Rosenthal, Salem Story, Chs 5 - 10.

Answer THREE of the following questions:

1. What do you think is Rosenthal's purpose in separating the Sarah Good and Rebecca Nurse of-the-documents from the folklore that has developed around these two figures? How does Rosenthal explain why the petitions for Rebecca Nurse's innocence had no effect on the court and why the jury's judgment of her innocence did not prevail?
 

2. Confessors:
Why did people lie to the court and confess their complicity with the devil? What was the eventual consequence of all these confessions? Why weren't the confessors tried, as Mary Easty suggested?
 

3. Thomas Brattle's October Letter:
If Brattle's "Letter" reflects widespread opinion against the trials  --  what are it's most telling points? Who were the people who took the necessary steps to the stop the trials --  the Governor, several ministers, President of Harvard College, Thomas Brattle  -- and why did they do so?  Could the trials have been stopped sooner? Rosenthal argues that they could have been stopped at various points, so why weren't they?

4. What does Rosenthal point to as the social and legal forces that sustained the trials for so long? Surprisingly, Rosenthal does not blame the Puritan ministers for sustaining the trials nor does he blame popular "superstition" -- why? After the trials were over, how did the Puritan authorities justify not bringing the accusers to legal account, after admitting that everyone convicted and executed for witchcraft was innocent and the charges were false?  Explain