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Salem witch trials documentary archive and transcription project
Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
http://etext.virginia. edu/salem/witchcraft/
Created and maintained by Benjamin Ray, University of Virginia.
Reviewed Dec. 7, 2002—Jan. 17, 2003.
A boon to all students and scholars of early American history, the Salem Witch Trials Web site is far superior to any other resource available on the Internet for this endlessly fascinating topic. Benjamin Ray originally created the site for use in teaching, later expanding it significantly with substantial funding from NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities).
“Examination of a Witch”
Thompkins H. Matteson, 1853.
Most notably, the site contains in keyword-searchable format the entire contents of Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s three-volume edition of The Salem Witchcraft Papers (1977), which was based on transcriptions prepared by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, and keyword-searchable texts of several important accounts reprinted in George Lincoln Burr’s Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases (1914). The site also contains images of most of the original legal documents and reproduces significant contemporary critiques of the trials. Also useful, if somewhat difficult to manipulate efficiently, are maps of Salem Village and Andover, showing the residences of accusers, accused, and witnesses. Additional items available on the site include excerpts from later fiction and poetry relevant to the trials, nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists' conceptions of the events of 1692, brief biographies of some of the accusers and accused, an interactive map of the village illustrating the accusations in March 1692, and information on a planned new edition of the legal records, with an ongoing list of corrections to the extant transcripts.
I used the site extensively while writing my recent book, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (2002), to check my own notes on the Boyer-Nissenbaum edition against the original documents, for it has long been known that the WPA transcripts contain many errors and omissions. Most of those mistakes are small, but some are crucial, so I found that having the originals readily available—and to be able to see them in different magnifications if necessary—was of tremendous assistance.
It is easy to use either the searchable transcriptions or the originals online, especially if in the latter case the historian already knows what archive holds the documents (understandably, the images of those documents are grouped by archive and sometimes divided by collection). Yet navigating the site internally to compare the published transcription to the image of the same document is time-consuming and difficult. There is no way to move directly from one to the other—they are under different headings on the site—nor does the transcription indicate the location of the original. Thus, if one starts from the printed version, one must go back to the home page and then into the archival section before searching separate indices to find the required image. Even the best case involves four steps to access the document; the worst could take eight or more.
Nevertheless, the many benefits of this site far outweigh the failings of its internal navigation system. Ben Ray and NEH have done historians a great service by making these materials so readily accessible to all.
Mary Beth Norton
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Satan & Salem
The result of a perfect storm of factors that culminated in a great moral catastrophe, the Salem witch trials of 1692 took a breathtaking toll on the young English colony of Massachusetts. In Satan and Salem, Benjamin Ray offers the most nuanced view yet of why the Salem witch-hunt spiraled out of control. His historical database of court records, documents, and maps yields a unique analysis of the geographic spread of accusations and trials, allowing Ray to assemble portraits of several major characters, each of whom had complex motives for accusing his or her neighbors—and, ultimately, contributing to the most devastating episode of witch trials on this side of the Atlantic.
“At least once a generation a scholar promises to give the final word on the origins and course of the 1692 Salem witchcraft outbreak. Ben Ray’s Satan and Salem is a book that finally delivers on that ambitious claim. By combining shrewd analysis of newly transcribed and discovered documents, a corrected timeline of events, and a truly broad consideration of the religious, social, and political context for the outbreak, Ray makes us sympathetic to not only the tragedy of Salem but the complex world that produced it.” —Gretchen A. Adams, Texas Tech University, author of The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America
Booster packs are small packages that contain a random assortment of cards from the new set. These booster packs are a crucial element for players who want to expand their card collection and discover new cards to use in their decks. Magic: The Gathering booster packs are highly sought after by players and collectors alike.
Read Trial Transcripts Online
The endnote references for many of the quotations in Satan & Salem refer to author Benjamin Ray’s collection of transcriptions in the online Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP) at http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/category/swp.html. For example, from page 30 of Satan & Salem:
The records refer to Good’s turning away from Parris’s house and muttering indistinguishable words after Parris had given her something for her child.52
52 RSWH No.3/SWP No. 63.3.
This note references SWP transcript 63, section 3. To find the online transcript, go to http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/category/swp.html. Scroll down the left-hand “Case Files” sidebar to locate and click on SWP No. 63, then scroll in the transcript to section 3.
Enter the transcript number in the box below to create a direct link:
DGHM 110: Introduction to Digital Humanities
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