who described previous acts of witchcraft supposedly performed by Bishop. Bishop's trial and those of many others accused of witchcraft, ended with
a guilty verdict, no matter how improbable the evidence. During the sale in witch trials, more than two hundred people were accused of practicing witchcraft, which amounted to nothing more than a lot of finger pointing in a short time span. The hysteria lasted little more than a year before the local government deemed the trials a mistake and attempted to compensate the families of those who were convicted and hanged.
In the year two thousand one, more than three hundred years after those nineteen men and women were put to death during the Salem witch trials, five of them were officially exonerated by the State of Massachusetts, Bridget Bishop, plus four others, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Read and Margaret Scott. The Act was approved by the state legislature and signed on Halloween. Today's episode is based on the article where Witches Really Burned at the Stake in Salem on how
stuff Works dot Com, written by Laurie L. Dove. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com and it is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.