Salem witch trials bill of rights

The court convened on June 2 for the first trials, and on the basis of unprovable charges and spectral evidence, Bridget Bishop was found guilty and hanged.

One of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall, was so outraged by the proceedings that he immediately resigned. Nevertheless, the trials continued despite the travesty of justice that was recognized at the time.

The conviction rate was unusually high, mainly because more than fifty suspects confessed, presumably to evade the noose. Puritans saw in the large numbers only mass allegiance to Satan, which, in turn, led to more accusations. With the stamp of this seal, William Stoughton, the chief judge who presided over the Salem witch trials, sent Bridget Bishop to her death.

The court convened again in late June, with more than one hundred accused witches in jail. Five more were tried and executed, followed by another five in August, and eight in September, fourteen women and five men.

Elizabeth Proctor was found guilty but received a reprieve because she was pregnant. Giles Corey, who refused to plead, was pressed to death beneath a growing blanket of stones; his wife Martha was hanged.

The deaths caused profound unease, including among previously enthusiastic ministers and magistrates. In late October, the Massachusetts Court called for a day of fasting and prayer for reflection on the hysteria. A few days later, Governor Phips met with Stoughton to decide the fate of the court and decided to halt the trials. The jailed were released. In , Thomkins H. Matteson painted Trial of George Jacobs, August 5, Jacobs was one of the colonists the court convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death.

How has Matteson conveyed the climate of hysteria that overtook the community of Salem and led to the witch trials? Samuel Sewall, one of the judges, regretted the role he had played in the witchcraft trials and wondered whether the subsequent misfortunes of his own family, and of all New England, might be divine punishment for shedding innocent blood. In January , he stood bare headed in church in Boston while the minister read the following apology:.

Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated strokes of God upon himself and family; and being sensible, that as to the guilt contracted upon the opening of the late commission of Oyer and Terminer at Salem to which the order for this day relates he is, upon many accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, desires to take the blame and shame of it, asking pardon of men, and especially desiring prayers that God, who has an unlimited authority, would pardon that sin and all other his sins, personal and relative; and according to his infinite benignity, and sovereignty, not visit the sin of him, or of any other, upon himself or any of his, nor upon the land.

In January mass hysteria erupted in Salem Village, Massachusetts, when the specter of witchcraft was raised after several young girls became unaccountably ill. The hysteria only increased when noted Boston minister Cotton Mather joined in the fray. During the trials held in Salem town in Essex County, the accused were slandered with little recourse and denied rights that should have been granted under English common law.

Technically, those accused of practicing witchcraft, or their next of kin, could respond to accusations by filing charges of defamation against their accusers.

However, defendants won only four of fifteen such cases filed. Those convicted of defamation or slander were forced to pay fines and apologize publicly, but the more typical scenario was for courts to charge the accused with lying and add fines or additional punishment.

Bearing false witness and committing perjury were considered felonies in Salem; under normal conditions, those convicted of such charges were prosecuted in public forums. During the witch trials, however, individuals convicted of perjury could save themselves from public humiliation by accusing their neighbors. Most defendants lacked benefit of counsel and were assumed guilty.

Those who publicly questioned the guilt of a defendant were likely to be accused of witchcraft themselves. Mostly populated by Puritans, Salem Village was experiencing economic hardship in , and residents were only too willing to blame someone else for their troubles.

The accusers were generally young females between the ages of 11 and The mischief began when a group of girls accused Tituba, a slave from South America who had told their fortunes, of witchcraft after they became mysteriously ill. Responding to increased attention, the girls expanded their credibility by producing a plethora of new evidence against accused witches and spreading the hysteria to neighboring towns. Encouraged by their elders and joined by some peers, the girls began accusing anyone they disliked or feared of being witches.

In , the General Court, the legislative body of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, wrote the Body of Liberties , the first legal code established in New England. This collection of civil and criminal laws and rights included witchcraft among its capital offenses. Exod, In the English tradition, clear and convincing proof of a crime was needed for a conviction.

Confessions, especially with other evidence and testimony of at least two trustworthy people, constituted the best proof. Though the Salem Witch Trials predated the U. During the epidemic of witchcraft accusations in Salem, the legal process changed.

The trials followed the temporary suspension of the Colony Charter due to political and religious tension between the colony and England.

A new governor and a new charter from England arrived in , but the General Court did not have enough time to create any laws. The Puritans believed that physical realities had spiritual causes. View entire sample Join StudyHippo to see entire essay.

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