Aftermath of the Salem Trials
After the prisoners awaiting trial on charges of practicing witchcraft were granted amnesty (pardoned) in 1693, the accusers and judges showed hardly any remorse for executing twenty people and causing others to languish in jails. Instead they placed the blame on the "trickery of Satan," thus freeing themselves from any sense of guilt. Jurors and townspeople also managed to maintain a clear conscience by claiming that, after all, many victims had confessed to their "crimes" and that the Salem, Massachusetts, community had been tricked by the devil. Yet families who had lost loved ones and property during the trials were expected to go on with their lives as if nothing had happened. Their attempts to regain social standing and receive financial compensation through formal legal channels took several years.
Judges and Accusers Show Minimal Guilt
Eventually a few judges hinted at apologies for their roles in the trials, but they did not assume any real guilt. For instance, Massachusetts governor William Phipps conveniently blamed his lieutenant governor, William Stoughton, who had served as ajudge (see Chapter 4). As early as 1693 Phipps wrote a letter to the British government, quoted by Frances Hill in A Delusion of Satan, claiming that Stoughton "Hath from the beginning hurried on these matters with great precipitancy [haste] and by his warrant hath caused the estates, goods, and chattels [movable property] of the executed to be seized and disposed of without my knowledge or consent." Plagued by poor harvests and mild disasters since the onset of the trials, Puritan leaders had begun to worry that God might be punishing them.
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