As a descendant of Mary (TOWNE) ESTEY, I have a verify, verify, verify approach to family history and primary sources are always part of the quest. This consulting of these afflicted children, as abovesaid, seems to me to be a very grosse evill, a real abomination, not fitt to be known in N.E.”. Mather’s letters to the Salem judges and to his grandfather are also available on the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project website. In the book, Mather argued that specters could take the shape of innocent people and therefore rendered spectral evidence invalid. ♦ Cause of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits by Increase Mather. Mather referenced scriptures from the Bible and historical stories to illustrate his point: “Argu I. Collection of primary source materials relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a new transcription of the court records. [Cambridge, Mass. Map of Salem Village, 1692 Map of Andover Map of Salem, 1700 Map of ... 2018 by Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia The material presented in the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive is provided freely for non-commercial educational purposes. Most of the links will take you to He was replaced by Joseph Green, who wrote all of the records from 1697 to 1753 during the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials. Mather’s entire collection of papers are also located in the records of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Available from Hanover Historical Texts Project. The following is a list of primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials: (Disclaimer: This article contains Amazon affiliate links. Mather’s collection of papers include a number of letters and diary entries related to the Salem Witch Trials, such as his many letters to the judges of the trials, his letters to the other ministers involved in the trials and his letters to his grandfather, John Cotton. Select primary source materials from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries pertaining to European witch hunts. Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 by George Lincoln Burr Mather’s book was published in late October of 1692, after the ban had taken affect but included a disclaimer explaining that the book was authorized by the colonial government. The manuscript circulated widely in Boston before it was finally published. Salem witch trials, (June 1692–May 1693), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted “witches” to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Danvers, Massachusetts). All other uses require advance permission from the project originators. Brattle also argues that consulting with the afflicted girls for information on their alleged supernatural knowledge is absurd: “It is true, I know no reason why these afflicted may not be consulted as well as any other, if so be that it was only their natural and ordinary knowledge that was had recourse to: but it is not on this notion that these afflicted children are sought onto; but as they have a supernatural knowledge; a knowledge which they obtain by their holding correspondence with spectres and evill spirits, as they themselves grant. He seems to be what he is not, and makes others seem to be what they are not…Third scripture to our purpose is that, in Re: 12 10 where the devil is called the accuser of the brethren…”. The many secondary sources of the Salem Witch Trials offer some much needed analysis and interpretations of this complicated event.. Related Museums/Attractions After Burroughs was pushed off the ladder and hanged, Mather reassured the crowd that Burroughs wasn’t an ordained minister and that he was in fact guilty, which seemed to appease them and allowed the remaining executions that day to continue. Written in 1697 and published in 1700, this book by Boston cloth merchant Robert Calef denounces the Salem Witch Trials and Cotton Mather’s role in it. On December 14, 1695, Sheriff George Corwin arrested Maule for printing the pamphlet “without license of authority”, and seized the 31 copies in his possession. Witchcraft Collection at the Cornell University Library website, Sampler (left) made by Mary (Hollingworth) English, This website is a free portal to make it easier to access the on-line primary sources -- both in transcription and facsimile images -- of the Salem Witch Trials located at other websites on the internet. On October 8, 1692, Thomas Brattle, a Boston merchant, wrote a letter to an unnamed English clergyman in which he criticized the Salem Witch Trials. Parris’ records also mention the absence of many of the dissenting parishioners during and after the trials, the excommunication of Martha Corey after her conviction of witchcraft and the efforts by some of the parishioners to remove Parris from his position due to his involvement in the trials. Keep Reading. Published around November or December of 1692, but postdated to 1693 to comply with Phip’s ban, this book by Increase Mather criticizes the court’s use of spectral evidence and other evidence, such as the touch test. June 10, 2017 Salem Witch Trials Legal Documents Project Historian Margo Burns discussed primary sources from the Salem Witch Trials compiled in a … The letter was later published in a number of books, such as Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases 1648-1706 by George Lincoln Burr and What Happened in Salem: Documents Pertaining to the 17th Century Witchcraft Trials by David Levin. This is a great web resource with lots of information, including some primary sources, on the Salem Witch Trials from The University of Virginia. The book was written as a response to Cotton Mather’s book Wonders of the Invisible World and contains evidence not presented in the trials, such as the juror’s apologies and some of the accuser’s confessions of lying. The Salem Witch Trials Reader. Mather goes on to explain that a witch who had been executed 40 years prior had warned the Massachusetts Bay Colony of a “horrible plot against the country by witchcraft” which Mather states finally seems to have been uncovered in Salem, the first settlement of the colony: “And we have now with horror seen the discovery of such witchcraft! It is not known what Corwin thought of the letter since there is no record of a reply or response. Rebecca Beatrice Brooks is the author and publisher of the History of Massachusetts Blog. These sources include official court records as well as several books, diaries and letters written by the various people involved in the trials. This is the sub part of the website. For example, in his March 27, 1692 sermon, Parris preached that the Devil had infiltrated the church: “Our Lord Jesus Christ knows how many Devils there are in his Church, & who they are…. The Salem Witch Trials Reader. These court records are available on the website of the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project and were also published in a book, titled The Salem Witchcraft Papers which was edited by Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Print. Abigail Williams: The Mysterious Afflicted Girl. Before its publication, Mather added a postscript that strongly supported the use of confessions as evidence, stating: “More than one or two of those now in prison, have freely and credibly acknowledged their communion and and familiarity with the spirits of darkness.”, ♦ Truth Held Forth & Maintained by Thomas Maule. All 11 volumes of Sewall’s diaries are located in the records of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, Massachusetts and were also later published in a multi-volume book, titled the Diary of Samuel Sewall. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Most of the primary source materials (statutes, transcripts of court records, contemporary accounts) are available electronically. The book discusses various witchcraft cases in New England from 1648 to 1692 and includes the events that led up to the Salem Witch Trials, many of which Hale witnessed firsthand. Calef wrote the book after a visit to Salem in the spring and summer of 1692, during which he witnessed and described many of the events of the trials, such as some of the executions. Even if an apparition was real, it is impossible to know whether it is real or a delusion. Read the Document That Condemned a Woman to Death in the Salem Witch Trials An original, extremely rare document from one of the Salem witch trials in … The majority of these primary sources were critical of the trials and made strong arguments against how the trials were conducted. The Salem Village Church record books are in the Danvers Archival Center, First Church Collection, in Danvers, Mass and were also published in a book, titled Salem-Village Witchcraft which was edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Some historians have accused Parris of causing the Salem Witch Trials by preaching many frightening and foreboding sermons that may have possibly caused panic among his anxious and stressed parishioners. Malleus Maleficarum (1486) This is the best known (i.e., the most infamous) of the witch-hunt manuals. There are several scriptures from which we may infer the possibility of what is affirmed. Some of the events described in the book include how some of the “afflicted girls” dabbled in folk magic and fortune-telling techniques shortly before they became ill, what the afflicted girls symptoms were, how Tituba baked a “witch cake” with the help of a neighbor to identify who was bewitching the girls, how Tituba’s confession prompted officials to examine more suspects and also includes brief mentions of other accused Salem witches. Historian Elizabeth Reis analyzes testimony from the Salem Witch Trials, looking at what both confessions and denials say about religious and social norms among the Massachusetts communities involved. Published in 1695, this 260 pamphlet by Salem shopkeeper Thomas Maule criticizes the Puritan leaders of Massachusetts Bay for their treatment of Quakers and for their mismanagement of the Salem Witch Trials. “Deodat Lawson, ‘Witchcraft in Salem’ (1704).” Jon Miller, www.jonmiller.org/materials/2006/05/deodat_lawson_w.htmlGoss, David K. Documents of the Salem Witch Trials. I. For Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light. Hale concludes the book by stating that it was Satan, not witches, who hurt and tormented the afflicted girls. More Wonders of the Invisible World. Researching the Salem Witch Trials is easier than it used to be. ♦ More Wonders of the Invisible World by Robert Calef. Calef then concludes the book by stating that Mather’s actions were “highly criminal” and his beliefs in witches and witchcraft made him “guilty of of sacrilege in the highest nature…”. Thank you! In the book, Mather states that New England is under attack by the Devil and argues these instances of witchcraft are proof of that claim. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/07/the-witches-of-salem The New Yorker does a great job providing an in-depth look into how the Salem Witch Trials came to be. The Salem witch trials have gripped American imaginations ever since they occurred in 1692. Three Salem Women: The Stories of Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator and Bridget Bishop. Great from NHD thank you. Some historians argue that the book doesn’t reflect how Mather really felt about the trials since his personal letters and diaries reflect a much more cautious view of spectral evidence and of the trials in general. Reverend Samuel Parris, pastor of the Salem Village church, delivered a series of sermons between 1689 and the autumn of 1692 related to the Salem Witch Trials. In the letter, Brattle criticizes the methods in which the accused are examined, points out the unreliablity of confessions from the accused, denounces the use of spectral evidence and criticizes the practice of relying on the “afflicted girls” for information on suspected witches. A Modest Inquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft by John Hale. Travelers’ accounts of their journeys, encounters with various Native Americans, the landscape, and much more. Written in 1697 and published posthumously in 1702, this book by John Hale, who was the pastor of the Church of Christ in Beverly, Mass, is a critique of the Salem Witch Trials. Colonial Williamsburg: Online Collections Th… Most Americans’ knowledge of the seventeenth century comes from heavily mythologized events: the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth, Pocahontas purportedly saving Captain John Smith from execution in early Virginia, and the Salem witch trials of 1692. Essays, primary documents, biographical sketches, chronology, images, and other documents relating to the 1692 trials for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts Check-out the new Famous Trials website at www.famous-trials.com : Advanced search features are useful if you want to find a particular explorer, expedition, or settlement. Through its extensive use of primary source materials and provision of essential accompanying explanations, this book places readers into the context of late 17th-century Salem society to shed light on one of the darkest events in American history--the Salem witch trials. ♦ The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England by Cotton Mather. Use “Find a Document” and then “Select a Field” followed by “Select a Topic” to help narrow your search. Morgan, Edmund S. Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea. The primary sources of the Salem Witch Trials offer a wealth of information on these infamous trials. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2003. Secondary sources are either books, articles or other documents written long after a historical event has occurred by people who were not present at the event or not alive during that time period. Hale later attended many of the court cases, often prayed with the accused and supported the work of the court but ultimately reconsidered his support when his wife, Sarah Noyes Hale, was herself accused of the crime on November 14, 1692. "Sarah Bishop." This book represents the first comprehensive record of all legal documents pertaining to the Salem witch trials, in chronological order. Sources:Calef, Robert. What caused this conflict to erupt? Many of these primary sources were published in the latter half of 1692, while the trials were still going on. DaCapo Press, 2000.Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706. The book is considered both a justification for and an official defense of the verdicts in the Salem Witch Trials. Salem Witchcraft Hysteria: An Original National Geographic Interactive Feature This interactive site simulates the terrifying experience of being accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692. It allows students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on the nature of beliefs and behaviours, the role of the authorities and legal restraint, attitudes of communities or the role of women in society. After spending a month in Salem, Parris returned to Boston where the manuscript was published by Boston publisher Benjamin Harris and “sold at his shop, over-against the Old-Meeting-House.,1692.”. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Sometimes it is used for vile & wicked persons, the worst of such, who for their villany & impiety do most resemble Devils & wicked Spirits.”. Samuel Sewall was one of the judges of the court of Oyer and Terminer, which was a special court set up to hear the Salem Witch Trials cases. Published in mid-October of 1692, this 16-page book by Samuel Willard criticizes the use of spectral evidence in the Salem Witch Trials. American Journeys Expansive and easy to use, this site is a dream for anyone interested in European and Euro-American exploration of North America. Maule was finally tried in 1696 and acquitted of all charges. In fact, Calef’s description of the execution site was one of many sources that later helped researchers identify Proctor’s Ledge as the site of the hangings in 2016. Pike’s letter to Corwin was later republished in a number of books, such as Salem Witchcraft by Charles W. Upham and The New Puritan: New England Two Hundred Years Ago by James Shephard Pike. On August 9, 1692, Robert Pike, the Massachusetts Bay councilor and Salisbury magistrate, wrote a personal letter to Judge Corwin expressing his concerns with the admission of spectral evidence in the trials. Selected excerpts of Sewall’s diaries related specifically to the Salem Witch Trials, from volume five of his diary, are available on the website of the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. This document collection includes various documents relating to the witch craze in 17th century England. The link of the website is http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_REC.HTM The author discusses … ♦ Robert Pike Letter to Judge Jonathan Corwin. Mather finished writing the book on October 3, 1692 and sent it to Governor Phips and presented a summary of the book to the assembly of ministers in Boston for their approval. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The remaining copies were ordered to be burned. Wonders of the Invisible World by Cotton Mather. Since this type of behavior was so unusual for young children in Puritan society, Lawson decided to dig deeper into the events at Salem village and, as a result, wrote what became the first eyewitness account of the Salem Witch Trials. Robert Calef points out, in his own book More Wonders of the Invisible World, that Mather’s language in the book shows that the work was actually more propaganda than it was a historical account and that Mather wrote it as he did solely to please the government officials who had appointed him to write it: “Martin is called one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world; in his account of Martha Carrier, he is pleased to call her a rampant hag, & c. These expressions, as they manifest that he wrote more like an advocate than an historian, so also that those that were his employers were not mistaken in their choice of him for that work…” Calef (276). The book was also listed as having been published in Philadelphia when it was actually published in Boston as another way to avoid prosecution. In 1704, Lawson wrote another account of the Salem Witch Trials, a sermon titled “Christ’s Fidelity the only Shield against Satan’s Malignity,” aka “Witchcraft in Salem,” which was published in London in 1704. "The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project consists of an electronic collection of primary source materials relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a new transcription of the court records." Pike also points out how illogical it is that these accused witches would plead innocent but then incriminate themselves by using witchcraft openly in the courtroom, as the accusers stated they were doing, and suggests that the accusers were delusional or possibly possessed. Visit this site's About page to find out more about Rebecca. Primary Source Text Confessions of Dorothy Faulkner, Abigail Faulkner, Jr., et al. In the letter, Pike argues that spectral evidence is unreliable because these alleged visions and apparitions are “more commonly false and delusive than real, and cannot be known when they are real and when feigned.”. ABC-CLIO, 2018.“Samuel Sewall Diaries, 1672-1729.” Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0243“17th Century Documents & Books.” Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, University of Virginia, salem.lib.virginia.edu/17docs.html“Deodat Lawson: A Brief and True Narrative.” History Department, Hanover College, history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/212law.html“A Guide to the On-Line Primary Sources of the Salem Witch Trials.” 17th Century Colonial New England, www.17thc.us/primarysources/. Boston then counters that this argument is tricky because it is possible to be both bewitched and possessed at the same time: “I dispute not that ; though I find force to be very confused in this point : but supposing them bewitched, they may be possessed too: and it is an ordinary thing for a possession to be introduced by a bewitching, as there are many instances in history do confirm.”. The devil himself can appear in the shape of a person without their knowledge.3. This is part of the Famous American Trials site of Douglas O. Linder at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Bridget Bishop, Hanged, June 10, 1692. Salem Witch Trials, 1692 A collection with chronology, biographies, maps, examinations, evidence, letters plus a challenging Jeopardy game! This is a really good cite. Caption: "Arresting a Witch." University of Virginia Press, 2015.Miller, Jon. At the end of the 17th century, after years of mostly resisting witch hunts and witch trial prosecutions, Puritans in New England suddenly found themselves facing a conspiracy of witches in a war against Satan and his minions.

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