ming tombs

A "hideous screech and noise" poured from the open windows of the meetinghouse. Inside, the young accusers who said they had been bewitched by their neighbors twisted their bodies and cried in pain. Frail and weak, Rebecca Nurse, the most unlikely to be in league with the devil, stood to be questioned. From the moment on that cold January day when the specter of a coffin appeared during a childish game, Salem Village convulsed with …

…what was later called Gallows Hill. Four other convicted witches took their last breath alongside Rebecca. As would be the case over the months to come, the bodies of the five women were then cut down and dumped into rock crevices at the side of the hill. In the late summer and early fall, the silhouette of bodies swinging from ropes on Gallows Hill became a familiar sight. Salem Village would never be the same.