How Did the Salem Witch Trials End?

INTRO:

If you've ever wondered how did the Salem witch trials end, the answer isn't a single dramatic moment—it's a governor slowly realizing the court he created had gone too far. Between June and September of 1692, nineteen people were hanged in Salem, Massachusetts, and one more was pressed to death under stones. Then, within weeks, it all stopped.

The trials didn't end because people stopped believing in witches. They ended because the evidence used to convict them—dreams, visions, and something called spectral evidence—became impossible to defend, especially once the accusations started reaching people close to the governor himself.

THE TURNING POINT:

By October 1692, respected ministers were speaking out. Increase Mather argued publicly that "it were better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned." Then Governor William Phips's own wife came under suspicion.

On October 29, 1692, Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer—the special court handling the witchcraft cases—and replaced it with a new court that refused to accept spectral evidence at all. Of the 56 people still facing charges, only 3 were convicted under the new rules, and by May 1693, Phips had pardoned everyone still held on witchcraft charges.

THE RECKONING:

The apologies came slowly, and not from everyone. Judge Samuel Sewall stood in his own church in 1697 and had his confession read aloud to the whole congregation—the only judge from the original court to ever apologize publicly. Judge John Hathorne, the most aggressive prosecutor of them all, never said a word.

Fourteen years after her testimony helped convict Rebecca Nurse and dozens of others, Ann Putnam Jr.—one of the original accusers—stood in that same Danvers meeting house and asked forgiveness from those she had harmed. She was the only original accuser who ever did.

The last formal exoneration didn't come until centuries later. Elizabeth Johnson Jr. wasn't officially cleared until 2022, thanks to a group of eighth graders who refused to let her case stay forgotten.

PLAN YOUR TRIP:

Want to see where this all happened? Our full Salem travel guide covers where to stay, the best time to visit, and how to spend a day or two exploring Salem, Peabody, and Danvers.

Check out our Salem travel guide to plan your trip here.

TAKE A SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF SALEM:

The best way to understand how the trials actually ended is to see where they happened. The Salem Witch Trials Driving Tour is a self-guided GPS audio tour through Salem, Peabody, and Danvers that traces the whole story in reverse—starting at the town where the trials ended and finishing at the village where they began.

Along the way you'll visit:

1. Proctor's Ledge, the real execution site, confirmed only in 2016

2. The Rebecca Nurse Homestead, the only executed victim's home open to the public

3. The site of the parsonage where the first accusations started

Most visitors finish in two to three hours with stops.

Check out the Salem Witch Trials Driving Tour here.