How did the Salem Witch Trials have an impact on history? & Where can I find primary sources on this topic?

Question

I am doing this for my history day project & I was told I needed to add more.

So far I have that the trials took place in the 1600's and it helped stop all the commotion about the trials.

Thanks :)

And if you know of any good primary sources that would be helpful as well :) I've already looked on the internet and I can't reach a library. I'm looking for news articles around that time as well as anything written about the trials such as journal entries. ?

Answer 1

First, a few responses to the other answers given and to other things you commonly hear about the trials:

a) there are many wildly mistaken claims and accusations made about what happened before and during these trials, partly out of ignorance, partly out of disdain or malice toward the Puritans (hence, willingness to believe the worst).

b) some of the popular (mis)understanding of the trials is based on works with completely different agendas. For example, Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible", while ostensibly about the Salem Witch Trials, is really his own attack on the McCarthy hearings, etc. in the 1950s. He didn't even really attempt to 'get the facts straight'

c) NONE of those convicted were burned -- executions were by hanging (If Jane Yolen's book speaks of "burning at the stake," as the blurb linked to suggests, it is utterly mistaken and unreliable. In fact, Yolen's kids book is hardly a good scholarly resource, and obviously not the place to go for "primary sources")

d) (cf. 2b below) top church leaders did NOT 'run the show', did not instigate the affair... but rather played a significant role in bringing it all to an end

e) the trials were actually an ANOMALY -- though there were other witchcraft trials in New England (and also in England and other places around this time..so it was NOT a "Puritan thing"), none got out of hand this way. In fact, in MOST cases people accused were NOT convicted (and NEVER just based on an accusation), and to FALSELY accused was serious business and so less likely to occur.

As for the wikipedia article...I find it, like many wikipedia offerings, a mixed bag -- overview covers a lot, very good at some points, quirky and questionable on others... and i's often hard for those unfamiliar with the questions to sort out what's reliable and what isn't. THIS wikipedia article, from what I've seen, is chock full of silly caricatures of Puritan beliefs (about predestination, women, etc) and very UN-reliable.

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Another important HISTORICAL note which may help with your "IMPACT" question.

The 17th century was a time during which standard of evidence of proof were becoming stronger and better defined. As courts became clearer on these things, and more demanding, false accusations were more easily prevented. In fact, it was THIS trend more than anything to do with religious beliefs that led witchcraft trials to basically die out very shortly after this, in England as well is in the colonies. The Salem trials were a PART of this whole process. More specifically, the decision toward the end of the trials that the court would NOT accept certain types of evidence --esp. "spectral evidence" (see more below)-- brought the trials to a quick end... and, together with shock, abhorrence and shame about the matter**, led to the end of such trials.

** Something many folks unfortunately miss is the steps taken by the church and community AFTER the trials to seek to make restitution to the families wronged in this whole affair.
(see the Starkey book below, and the one on Judge Sewall)

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SOURCES of GOOD information --

I've tried to collect a number of sources on this question, esp. online ones (as you requested), but along with or even before you look at these, here is a book that I think tries to take a sympathetic look at the various people involved, and unlike many studies, looks at what people did to correct, forgive and heal afterwards. Yes, it's dated (more recent research can counterbalance that), but it tells the basic story well and gives you a sense of the people.
-- The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey, 1949.


Here are my other suggestions for your study -

1) Collections of materials and overview, including court documents (PRIMARY sources!!)

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm **
http://www.salemwitchtrials.org/home.html
"Teaching the Salem Witch Trials -
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~bcr/maps_esri/Ray_ch02.pdf

** by Douglas Linder, see esp. the excellent opening, summary article-
"The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary"
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

book
In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton (2002)

2) Participants with warnings, misgivings (including the actual writings of these people)

a) Some information, often missed, on how the Mathers warned AGAINST the use of spectral evidence (Cotton Mather's pamphlet warning against witchcraft is often noted and blamed as a partial cause of events at Salem, but his father's counsel NOT to use this evidence is often forgotten)
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/salem/people/i_mather.html
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_INC.HTM

b) Interesting material on Samuel Sewall, a judge in the trials who, five years later, made a public apology (also an early abolitionist)

summary
http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/radler/ColonialEarly%20AmLit/samuel_sewall1.htm

a recent book -
*Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of an American Conscience* by Richard Francis (HarperCollins, 2005)
http://www.amazon.ca/Judge-Sewalls-Apology-American-Conscience/dp/product-description/0007163622

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How did the Salem Witch Trials have an impact on history? & Where can I find primary sources on this topic?
I am doing this for my history day project & I was told I needed to add more.

So far I have that the trials took place in the 1600's and it helped stop all the commotion about the trials.

Thanks :)

And if you know of any good primary sources that would be helpful as well :) I've...

Answer 3

id say google it but the salem witch trials were the worst case of witch histeria in America. I kmow there were a lot of exucutions 2 plus it made people believ there were actuql witches and made the people afriad as too what their neighbors did and what they did


and based what that other awnserer wote my name is heidi!!

Answer 4

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