The image of witches being burned at the stake is a widespread one, but it is a myth when it comes to Salem. Roasting people alive was not the preferred method of execution for accused witches in English-speaking countries. English Heritage highlights that most convicted witches in America and England were hanged. It was only in Scotland that burnings occurred, but even there, it was only to dead bodies; the convicted had usually been strangled first.
In Salem, according to Smithsonian Magazine, the town's makeshift gallows (a tree) saw three mass executions, including the killings of Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes, all in one day in 1692. Britannica describes how George Burroughs, a minister accused of being a witches' ringleader, recited the Lord's Prayer before his execution, something thought impossible for a wizard or witch to do. Doubts were cast on his guilt by the onlookers but were quashed by Cotton Mather, a noted intellectual and sometimes supporter of the trials.
The accused were hanged from an oak tree before their bodies were dropped into a shallow "crevice" below, where their grief-stricken families could secretly collect their bodies. As they were considered to be handmaidens of Satan, none of the accused were allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. However, it's believed, according to Biography, that at least three of the convicted – Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, and George Jacobs – were collected by their families and given Christian burials.
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