When you think of Salem in 1692, you probably picture a town gone mad with fire. You might imagine dozens of women tied to stakes while flames lick at the wood. It’s a vivid image, honestly. It’s also completely wrong.
Most people asking how many women died in the Salem witch trials are surprised by the actual tally because Hollywood and high school rumors have inflated the numbers for decades. We tend to think of it as a massive massacre of thousands. In reality, the legal system did the killing, and it was much more precise—and arguably more chilling—than a chaotic mob with torches.
Here is the raw truth. During the height of the hysteria in colonial Massachusetts, 14 women were executed. If we are looking strictly at those who were hanged after a "trial," that’s your number. But history is never that clean. If you factor in the women who died in the freezing, filth-ridden jails while waiting for their day in court, the number climbs.
It wasn't just a "woman" problem, either. Men died too. Dogs were even killed. But the core of the tragedy was undeniably female.
The official death toll for women in 1692
Let's look at the names. Names matter because they represent real people who had gardens, children, and reputations before the world collapsed on them.
The women who were legally hanged on Gallows Hill were Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Susannah Martin, Martha Carrier, Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmot Redd, and Margaret Scott.
Bridget Bishop was the first. She went to the gallows on June 10. She was an easy target, really. She wore a red bodice. She was "flashy" for a Puritan. She’d been married multiple times. In a society that demanded quiet submission, Bridget was loud. That was enough to get her killed.
Then you have someone like Rebecca Nurse. She was 71. She was a grandmother. She was pious. Even the jury initially found her not guilty until the "afflicted" girls started screaming and throwing fits in the courtroom, forcing the judge to ask the jury to reconsider. They did. She died on July 19.
Beyond the gallows: The prison deaths
If we only count the hangings, we miss the full scope of the horror. Colonial jails in the 17th century weren't exactly up to code. They were damp, dark, stone basements. Prisoners had to pay for their own food and blankets. If you were poor—and many of these women were—you starved or froze.
At least three women died while incarcerated: Sarah Osborn, Ann Foster, and an unnamed infant born to Sarah Good in prison.
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Sarah Osborn is a particularly tragic case. She was one of the first three accused. She was old, sickly, and hadn't been to church in over a year because of her health. She died in a Boston jail before she could even be tried. Does she count in the total? Absolutely. She died because of the trials. Her death was just slower than a rope.
Why do we think the numbers are higher?
Culture has a way of blurring the lines between Salem and the European witch hunts. In Europe, between the 15th and 18th centuries, the numbers were staggering. We’re talking 40,000 to 60,000 executions. In those cases, burning at the stake was common.
But Salem was different.
English law, which governed the Massachusetts Bay Colony, didn't allow for burning. Witchcraft was a felony, not heresy. Felons were hanged. So, when people ask how many women died in the Salem witch trials, they are often disappointed by the "low" number of 14 or 17.
But 14 women in a tiny village is an enormous percentage of the population. Imagine 14 of your neighbors being systematically murdered by the state in the span of four months. It’s a lot.
The psychological weight was even heavier. Over 200 people were accused. Most of them were women. Even if they didn't die, their lives were ruined. Their property was seized. Their husbands often turned against them. The "death" of their social and economic lives was almost total.
The gender imbalance: Why mostly women?
You can't talk about the death toll without talking about why it was skewed. Of the 19 people hanged, 14 were women. Why?
Puritan society was built on a very specific hierarchy. God was at the top. Men were below God. Women were at the bottom. They were seen as "the weaker vessel," more susceptible to the Devil's charms. This wasn't just a metaphor; they believed it as literal biological fact.
If a woman was independent, or if she was a "scold" (someone who argued back), she was a threat. Look at Susannah Martin. She had been through multiple lawsuits regarding her inheritance. She was a woman who knew her way around a courtroom. That kind of competence was seen as suspicious.
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Then you have the "midwife" factor. Women who understood herbs and medicine were often the first to be blamed when a cow died or a child fell ill. It was an easy leap from "she has a tea for fever" to "she has a pact with Satan."
The logistics of the hangings
The executions happened in batches. It wasn't one a week. It was a concentrated burst of state-sponsored violence.
- June 10: 1 woman (Bridget Bishop)
- July 19: 5 women (including Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good)
- August 19: 1 woman (and 4 men)
- September 22: 7 women (the final group)
That final hanging in September was particularly grim. As the cart made its way to Gallows Hill, it got stuck in a rut. The "afflicted" girls claimed the Devil was holding the wheels back. After the eight people (seven women, one man) were turned off the ladder, the Reverend Nicholas Noyes famously said, "What a sad sight it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there."
He was wrong. They weren't firebrands. They were mothers and wives.
Breaking down the total victims
To be a real expert on this, you have to look at the total human cost, not just the female deaths.
If we tally everyone who died as a direct result of the 1692 trials:
- 14 women were hanged.
- 5 men were hanged.
- 1 man (Giles Corey) was pressed to death with heavy stones because he refused to enter a plea.
- At least 5 people (men and women) died in jail.
- 2 dogs were executed because people thought they were "familiars" of witches.
So, the grand total of human lives lost is roughly 25.
Is it 50,000? No. But the impact on American jurisprudence was massive. These deaths are the reason we have the "innocent until proven guilty" standard today. Increase Mather, a prominent minister at the time, eventually turned against the trials, saying, "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned."
What most people get wrong about the trials
The biggest misconception is the "witch" part. None of these women were actually witches. They weren't practicing Wicca—that’s a modern religion. They weren't casting spells. They were devout Christians.
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The tragedy of how many women died in the Salem witch trials is rooted in the fact that the victims believed in the same God as their executioners. They died because of spectral evidence—the idea that a person's "spirit" could leave their body and pinch or choke someone else.
If a girl in court screamed because she saw "the spirit" of Martha Corey sitting on a ceiling beam, that was considered legal proof. You can't cross-examine a ghost. That’s why the death toll was so inevitable once the trials started.
Actionable insights for history buffs
If you’re looking to truly understand this period, don’t just watch movies. Go to the primary sources.
First, visit the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive online. It’s a project by the University of Virginia that has digitized the original legal transcripts. Reading the actual words of these women—their pleas for their lives—is haunting.
Second, if you visit Salem, skip the "haunted houses" and go to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial on Liberty Street. It’s a series of stone benches, one for each victim. It’s quiet. It’s respectful. It lists the date and method of execution. Seeing the names carved in stone makes the number 14 feel a lot bigger.
Lastly, read A Storm of Witchcraft by Emerson W. Baker. He’s one of the leading experts on the subject, and he does a fantastic job of explaining the political and environmental factors (like a literal "Little Ice Age" and a nearby war with Native Americans) that pushed the town to the breaking point.
The number of deaths in Salem wasn't a world-ending plague. It was a localized failure of justice. But for the 14 women who met their end on a hill overlooking the Atlantic, it was the end of the world. Understanding exactly how many died helps us respect their memory without the hyperbole of fiction.
Keep these facts in your back pocket next time someone tells you they burned thousands of witches in Massachusetts. They didn't. They hanged 14 women, and that was more than enough to change history forever.
To dig deeper into the genealogy of the victims, check the records at the Essex Institute. Many families today are discovering they are direct descendants of the "witches" who were actually just victims of a bad neighbor with a grudge and a legal system that lost its mind.
Next Steps for Research
- Search for the "Proctor’s Ledge" discovery to see the actual site where the hangings occurred.
- Read the 1711 bill that finally exonerated many of the victims and provided some restitution to their families.
- Study the role of "Spectral Evidence" to understand why the legal defense for these women was nearly impossible.