Guilty Until Proven Innocent At Salem Witch Trials History Essay

In the 14th through 16th centuries and estimated 40 thousand people were executed for the crime of witchcraft and according to believers, it cam straight from the Bible in Exodus 22:18 which says Thou shall not suffer a witch to live. The Bible is the word of God and is infallible and believers had to live by it. Despite this strong belief in the Bible, early Christians were quite tolerant of Paganism and even witchcraft but as the Roman Catholic Church began to consolidate its power, heretics were looked at as the enemy.

By 1231, Pope Gregory the 9th instituted the inquisition which was designed to expose and punish heresy. That’s when the attitude towards witchcraft began to change and take on a more acceptable, violent attitude.

In 1484, Pope Innocent the 8th declared being a witch or a magician a crime and approved severe measures of punishment and ultimately death if a person was found to be either. All of the problems, from bad crops to bad weather, were blamed on witches and magicians. Witch hunts were usually conducted by the superstitious villagers as tensions grew amongst them and they use these witch hunts as a power tool to get rid of people they had issues with, real or imagined, with the authorities doing little or nothing to stop it.

Although the authorities were encouraging the locals to separate and rid themselves of witches, which caused them to turn on each other as they pointed out each other as witches, a witch hunt didn’t mean that people showed up at your door, knocked, and politely asked if there were any witches in the house. Once a person was accused of being a witch, they still had to provide some evidence in order to prosecute. The question was then, how do you prove that someone has cast a spell? The authorities needed some sort of tangible evidence such as test and signs that they were witches. In 1486 Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, published a guidebook on finding witches called the Mallei Maleficarum (Hammer of the witches). It stated that the sure signs of a witch were the devils mark or witches teats. This involve the physical inspection of a suspected persons body and was conducted only after shaving all of his or hers hair off, including the public area. It told frightening stories of women who would have sex with demons, kill babies, and even steal penises. It basically gave the definition of witchcraft as well as how to investigate, try and judge cases.

The idea of the devils mark was and an folk tail which was based in the idea that a witch had made a pact with the devil and because of that, he marked her body and gave her teats so she could suckle demons and evil spirits so if a person could find these marks, you could prove, with tangible evidence, that the person was a witch. They would then test the mark by piercing it with a needle or a pin and if pain were felt or the mark bled, there was not enough evidence the person was a witch. If, however, after poking the mark with a pin or needle the person did not fell pain or there was no blood, it was the acceptable view that the person might, in fact, be a witch. Another method was called swimming a witch and the theory was that water was pure and it would reject the evil in the witch causing her to float so an innocent person would sink. Needless to say, this test always ended with a victim. The Hammer of the Witch also encouraged torture as a way to get the accused person to confess to being a witch and also always ended in the death of the accused and was justified in the eyes of the law.

English magistrates considered witchcraft a crime against the Church and the State. From Henry the 8th forward, the King is the head of the Church meaning the political leader is also the head of the Church of England so when you turn your back on the God and the church, you are also turning your back on your King. This made witchcraft an act of treason and a capital offense. Witch hunts continued through the 17th century with neighbors accusing neighbors as thousands were murdered.

In 1629, King Charles the 1st of England granted a group called the Puritans a charter to settle and govern in English colony in Massachusetts Bay. Their goal was to create a new and more perfect society based on the principles of the Bible with no separation of church and state. The Puritans remained British citizens and continues to believe that witches existed. This idea of the existence of witches was central to their belief system and they thought about it on a regularly and were genuinely worried about witched living among them. It was no surprise that the Puritans engaged in witch hunts just as they had in England.

The first witch trial in Massachusetts was not in Salem but was actually in Charlestown in 1648 when a midwife and healer named Margaret was accused of witchcraft. It was believed that she could cause death and sickness with just her touch, foretell the future and that she had a witches teat. She was hanged in 1648 and although other cases followed, it would be 40 years before a witch trial would get widespread public attention. In 1688 four Boston children were presumed to be possessed by Goodwife “Goody” Ann Glover. She was an Irish slave sold to Oliver Cromwell in the 1650’s and her husband dies there. She moved to Boston where she becomes employed as a housekeeper. At some point, four of the five children became sick and their doctor found "nothing but a hellish Witchcraft could be the origin of these maladies."(SITE HERE) She was arrested, tried and convicted as a witch and sentenced to hang.

The investigator for this particular case was Cotton Mather, a Boston Minister, who wrote a book titled Memorable Provinces, in which he describes in detail the behavior of the witch and the possessed children. This particular book was believed to have had a huge effect on the people of Salem. About 500 people lived in Salem and they had strong religious practices. Add to their beliefs the circumstances in Salem at the time and you have a village that is ripe for conducting witch hunts of its own. At the core of the Puritanism was a strong belief that women were to be docile as mothers to their children and as servants to their husbands. They had the idea that a woman was submissive and simply by her very nature, a woman was more likely to enlist in the devils service. They were not allowed to be Ministers and therefore were more likely to join the devils cause.

One of the most traumatic events of colonial America was the witch hunt 1692. The documents such as arrest warrants and death orders from that time show about 160 cases of accusations but there are no transcripts of the actual trials. Historians pieced together from other, outside documents, what they believed lead up to the trials. It is believed it started in the kitchen of the Reverend Samuel Parris. In the winter of 1691 Reverend Parris were spending time away visiting people in the parish and so they left their daughter Elizabeth, who was nine, and her cousin Abigail Williams, who was 11, in the care of an Indian woman named Tituba. As she began to speak of her childhood she would share stories with the girls of magic and power. She even began to show them some tricks. The girls, even in their young age, knew this was something that she should not be doing and that they should keep quiet about. Well as the stories kept flowing, her audience grew to six more girls who would come to hear them. The girls then began to do things, such as scream out, attempt suicide, and throw things against walls, which brought concern from Reverend Parris so he had the doctor come examine them. The doctor found no physical symptoms and concluded this must be spiritual and under the evil hand of witchcraft. Because of the Puritans belief in witches, this was readily accepted because they believed that witches could convince other to become witches and interpreted the girls’ actions as physical attempts to fight to prevent themselves from becoming witches. At this point, the girls were pressured to indentify the witch whom had infected them and they eventually pointed out Tituba and because she was a slave, there would be no one that would stand up for her. The girls also pointed out two other women Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, this too was believable since neither one of these elderly women attended church.

On March 1, 692, the women were brought before an informal tribunal in order to establish if there was evidence of witchcraft. One significant difference between these court proceedings and our system today is the lack of involvement of lawyers. The accused was there were more depositions taken straight from accusers of crimes and a defendant was left trying to defend themselves against questioning from the judges.

The kind of evidence the Magistrate allowed in these proceedings played an important part in the trials that followed. All of a sudden they were willing to accept evidence that they would have never considered in previous witch trials in New England.

The most damaging decision of all was to allow spectral evidence, meaning the accused appeared only to the accuser in either some form or that of a specter that only the accuser could see. The girls began claiming they saw this with Sarah Good and that her specter tried to convince them to write in her book. With each denial from Sarah, the girls would cry and scream, claiming her specter was actually attacking them in the court. Needless to say, this was perceived as evidence that Sarah Good was in fact a witch. It would be the testimony y of Tituba that would change the course of the trial as she confesses almost immediately to doing witchcraft. Over the next three days, she would tell tales of talking animals and spectral visits to harm the children. She was basically telling them what she thought they wanted to hear. She told of a tall man from Boston who who told her to write her name in the devils book in blood. She was asked how many names were in the book. She told them nine names were in the book. Hers, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and six names she could not see. This shook everyone because it meant that there were more witches in the village. In this atmosphere the accusations began to spread, but now the girls were not just accusing women from lower standard, but now, no one was exempt from being accused.

It wasn’t until a matronly woman named Rebecca Nurse, who hardly fit the image of a witch, was accused did Salem begin to split on the issue. Most of those who supported her were from the East, had more liberal views and were better off financially. In general, accusers were of lower status and lived in the Western part of Salem. 30 people signed a petition attesting to her character.

The youngest person to be accused was Dorcus Good, the daughter to Sarah Good. It became clear at this point that something needed to be done as so the witch hunts moved from statements and depositions to official trials. The trails continued much as the preliminary hearings had with judges accepting testimony and spectral evidence as fact and the girls continued their finger pointing. They loved the attention they ere getting in a time and place when women had now voice. Here they were, having the ears and attention of men hanging on their every word. The authorities did not check the validity of their accusations and even more people were sent to their deaths.

Eventually the girls began to accuse people who not thought of to be witches such as men, children, ministers and the upper class. Rumors began to circulate that they were going to accuse the wives of Reverend Mather and Governor Phips, and with that, the girls had gone too far. The Governor dissolved the court and moved the trials to Superior Court. Spectral evidence was no longer allowed and the remaining people were acquitted. Tituba was sold back into slavery as a way to pay her expenses.

Five years passed before the Salem community recognized its mistakes and on January 16, 1697, they held a public fast and all twelve jurors signed a petition as a public showing of their repentance. There were other significant dates that followed. In 1702 a modest inquiry into witchcraft was published by John Hale that expressed one of the most profound apologies. In 1706, Ann Putnam Jr, blamed the devil for her actions in taking innocent lives. She was the only accuser to ever apologize. In 1711 the Commonwealth on Massachusetts reversed the verdicts of 22 of the 31 people convicted, restoring their civil rights. The state paid 600 pounds in restitution to the survivors and their families. It wasn’t until 1957 that the remaining nine sentences were reversed.

There are several things about this have repeated itself throughout history and even in today’s society where fear and ignorance overshadows reasoning and common sense. These events had a profound effect on the nation’s justice system causing it to never again presume someone guilty until proven innocent.

Famous American Trials. (2010). Retrieved September 17, 2010 from Salem Witch

Trails: http://www.law.umkc.edu/?faculty/?projects/?ftrials/?salem/?salem.htm.

Salem Witch Museum. (2010). Retrieved September 17, 2010 from Salem Witch

Trails: http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/?education/?index.shtml.

Goody Glovers. (2010). Retrieved September 17, 2010 from Goody Glovers Story:

http://www.goodyglovers.com/?history.html.

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Early Law During The Salem Witch Trials History Essay

 

“Hearsay, gossip, stories, unsupported assertions, surmises”, spectral evidence, the witch’s touch, and the witches mark. What about the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, or fourteenth Amendment protections? Not in the early days of the United States. Let us look at an example of early law: The Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials have a more profound explanation than what most people know, and before we take a look at the trials that occurred during the springtime of 1692 (Puritans, 2008).

We will start in the earlier days of what is known as the Puritan movement in England. The Puritan movement began around the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. Puritans religious beliefs centered on the word of G-D: The Bible. The difference though, centered on the beliefs and ideologies, and the way that the Puritans interpreted the Bible, to Puritans the Bible was the law. They took a very literal, word for word translation of what they thought the Law should be (Puritans, 2008).

Many of the laws that the early settlers of the States interpreted, came from Mosaic Law. In the textbook, American Legal History: Cases and Materials (2005) we get many examples of the Puritans incorporation of the Mosaic Law into their own statutes. Many of those laws can be seen in, “The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts” manuscript. As can be noted in the “Capital Law” section of the manuscript, many if not most of the punishments lead to death. Among those capital laws, as the second forbidden law, was, “If any man or woman be a witch, that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death” (Hall, Paul, & Ely, 2005). They included the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy as their source and reasoning. How did the Puritans end up in what they considered the New World?

Around the year 1520 English Protestant leaders began to demand that change happen within the England church; this was the start of the Puritan movement. Their demands were that the church and government be conducted according to the Bible. Among their demands were that the church be run by counsels and not through the hierarchy the Church of England had imposed. Moreover, the Puritans sought out a larger emphasis on prayer, bible reading, and sermons to take place during services. They also wanted prayers to be more personal and have more spiritual devotion to G-D, in contrast to the prescribed prayer that the England churches had adopted (Puritans, 2008).

By the year 1642 the Puritans gained much power in the Parliament and a civil war broke out, known as the “Puritan Revolution”. By 1649, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, the Puritans seized control of the government. During their reign the Puritans passed many unpopular statutes in England. Even though witch hunting and trials were practiced prior to the Puritan reign (Puritans, 2008). It was during their reign that the majority of witch trials and actual deaths occurred.

Between the years of 1649 to 1658,the time of the Puritans’ reign, the new Puritan government purportedly executed around 4000 witches (Carlson, 2000). Cromwell died in 1658, and by 1960 the Puritan reign ended. Many of the Puritans were not happy with the minimalistic changes taking place within the Church of England. They eventually left England for what we now know as the U.S.A. Many of those settlements happened in Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Among the settled colonies was Salem, Massachusetts (Puritans, 2008).

With the strong Puritan belief as G-D being the center of everything they did, and trying to live to the strict morals of the bible. It worked both to their advantage and disadvantage. Their strict and literal interpretation of the bible and its laws were almost impossible to adhere to. Each city’s church and their members were individually responsible for their relationship with G-D; actions were louder than words. Their belief in predestination led the Puritans to always strive to do well. Above all, they believed that the Devil was the root of all evil deeds; and because of that, it was a persistent teaching at sermons. Puritans, therefore, needed to be on constant alert to an act of evil. It led to one of the worst tragedies in the history of the U.S. (Puritans, 2008).

As a preface to the actual trials, Salem at this time, in 1692, was going through an economic struggle. Two of the more prominent families, the Putnam’s and the Porters’, were vying for political, social, and economical power. Salem was divided in two: Salem Village and Salem Town. The two sides were set apart by economy and class. Salem Village was also known as Salem Farms; whose citizens were know as poor farmers making their living from their hard work tending to the harvest. Salem Town, on the other hand, was considered the wealthy side of town. Most people in Salem Town were merchants. Moreover, those from Salem town dictated the prices of the crops that came from Salem Village; and on top of that they imposed taxes on them (Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010).

The cause to the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials appears to have started with the division that was happening inside Salem Village itself. Ipswich Road is the road that separated Salem Village from Salem Town. Those from Salem Village, which lived near Ipswich Road and the commerce that Salem Town offered, began to take on mercantile trades. As they began to prosper many of those who lived in the more rural areas believed that the prosperity of those near Ipswich Road came from the worldly influences from Salem Town; and in a village where they lived by a very rigid moral code; where something as small as falling asleep at church was considered a sin; and the sinner therefore must be punished. Such interaction with the town’s people was a threat to the Puritan way (Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010).

With all the socio-economic problems and division that were plaguing Salem Village at the time things took a turn for the worse in 1688. John Putnam invited Samuel Parris, a somewhat successful merchant and farmer from Barbados, to become the village minister. Mr. Parris was a strong proponent for the strict Puritan way. Moreover, Mr. Parris was in total opposition to witchcraft; and he was in agreement that the prosperity in Salem town was the work of the devil. It did not help that the rhetoric that he preached at his sermons further aliened those within the village. As researcher Kay Kizer said, “it was healthy dose of fear woven throughout the fabric of the literary construction”. Moreover, students were quizzed on the sermons both in their homes and while at school. To further engrave those ideologies within the children’s minds (Kizer, nd).

Of equal importance to this debacle was the fact that children had to live by the same moral code as the adults did. Toys were said to be a way to distract you from the worship of G-D, therefore most households contained no toys; and although children were taught to read, the only type of literature in a Puritan household were bibles and other religious books. The books that were for the children, only focused on the punishment that would come if they were to disobey the law of G-D (Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010).

With a little background to the Puritan way, along with the political struggles going on at this time in Salem, Massachusetts; I think that we can start to see how this could all have been an elaborate scheme to bring order to a town that had two separate visions for the future of Salem. Interestingly enough, most of the accusers were from the farmland areas of the village (those opposed to the interaction with “worldly” Salem Town). While those accused, happened to reside near Ipswich Road. The following paragraphs will present the facts through the course of this horrific episode of early law.

In the waning months of winter in 1692, Betty Parris, the daughter of new Minister Samuel Parris, came down with an atypical illness. She complained of a fever, had random jactations and very erratic behavior. One explanation of her symptoms was that it could have been related to child abuse, boredom, guilt or a combination thereof. Another diagnosis came from the research of Linda Caporael’s 1976 article in Science, of a disease called, “convulsive ergotism”, “caused by a fungus which invades developing kernels of rye grain, especially under warm and damp conditions such as existed at the time of the previous rye harvest in Salem” (Linder, nd).

The most prominent theory, and the on that was accepted as truth, came from a book recently published by Cotton Mather (Linder, nd). He was a minister in the town of Boston. He and his father Increase Mather were strong proponents to the hunting of witches. His book was titled, Memorable Providences, in which an eerily similar account occurred between three children and a washerwoman; she was accused and punished for supposedly being a witch. Cotton Mather also becomes a very prominent figure in the judges appointed to the witch trials (Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010).

In all there were seven girls: Ann Putman, Betty Parris, Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon and Marry Warren. All of who claimed to have been afflicted by witches. The first to be accused was a salve woman of Minister Parris, known as Tituba. Since Tituba was a stranger amongst those of Salem village, in a place were anyone who was different from them was not to be trusted. She was and obvious scapegoat for the village. Tituba was known for telling stories to the girls about omens, voodoo and witchcraft, it only solidified the villages’ case against her when a fellow village woman suggested that Tituba bake a “counter magic” cake that would supposedly counteract the “witch spell” the girls were experiencing (Linder, nd).

Shockingly, Tituba confessed to being a witch. Some say that it was because she really was. Other documents show that she only confessed because her owner, Mr. Parris beat her into confession and told her that if she were to confess that he would set her free (Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010). In her confession she named Sarah Good, a beggar and Sara Osborn, an old antagonistic woman who had not attended church service in over a year. Tituba claimed that she and the others would fly around on poles to meet with Satan, and that they had all signed his book to help torment the children. That was all the confession that was needed. It silenced most of those who thought that it was all a hoax, and led Parris and other local ministers on a full on witch-hunt (Linder, nd).

When the three ladies went to trial on March 1, 1692 it became a great deal. Hundreds had shown up. They had to move the trial to a place that would occupy the multitude. Many people started to speak of strange things happening when one of the newly accused witches had stopped for a visit. The girls described attacks by the spirits of the accused and even winched and contorted at the site of those accused of witchcraft. Magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne had already determined in their mind that the woman were guilty. Shortly thereafter the girls and Ann’s mother started to accuse that the ghosts of others were tormenting them. By the time Governor Phips returned, the jails were nearly full of accused witches. The Governor created a court called, “court of oyer and terminer” to deal with the witch trials (Linder, nd).

Five judges were appointed to the trials, three of them being close friend to Cotton Mather. The fourth, a gung-ho witch hunter named William Stoughton. Mather had a great influence in convincing the court that previous confession should be allowed. Along with the admission of “spectral evidence”, moreover, they allowed for the so-called “touch test” (it was assumed that if a witch touched someone they afflicted, they would be healed). They also allowed for the assessment of a defendants body. To see if they could find the “witches mark”, otherwise known as moles. Shortly thereafter the trials commenced (Linder, nd). Due to the immensity of the trials I will only give examples of trials that had a drastic impact on the village; some led to further accusations the people who were considered outsiders. While others lead to doubt amongst the village that perhaps the accusations were concocted and unjust.

One of the first accused of being a witch was Bridget Bishop. A sixty-year-old, woman tavern owner who didn’t like to pay her bills, and was disapproved by her neighbors. She was the type of social outcast that was prime for accusation of witchcraft. After all, villagers were allowed to satisfy their alcoholic indulgences at her tavern, even on a Sabbath, something that was regarded as a sacred to the Puritans. Many villagers came forth with accusations. She was accused off stealing eggs, transforming into a cat, being responsible for bad luck that had fallen upon them. She was even accused of making the side of a building fall off just by looking at it. It didn’t help her cause that other “confessed witches” testified that she indeed was a witch; and on June 10, 1692, she was hanged (Linder, nd).

Not all of those accused of being witches were of bad reputation. Many of those accused had a history of dissension with the Putnam family. Rebecca Nurse, who is said to have been a “respected woman”, was accused and found guilty; but only after Justice Stoughton had the juries re-evaluate their decision of finding her not guilty. Villagers dared not to dissent with those accusing or judging. For fear of being accused of being witches too. Such was the case of John and Elizabeth Proctor. A tavern owner himself, and once again in much quarrel with the Putnam family (Linder, nd).

John Proctor openly protested the accusation of Rebecca Nurse, and made a statement that would eventually seal his fate. After the investigation of Rebecca Nurse he stated, “If they [the afflicted girls] were let alone, so we should all be devils and witches.” He was the first man to be called a Wizard. At his wife’s trial, she was accused first, Mr. Proctor started to defend his wife, the girls immediately started to accuse him of wizardry. Both were imprisoned, and as he was in his cell he managed to write a letter to the Boston clergy, pleading that they take action claiming that, “we are all innocent”. He went on to say that the trials were unfair, and those who confessed only did so after being tortured. Although it raised awareness, it was too late for John Proctor; he was hanged August 19, 1692. His wife though was spared because she was pregnant with a child (Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010).

Another, Giles Corey suffered perhaps the most gruesome death. Giles Corey refused to go to trial; and as per the law at that time, if you refused a trial, the penalty was, “peine et fort” or, death by pressing. Perhaps the most significant hanging was that of George Burroughs. He was living in Maine at the time. Burroughs had over thirty accusers. He was claimed to have bewitched soldiers in 1688-1689, in a war against the Wabanakis, a tribe from the nearby lands. It was a failed war, and as historian Mary Beth Norton says in her book, In the Devil’s Snare that, “it is a key understanding to the Salem Trials” (as qouted in, Linder, nd).

Among the accusations, he is said to have flown one of his accusers to the top of a mountain and, “promised her all the kingdoms if she would sign his book”, sound familiar? Check Mathew 4:8. The greatest testament to the eventual change in these court cases happened before Burrows was hung. It was said that it was impossible for a witch (or wizard, in this case) to recite the Lords’ prayer, and Burrows recited it perfectly, causing the crowd to become “greatly moved”. Doubts began to blossom. With so many prominent people being accused; John Hale said, " It cannot be imagined that in a place of so much knowledge, so many in so small compass of land should abominably leap into the Devil's lap at once." (as qouted in, Linder, nd).

Soon thereafter, Increase Mather, the father of Cotton Mather enacted what was called, “America’s first tract on evidence”, and another work titled Cases of Conscience were Increase Mather says, “were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned." Although, it is said the his change of heart on witch hunting and hanging came about because he was informed that his wife was next to be accused.

Also works from a highly regarded minster in Boston, Samuel Willard, wrote a work called, Some Miscellany Observations, where he mentions that the devil could form a ghost from the image of the innocent. With that, Governor Phips ordered the court to no longer allow spectral evidence, the witch’s touch test, and that “clear and convincing evidence” was required for those accused of witchery. That is all it took, those that remained to be tried were all acquitted for lack of evidence; and by May of 1693 all those remaining in prison were released. And just like that the hysteria that swept through Salem in 1692 was over (Linder, nd).

In the end over two hundred people were imprisoned. Close to twenty four were hanged, squashed to death, or died while in their prison cells. There was not much remorse amongst those who were involved. Only one Judge fully confessed and apologized. Some jurors came forward and said that they were, “sadly deluded and mistaken”. Minister Parris was replaced, but never apologized. As for William Stoughton? Not only did he not apologize, he went on to say that if he had not been interrupted my Governor Phips- who only placed blame on others while never admitting to any fault of his own- he was about to clear the land of all witches (Linder, nd). Of the seven girls who started this hysteria, only Ann Putnam came forth in a confession. In it she states that she was used as an instrument for accusing innocent people. She goes on to say that, “it was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time” (as qouted in, Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria, 2010).

Many times we as individuals state that this country has a long way to go in becoming just. At times it may seem that we as a people in this country see the U.S as having a one step forward and two step backwards approach to the progress and equality of mankind, while that may hold some truth. Lest we desire to be in the times of early law as seen in the Salem Witch Trials. A time in which no Constitution or Bill of rights existed.

A time were no right to a counsel was guaranteed, no right to cross examine a witness, no manner in which to appeal, and the fear that you could be tortured into a confession; all lead to the simple joy that we should have to be able to say, yes we have progressed as a country. Albeit, at a slow and methodical cadence. We are blessed to have the protections that the Constitution affords us, to protect our freedoms and liberties against the full grasp of the government, much as was the intention of those who migrated and framed the Constitution.

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