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On this day in history: September 22, 1692: The "darkest day in Salem's history" would see the execution of eight individuals: Ann Pudeator and Alice Parker of Salem, Martha Corey of Salem Farms, Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker of Andover, Wilmot Redd of Marblehead, Margaret Scott of Rowley, and Mary Easty of Topsfield. “When the cart carrying the prisoners turned up the hill to the ledge, its wheels suddenly became stuck. According to Robert Calef, who attended the execution and wrote about it in his book, More Wonders of the Invisible World, while the law men struggled to get the wheels to move, the afflicted girls began to cry out that they saw the Devil holding the cart back (Calef 218). The men eventually got the oxen cart free though and the prisoners arrived at the ledge.” At the execution, the prisoners all continued to declare their innocence until their last moments. As the eight bodies hanged from the tree, Reverend Noyes proclaimed, "What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there!" “The victims were then cut down and temporarily placed in a nearby rocky crevice but it is not known what happened to their bodies after that.” September 22 would also mark the last of the executions. By October, 1692, the court of Oyer and Terminator was officially dissolved by the William Phipps, the governor of Boston, after his wife was accused of witchcraft. The irony is, it was Phipps who actually established the same court system to begin with. By January, the trials were over. However, we have what is called “due process” so people were not released immediately. In May 1693, Tituba was released from prison and sold into slavery to a new master. People who were fortunate enough to have wealthy families had to pay off their debt. Every morsel of food, every drop of water, their jail keeper’s fee, the court costs; all had to be paid in full before their release. When they were released into society, they were called a “dead man” or a “dead woman”, meaning they had no rights to their property. Elizabeth Proctor, convicted of witchcraft, was pardoned from her hanging in order to give birth in prison. The trials ended three weeks after she gave birth to her son. She spent 10 years proving to the court that she was in fact “living”, and another 10 years fighting for any kind of restitution for the property that was seized from them. The last of the names were legally cleared from the Massachusetts courts in the year 2001. Source: History of Massachusetts blog