Read complete books and articles on: Salem Witch Trials

Salem - 1 City (1990 pop. 38,091), seat of Essex co., NE Mass., on an inlet of Massachusetts Bay; inc. 1629. Its once famous harbor has silted up. Salem has electronic, leather, and machinery industries, and tourists are drawn to its many historical landmarks. Many colonial buildings remain. Nathaniel Hawthorne's birthplace dates from the 17th cent., and the House of Seven Gables (1668) is preserved. Also of interest are Pioneer Village, a reproduction of early Salem; the Witch House (1642), where witch trial hearings were held; the Peabody Essex Museum, whose origins date to 1799, with outstanding art, historic buildings, and the Phillips Library's historical collections; and Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Salem State College is there.

In 1626, Roger Conant led a group from Cape Ann to this site, called Naumkeag by the Native Americans. Salem's early history was darkened by the witchcraft trials of 1692, in which Samuel Sewall was a judge; many of the victims came from the part of Salem that now is Danvers. Massachusetts exonerated all those accused in the trials in 1711. From colonial days through the clipper ship era, Salem was world famous as a port and a wealthy center for the China trade. It was a privateering base in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812. Shipping declined after the War of 1812, and the city turned to manufacturing. Hawthorne was overseer of the port from 1846 to 1849.

See history by J. D. Phillips (1937, repr. 1969); E. E. Elliot, The Devil & the Mathers (1989); L. W. Carlson, A Fever in Salem (1999); M. B. Norton, In the Devil's Snare (2002).

2 Town (1990 pop. 25,746), Rockingham co., SE N.H.; settled 1652, inc. 1750. It is a marketing and distribution center, with steel-fabricating, printing, electronic, shoe, and wood-product industries. Nearby is a racetrack, a glider airport, and Canobie Lake Park. Of interest is Mystery Hill, site of large stone structures believed to date from 2000 b.c.

3 City (1990 pop. 12,233), Columbiana co., NE Ohio, in a coal region; inc. 1806. Tools and dies, industrial machinery, appliances, and pumps are among its many diverse manufactures. Settled (1803) by Quakers, Salem was an early abolitionist center and an important station on the Underground Railroad. A branch of Kent State Univ. is there.

4 City (1990 pop. 107,786), state capital and seat of Marion co., NW Oreg., on the Willamette River; inc. 1857. In a dairying, stock-raising, and farming area, the growing city has numerous food-processing plants and electronics, wood, paper, metal, and cloth industries. Founded 1840–41 by Methodist missionaries, it became capital of Oregon Territory in 1851 and remained the capital when Oregon became a state in 1859. Salem is the seat of Willamette Univ., various state and federal government buildings, state hospitals, and the state penitentiary. Of note is the Neoclassic state capitol building (1937). The annual state fair is held in Salem.

5 City (1990 pop. 23,756), seat of Roanoke co., SW Va., on the Roanoke River, between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mts.; first inc. 1806, inc. as a city 1967. A variety of products, such as electrical equipment, steel items, and machinery, are manufactured there. Roanoke College is in the city.

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Salem Witch Trials

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Salem Witch Crisis » Read Now
by Larry Gragg. 228 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

The inclination of recent scholars has been to portray the people of 17th-century Massachusetts as helpless victims of powerful economic, social, and psychological forces. Many recent accounts cite entrenched sexual hostility, chronic generational conflicts, or the clash of capitalist and peasant...
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The inclination of recent scholars has been to portray the people of 17th-century Massachusetts as helpless victims of powerful economic, social, and psychological forces. Many recent accounts cite entrenched sexual hostility, chronic generational conflicts, or the clash of capitalist and peasant cultures. Rather than seeing the people of Salem Village and the surrounding communities as being swept along by the forces of historical change, Gragg makes a very strong case that the people involved (whether they were clergymen, judges, accusers, or the accused) were active participants, who made decisions that shaped the outcome of events in 1692.
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2.

The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials » Read Now
by Marion L. Starkey. 310 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

...Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials By MARION L. STARKEY...Corwins home and the witch prison in Salem. I had sound psychological...CHAPTER V Gospel Witch Now that...
3.

Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 » Read Now
by Richard Godbeer. 177 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Few events in American history are as well remembered as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. But there was another witch hunt that year, in Stamford, Connecticut, that has never been examined in depth. Now Richard Godbeer describes this "other witch hunt" in a concise, fascinating narrative that...
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Few events in American history are as well remembered as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. But there was another witch hunt that year, in Stamford, Connecticut, that has never been examined in depth. Now Richard Godbeer describes this "other witch hunt" in a concise, fascinating narrative that illuminates the colonial world and shatters the stereotype of early New Englanders as quick to accuse and condemn. That stereotype originates with Salem, which was in many ways unlike other outbreaks of witch-hunting in the region. Drawing on eye-witness testimony, Godbeer tells the story of Kate Branch, a seventeen-year-old afflicted by strange visions and given to blood-chilling wails of pain and fright. Branch accused several women of bewitching her, two of whom were put on trial for witchcraft. The book takes us inside the courtroom--and inside the minds of the surprisingly skeptical Stamford townfolk. Was the pain and screaming due to natural causes, or to supernatural causes? Was Branch simply faking the symptoms? And if she was bewitched, why believe her specific accusations, since her information came from demons who might well be lying? For the judges, Godbeer shows, the trial was a legal thicket. All agreed that witches posed a real and serious threat, but proving witchcraft (an invisible crime) in court was another matter. The court in Salem had become mired in controversy over its use of dubious evidence. In an intriguing passage, Godbeer examines Magistrate Jonathan Selleck's notes on how to determine the guilt of someone accused of witchcraft--an illuminating look at what constituted proof of witchcraft at the time. The stakes were high--if found guilty, the two accused women would be hanged. In the afterword, Godbeer explains how he used the trial evidence to build his narrative, an inside look at the historian's craft that enhances this wonderful account of life in colonial New England.
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4.

Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 » Read Now
by George Lincoln Burr. 472 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

...October 12, 1692: the Witch Panic as he found...Relation to the Salem Trials 213...England colonies witch-trials first appear. Of...documents of the two witch-trials...
5.

Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts » Read Now
by Richard Weisman. 267 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library
6.

Witchcraft (Chap. 9 "Salem") » Read Now
by Charles Alva Hoyt, Beatrice R. Moore. 190 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
7.

Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England (Chap. 6 "The Tongue is a Witch") » Read Now
by Jane Kamensky. 292 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Colonial New Englanders would have found our modern notions of free speech very strange indeed. Children today shrug off harsh words by chanting "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me," but in the seventeenth century people felt differently. "A soft tongue breaketh the...
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Colonial New Englanders would have found our modern notions of free speech very strange indeed. Children today shrug off harsh words by chanting "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me," but in the seventeenth century people felt differently. "A soft tongue breaketh the bone," they often said. Governing the Tongue explains why the spoken word assumed such importance in the culture of early New England. Author Jane Kamensky re-examines such famous Puritan events as the Salem witch trials and the banishment of Anne Hutchinson to expose the ever-present fear of what the puritans called "sins of the tongue." But even while dangerous or deviant speech was restricted, Kamensky points out, godly speech was continuously praised and promoted. Congregations were told that one should ones voice "like a trumpet" to God and "cry out and cease not." By placing speech at the heart of familiar stories of Puritan New England, Kamensky develops new ideas about the relationship between speech and power both in Puritan New England and, by extension, in our world today.
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8.

Puritanism in Early America (includes "The Devil and Cotton Mather") » Read Now
by George M. Waller. 115 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

...its leader, Roger Conant, it moved to Salem in search of better land. To this little...The Mathers, father and son, and the Salem witchcraft mania are recurrent...
9.

The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New England » Read Now
by Increase Mather, Cotton Mather. 291 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

...minister of Salem, and some black...prosecutions. The trials began at the...of being the witch. Cotton Mather...seven of the trials at Salem, compares the...though the...
10.

A Quest for Security: The Life of Samuel Parris, 1653-1720 (Chap. 6 "Under an Evil Hand: The Witchcraft Crisis" and Chap. 7 "A Summer of Trials and Executions") » Read Now
by Larry Gragg, Jon L. Wakelyn. 220 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

A Quest for Security is the first book-length biography of Samuel Parris, the man who led the 1692 struggle against the scourge of witchcraft. While an examination of Samuel Parris's actions reveals his crucial part in the witchcraft crisis, this biography also serves as a reminder of the concern of...
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A Quest for Security is the first book-length biography of Samuel Parris, the man who led the 1692 struggle against the scourge of witchcraft. While an examination of Samuel Parris's actions reveals his crucial part in the witchcraft crisis, this biography also serves as a reminder of the concern of early Americans to sustain economic independence for their families. Fully documented with endnotes and featuring a complete bibliography of primary and secondary works, this volume fills a noticeable gap in the literature on Salem witchcraft.
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11.

The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut, 1647-1697 » Read Now
by John M. Taylor. 172 pgs.

Collections: History, Psychology, Entire Library

...been hung in Salem." What were...to hold the witch trials, and early...some of the witch-gang have...publication of these trials may promote...responsibility at Salem may...
12.

A Miscellany of American Christianity: Essays in Honor of H. Shelton Smith (includes "Puritan Character in The Witchcraft Episode Of Salem") » Read Now
by Stuart C. Henry. 394 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...Thornwell PAUL LESLIE GARBER Agnes Scott College 95 Puritan Character in the Witchcraft Episode of Salem STUART C. HENRY The Divinity School, Duke University 138 John...
13.

Conde's I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, in The Explicator » Read Now
by Hugh W. Hancock. 3 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library