ch a way that whatever they said, it would make them seem guilty. “Have you made no contract with the devil?”, “No”, answered Sarah Good (Hill 43). From the answer given by Sarah Good, it seems as if she has just said that she made a contract with the devil. So the record says, “so they all did look upon her and said this was one of the persons that did torment them” (Hill 44). Some women would also do what they could to “get off” from the charges. “…They told me if I would not confess I should be put down into the dungeon and would be hanged, but if I would confess I should have life”, was what Margaret Jacobs, one of the accused had said. Some women were even let free, but because of protest from victims, they were forced to be arrested for a second time. That was the case for Mary Easty (Salem Home Page). The Puritans of Massachusetts were the first to enforce a sense of political correctness. There were led by God, ran inquisitions, and created the “witch-hunt” of Salem. The Salem witch trials is just one example of types of hunts that have gone on in American history. The McCarthy trials and Watergate are other forms of hunts in the political spectrum (American Fanaticism). From the Spring of 1692 to the Fall of 1692, men and women were tried and convicted of being witches. The new Governor, Sir William Phips, who was sent from England, set up a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to hear and decide the remaining witchcraft cases. Appointed as judges were Lt. Governor William Stoughton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John Richards, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin. These magistrates based their judgments on intangible evidence, such as forced confessions, so called “witchmarks”, and reactions of the afflicted girls (Salem Home Page). The first person to be tried in the Court of O...
