The Use of Spectral Evidence in the Salem Witch Trials

In May 1692, William Phips, the new royal governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailed into Boston Harbor and was immediately faced with an unprecedented crisis. The colony was in the throes of a full-blown witchcraft panic. Dozens of accused witches had been jailed, new accusations continued to surface, and the colony was without a legal system to handle the cases.

Phips quickly established an emergency court, and in June, the Salem witch trials began. As the first suspects took the stand, controversial evidence about apparitions and visions soon played a key role in sending innocent men and women to their deaths.

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