What enabled the founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony to define the right to vote in this way? How did this change in 1684?

Legal and political aspects
1. Back in England, the accusatorial judicial procedure served to check the spread of witch
accusations, preventing the type of wide-scale witch-hunts we find in Continental Europe under the
inquisitorial procedure.
As an English colony, Massachusetts also used the accusatorial procedure. And yet in this instance,
several features of the accusatorial procedure ended up contributing to the spread of witch accusations
and thus the eruption of a full-on witch-hunt. How did each of the following features of the accusatorial
judicial procedure contribute to the spread and duration of the Salem witch panic? (The purpose of this
question is to enable you to make and see the connection.)
a) Prosecution is initiated only by accusation by private citizens [How did accusations contribute?]

b) Proceedings are held in public [How did the public nature of the judicial proceedings contribute,
including preliminary examinations?]

c) The accused are able to confront their accusers [How did the confrontation of accused and
accusers contribute?]

d) As with the inquisitorial procedure, conviction requires two eyewitnesses or confession, but
torture is not used to secure confessions. [How did confessions contribute?]

2. Originally in Massachusetts Bay Colony, only male church members who owned property could
vote. Why was this so crucial to the Puritan objective of creating a “godly society”?

2b. What enabled the founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony to define the right to vote in this way?
How did this change in 1684?

2c. Under the new royal Charter of 1691, who was to be allowed to vote? By whose authority?

Instructions:
1) please answer each question separatly and tag with their question number.

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