From Internet:
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that "no person
... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."
The right was created in reaction to the excesses of the Courts of Star
Chamber and High Commission—British courts of equity that operated
from 1487-1641. These courts utilized the inquisitorial method of
truth-seeking as opposed to the prosecutorial, meaning that prosecutors
did not bear the burden of proving a case, but that sufficient "proof" came
from browbeating confessions out of the accused.