SOURCE: "Accusations and Confessions," in The Devil's Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966, pp. 102-30.

In the essay below, Hoffer analyzes Hawthorne's involvement in the preliminary hearings, or "examinations," of the Salem witchcraft trials.

… In the courthouse in Salem, [Jonathan] Corwin and [John] Hathorne had heard civil suits, appointed administrators of estates, and punished those presented for misdemeanors in the village. They knew all the men and women who would appear before them as witnesses, accusers, and defendants in the witchcraft cases.²¹ Corwin had opposed the Dominion of New England and Andros; Hathorne briefly joined its political councils. Both men had served long as selectmen of the town and were familiar with the village's troubles. Both had opposed severing the village from the town, pitting them against the Putnams. Hathorne was related by marriage to the Porters, but the relation had deprived him...