Date and Time: Monday, September 15, 2025 from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET

Registration is required for this free outdoors walking tour.

Hosted by:

Ken Bresler, Administrative Magistrate, Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA)

During the Salem Witch Trials more than 300 years ago, Salem was a small town without enough government officials or resources to conduct mass trials. Boston, the capital of the province, and Bostonians inevitably got drawn into the frenzy. Defendants from Salem were sent to, escaped from, and died in Boston’s jail. Bostonians were accused of witchcraft. Boston even held its own witch trials. Of the ten witch trial judges, four were from Boston. Boston citizens, ministers, and government officials helped to inflame the witchcraft crisis, and then to end it. These Bostonians left many reminders of themselves, which can still be seen today.

The walking tour will last about an hour. It will start at the John Adams Courthouse and end near there. Ken Bresler is the author of The Witch Trial Trail of Boston and The Harvard Witch Walk: The People and Places of Boston and Harvard Connected with the Salem Witch Trials, the second edition of which is available now. Instructions on meeting time and place will be emailed to all who register nearer the tour date.