Salem Confessors Escaped Witch Executions

During the 1692 Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, none of the accused people who confessed to witchcraft were convicted or executed. The accused quickly realized that confessing could spare them from the gallows, although many confessed only after authorities pressured, threatened, or tortured them. All 19 people whom the court convicted and hanged had refused to confess and maintained their innocence. A man named Giles Corey also refused to enter a plea, so officials pressed him beneath heavy stones until he died.

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