In order to defend its actions, the Massachusetts government asked Boston minister Cotton Mather to write a book about the trials in which he justified the trials and the way they were conducted. The majority of these primary sources were critical of the trials and made strong arguments against how the trials were conducted. Many historians have pointed out that this ban is essentially the first government cover up in American history and was designed to stifle the growing opposition to the trials because it was a threat to the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. “I have also put a stop to the printing of any discourses one way or another, that may increase the needless disputes of people upon this occasion, because I saw a likelihood of kindling an inextinguishable flame if I should admit any public and open contests.” Hoping to stop further arrests and to calm the hysteria, Governor Phips banned the publication of all books regarding the Salem Witch Trials in late October of 1692, as he explained in a letter to William Blathwayt of the Privy Council: Many of these primary sources were published in the latter half of 1692, while the trials were still going on. These sources include official court records as well as several books, diaries and letters written by the various people involved in the trials.
The primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials offer a wealth of information on these infamous trials.
0 kommentar(er)
