How Did Salem Get Confessions

Preceding the Salem witch trails, the court fell under attack. Those who made confessions began to recant them. Though they played a direct role in the executions of innocent people, they insisted that they only made accusations out of force. In Document 77, Margaret Jacobs describes the ordeal of how she was told to either confess or be hanged. In another record, “Declaration of Mary Osgood, Mary Tyler, Deliverance Dane, Abigail Barker, Sarah Wilson, and Hannah Tyler,” the girls contend, “There was no other way to save our lives, as the case was then circumstanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such and such persons as the afflicted represented us to be; they out of tenderness and pity persuaded us to confess what we did confess”

In Document 90, the jurymen confess. They state, “We do heartily ask for forgiveness of you all whom we have justly offended, and do declare according to our present minds, we would none of us do such things again on such grounds for the whole world” (Godbeer 176). In Document 93, restitution was granted to the families of those involved in the witch trails that suffered damages. They also understood that it was necessary to prevent these events from ever occurring again in the future. In particular, the use of spectral evidence was heavily criticized and the standards for future witchcraft prosecutions were changed. In Document 81, the writer declares that even if a spectre did appear, it can take shape of an innocent person. Furthermore, he asserts that, “We [cannot] esteem alterations made in the sufferers by a look or touch of the accused to be infallible evidence of guilt, but frequently liable to be abused the Devil’s legerdemains” (Godbeer 153). This is apparently in response to the questionable methods used in court, where simply alleging to have seen a spectre could warrant a guilty

Understandably, this resolution would certainly have fewer ramifications than hanging an innocent person. Finally, in Document 84, Thomas Brattle dismisses the “touch test” often used in court and addresses how the confessors often contradicted themselves when giving testimonies. Brattle questions how one could possibly trust a man or woman who is a confessor. If they confessed to witchcraft, then they have given up God, and were in no position to swear to an oath. He also disapproves the use of the “Devil’s Mark,” because everyone has blemishes on their body which could be mistaken for a preternatural excrescence, and remarks how the afflicted girls accused one woman, but no actions was taken against her, presumably because she was the mother-in-law of ones of the judges. He ends his letter by commenting, “What will be the issues of these troubles, God only knows. I am afraid that ages will not wear off that reproach and those stains, which these things will leave behind them upon our land. I pray God pity us, humble us, forgive us, and appear mercifully for us in this our mount of distress” (Godbeer 164). In this document, he insists that they should all fear God’s wrath and shows concern for the how future generations’ condemnation against