What ten things are historically accurate in The Scarlet Letter novel?

Question

any sources would be great.

Answer 1

Crap! ten things?

Ok...I'll try only cause no one else has given it a go...
Hawthorne claims it's based on an actual person who he found papers about in that whole intro custom house thing, but it's not true or at least their is no evidence he was telling the truth.

The harshness / hypocrisy and representation of Puritan society as a whole is pretty accurate.

Hester was sent ahead of her husband. This immigration pattern was practiced, and people did get lose at sea and perish, but I don't know if the whole living with Indians thing was accurate, probably since they were more hospitable than Puritans.

Hester sews damn near everything she wears, accurate depiction of genderized frontier work.

And wonderful Wikipedia has this to add:
"Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1 - The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591-1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritans and exiled from Boston and moved to Rhode Island.[4]

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.

Governor of Massachusetts Colony in 1641, 1654, and 1665-1672, is the actual historical figure Biddie King. "

Hope this helps!