The Plight of Elizabeth Johnson, Jr.

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Most of us know about the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693. They took place in Salem, Massachusetts, where 20 people lost their lives. Toward the end of the witch trials, the then-governor pardoned from execution a 22-year-old woman, Elizabeth Johnson Jr., but she was not cleared of the charges. In 1711, Massachusetts lawmakers passed an act that reversed the witchcraft convictions of 22 people, but Johnson's name wasn't on it. She did petition the court to have her name added, but it is unclear why it was left out. Other names were cleared down through the decades-- as recently as 1957 and 2001. Again, Johnson was not among them. In 2021, students at North Andover Middle School, which was the town adjacent to Salem, learned about this in class. They urged their teacher to do something. The teacher contacted the state senator, Diana DiZoglio, who sponsored an amendment to clear Johnson's name. On May 26, 2022, Elizabeth Johnson, Jr. was finally exonerated. This made her the last known person convicted of witchcraft in Salem to be cleared of the charges. That was 329 years after those dark days at the summit called Gallows Hill. The picture is from historynet.com