“More weight.” These were the last words of farmer Giles Corey, one of six men tried and executed during the 1692 Salem witch trials. While George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, Samuel Wardwell, and John Willard were sentenced to death by hanging, Corey faced a different fate.

On this day in 1692, five women were found guilty of practicing witchcraft in Massachusetts. Their names were Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes. Once convicted, these women scarcely had time to react to this traumatic injustice, and no time at all to appeal to the better natures of their persecutors. On the very same day, all five women were hanged until dead.