- Halloween is almost
upon us, and we're talking about the Salem witch
trials today, deathlings. And I'm actually
reporting live from Salem. No stock photo witches for you. Oh, no, we are on location. I'm in some very spooky woods. (crows cawing) For over 300 years, an
unassuming rocky ledge sat largely unnoticed near 7 Pope Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Streets were paved, houses sprung up, a Walgreens drug store was erected. Though Salem has always
known that they share a past with one of the darkest
parts of American history, nobody realize that just beyond the glow of Walgreen's neon
lights was the exact spot where Salem's history turned deadly. While it was long believed
that the condemned were hanged at the top of Gallows Hill, the aptly named Gallows Hill Project recently proved that it was, in fact, near the base of the hill
where the victims were hanged. It is that rocky ledge by the Walgreens, called Proctor's Ledge, where the victims of the witch trials met their death in the summer of 1692. It's very unclear where
the ledge actually is, and I'm kind of just
in people's backyards. I think I'm trespassing. Whoops. We found it. We have the ledge. We have the ledge. If you're not familiar with
the Salem witch trials, here are the basics. In January of 1692,
11-year-old Abigail Williams, 11-year-old Ann Putnam, and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris started
behaving strangely. They screamed, contorted their bodies, and made unnatural sounds. When a doctor diagnosed
the girls' affliction as supernatural,
magistrates pressured them into accusing Sarah Osborne,
a sick, elderly widow, Tituba, a slave from the
Caribbean, and Sarah Good, a pregnant, mentally ill
beggar woman of witchcraft. The immigrant, the
elderly, and the infirm, and the they were all women. That's like American scapegoat bingo. (bell dinging) Osborne, Tituba and Good, all
known as community outcasts, were brought to trial for
"afflicting" the girls. Osborne and Good
maintained their innocence, while Tituba admitted to being
in league with the devil, though most likely she was
being coerced, aka beaten, by her master, the
influential Reverend Parris, father of Elizabeth Parris. All three women were jailed. Sarah Osborne died in prison
before she could be executed. And Tituba, because she confessed, was held for 13 months before
being sold and released. Sarah Good gave birth in jail, and was executed on July 19th, 1692. But the fate of these three
women, and others like them, did not extinguish the community's fear of witches in their midst. It only stoked the flames
of hysteria and paranoia. It also didn't help that
it was a commonly held Puritan belief that any
conflict was the devil's doing, thus allowing the most powerful
members of the community to conveniently accuse
anyone they were feuding with of witchcraft. And FYI, no witches were
burnt at the stake in Salem. That's totally a European thing. In America we hang our
witches, thank you very much. It's the American way. From 1692 to 1693, over 200 women and men were
accused of being witches. About 150 were arrested,
and 20 were executed. 19 of those executed were
hanged at Proctor's Ledge. Giles Corey, the one
man who was not hanged was pressed to death in
an attempt to torture him into pleading guilty or not
guilty, because a person who did not enter a
plea could not be tried. Pressing involves putting
a board on one's chest, then progressively putting
more weight on the board until the person is crushed. In his final hours, the
sheriff had to force Corey's bulging tongue back into
his mouth with his cane. Throughout his pressing,
which lasted over two days, the only words Corey
said were "more weight." So more weight was added
until he was killed. All of the other convicted "witches" were hanged between early June
and late September of 1692. On the day of an execution, the condemned would be carted to what
was called Gallows Hill, but not to the top, as
was previously thought. Why is that? First of all, it would
be extremely difficult to get a cart full of
people to the top of a hill. Second, a hanging had
to be highly visible, something the summit of
Gallows Hill was not. It was the 17th century, after all, and hangings were the social event. After scouring eyewitness testimony, comparing old and new maps, and even using satellite imagery, the
Gallows Hill Project concluded that the site of the hangings
had to be Proctor's Ledge. It was public land at the time, available to the community
to let their sheep graze, it provided a good vantage
point from the street below, and it was close to the center
of town, but not too close. The name Gallows Hill is also a misnomer. No gallows were used in
the hanging of the victims. Instead, they were hanged
from the numerous oak trees at the ledge. Once the victims were
dead, their bodies hanging from the trees, they were cut down and dropped into a crevice
below Proctor's Ledge. That being said, there's no evidence that the crevice was ever
used as a mass grave, the ground is too rocky
and the soil too thin to make the deep pit required
for burying multiple bodies. Furthermore, no evidence of
skeletonized human remains have ever been found in the
area in and around the crevice. Though nobody's sure exactly
what became of the bodies, historians agree that the families of the witch trial victims most likely stole the bodies away
and secretly buried them. One such body was that
of George Jacobs, Sr., hanged on August 19th, 1692. My Birthday! Fun. It's believed that the Jacobs family stole his body back and
buried it on their property. The remains thought to be his
were rediscovered in 1864, reburied, then uncovered
again in the 1950s. Jacobs's bones were kept by
the city of Danvers until 1992, when they were finally laid to rest at the home of Rebecca Nurse,
another executed victim. Rebecca nurse and George
Jacobs, Sr. are the only two witch trial victims to
have known grave sites. All others were smuggled
away to unmarked graves that have since been lost to time. By January of 1693, the
trials had concluded, and the remaining accused were pardoned by May of the same year. Unfortunately, the damage
had already been done, and the town of Salem
had to begin the long, painful process of healing
from the sins of their past. Many involved in the trials,
from juror to judges, publicly apologized, and in 1711, the Massachusetts legislature
restored the rights and good names of the accused. Before she died, even Ann Putnam, one of the original accusers,
apologized for her actions, claiming she had been deluded by Satan. If you ever make it out
to Salem, deathlings, by all means enjoy the town. I often talk about what I call
the witch-to-kitsch factor, where killings, atrocities, and disasters turn into kitschy fun if
enough time has passed. That's certainly what's happened in Salem. It's part of their identity. Enjoy the kitsch, but if
possible take a quiet moment to remember that Salem is a town that has been shaped by death. Well, that's kind of a somber ending. Everyone leaves in a thoughtful mood. Hey, what are you guys
gonna be for Halloween? Huh? Tell me in the comments. It's a fun channel. Right? This video was made
with generous donations from death enthusiasts just like you. (eerie music) (crows cawing) It's a Walgreens. It's the year of content.
