17. What happened to those convicted at the Salem witch trials?
Correct: Hanged at the gallows
Incorrect: Burned at the stake
If you assumed that burning witches at stake was part of the Salem witch trials, you ‘d be mistaken. While those who were persecuted suffered terrible fates, they were either killed by hanging— like the 19 people who met their tragic end on Gallows Hill— or, in the case of Giles Corey, they were crushed to death with large stones.
Interestingly, Corey ‘s case is the only death recorded by the press in U.S. history and was dramatized in The Crucible, Arthur Miller ‘s seminal 1953 play.
