On This Date In History

On February 29, 1692, perhaps the most notorious case of mass hysteria in colonial America, began when a group of young girls, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, a West Indian slave claimed to have been possessed by the devil and accused other women of being witches.
Hysteria spread through colonial Massachusetts and a special court was convened to hear trials of those accused.
The Salem witch trials saw around 200 people accused of witchcraft, with 19 found guilty and executed. Another man was crushed to death for refusing to plead, while five others died in jail.
By September public opinion turned against the trials and they eventually closed early in 1693. The cases became notorious and were interpreted by later generations as a warning sign against the dangers of religious fanaticism, isolation and lapses in due process. In 1711 the convictions of twenty-two people were reversed by the courts and their families were given monetary compensation.