Changes

City authorities prosecuted the suspects of witchcraft (mostly older women but also some men), and about 20 people (including several men) and even two dogs executed.  Some thought that the trials offered an unique opportunity to identify and expose the devil, for the advancement of knowledge.  Cotton Mather, a prominent colonist, published a book bragging about the success of the trials.

City authorities prosecuted the suspects of witchcraft (mostly older women but also some men), and about 20 people (including several men) and even two dogs executed.  Some thought that the trials offered an unique opportunity to identify and expose the devil, for the advancement of knowledge.  Cotton Mather, a prominent colonist, published a book bragging about the success of the trials.

[[File:Cotton Mather on Salem Witch Trials.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Pamphlet by Cotton Mather in 1693 declaring witchcraft trials to be a success]]

[[File:Cotton Mather on Salem Witch Trials.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Pamphlet by Puritan minister Cotton Mather in 1693 declaring witchcraft trials to be a success]]

But others observed that killing all these people may itself the work of the devil.  Finally one of the accused witches identified the wife of the governor as being a witch.  That alarmed the governor himself, obviously, and he intervened to order the exclusion of spectral evidence and touching tests as evidence against the accused, and that proof be based on a higher standard of "clear and convincing evidence."  Under these better legal standards, nearly everyone was acquitted (found "not guilty") and the governor pardoned the few who were still convicted.  Tituba herself, who sparked the panic, later recanted her "confession" but remained in jail another year until someone paid the jailer money to release her and her husband.  (Notice that while a few Puritans did own slaves in early times, they did not split slave families.)  Many associated with the trials later apologized, but not the Chief Judge William Stoughton.  He always insisted that he was about to "clear the land" of witches and that the governor should not have intervened to prevent this; Stoughton subsequently became governor himself of the Massachusetts colony, showing the popularity of his position.

But others observed that killing all these people may itself the work of the devil.  Finally one of the accused witches identified the wife of the governor as being a witch.  That alarmed the governor himself, obviously, and he intervened to order the exclusion of spectral evidence and touching tests as evidence against the accused, and that proof be based on a higher standard of "clear and convincing evidence."  Under these better legal standards, nearly everyone was acquitted (found "not guilty") and the governor pardoned the few who were still convicted.  Tituba herself, who sparked the panic, later recanted her "confession" but remained in jail another year until someone paid the jailer money to release her and her husband.  (Notice that while a few Puritans did own slaves in early times, they did not split slave families.)  Many associated with the trials later apologized, but not the Chief Judge William Stoughton.  He always insisted that he was about to "clear the land" of witches and that the governor should not have intervened to prevent this; Stoughton subsequently became governor himself of the Massachusetts colony, showing the popularity of his position.