A false tongue will never make a guilty person. The hangings were not an easy, quick affair. There were no calculations of how long the rope, no breaking of the neck for a quick, merciful death.
Convicted of witchcraft, the victims were denied a Christian burial and thrown into the rock crevices near the execution site. The families were said to have returned at night to retrieve their loved ones bodies from the pile, and buried them, unmarked, near home. Two are buried at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in nearby Danvers. The rest of the bodies of the Salem Witch Trial victims remain unfound. Their families, struggling with loss and one less working adult, were forced to find the money to pay for their imprisonment.
Personal property of the accused was confiscated, stolen from their struggling families at home. They took family livestock, food supplies, property, furniture, jewelry, money.
The jailed, mothers, children, fathers, grandparents, waited their turn for a trial or the gallows. Even for the who made it back home, the trauma could not be undone. The victims are far beyond what we can count. All paid a high price, 25 with their life.
If it looks long to read, such is the body count of the Salem Witch Hunts. Bridget Bishop β Widowed twice, though a remarried, mother of 3, two dying in infancy. She dared to wear artsy, colorful bodices, which was considered showy in Puritan New England. I am as innocent as the child unborn. Being so poor was a bitter pill, after growing up well-to-do. It was complained that she murmured curses to those who denied her pleas for food or shelter. I am no more a witch than you, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink!
