The Salem Witch Trials is based on over twenty-five years of archival research--including the author's discovery of previously unknown documents--newly found cases and court records. From January 1692 to January 1697 this history unfolds a nearly day-by-day narrative of the crisis as the citizens of New England experienced it.

Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study. In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear, and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many traumatized refugees—including the main accusers of witches—had fled to communities like Salem. Meanwhile the colony’s leaders, defensive about their own failure to protect the frontier, pondered how God’s people could be suffering at the hands of savages. Struck by the similarities between what the refugees had witnessed and what the witchcraft “victims” described, many were quick to see a vast conspiracy of the Devil (in league with the French and the Indians) threatening New England on all sides. By providing this essential context to the famous events, and by casting her net well beyond the borders of Salem itself, Norton sheds new light on one of the most perplexing and fascinating periods in our history.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic. As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, The Witches is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story -- the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.

Salem Story engages the story of the Salem witch trials by contrasting an analysis of the surviving primary documentation with the way events of 1692 have been mythologised by our culture. Resisting the temptation to explain the Salem witch trials in the context of an inclusive theoretical framework, the book examines a variety of individual motives that converged to precipitate the witch-hunt. Of the many assumptions about the Salem witch trials, the most persistent is that they were instigated by a circle of hysterical girls. Through an analysis of what actually happened - by perusal of the primary materials with the 'close reading' approach of a literary critic - a different picture emerges, one where 'hysteria' inappropriately describes the logical, rational strategies of accusation and confession followed by the accusers, males and females alike.

Presents an historical analysis of the Salem witch trials, examining the factors that may have led to the mass hysteria, including a possible occurrence of ergot poisoning, a frontier war in Maine, and local political rivalries.

The story of the Salem Witch Trials told through the lives of six women Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 had been "afflicted," 32 had officially accused their fellow neighbors, and 255 ordinary people had been inexorably drawn into that ruinous and murderous vortex, and this doesn't include the religious, judicial, and governmental leaders. All this adds up to what the Rev. Cotton Mather called "a desolation of names." The individuals involved are too often reduced to stock characters and stereotypes when accuracy is sacrificed to indignation. And although the flood of names and detail in the history of an extraordinary event like the Salem witch trials can swamp the individual lives involved, individuals still deserve to be remembered and, in remembering specific lives, modern readers can benefit from such historical intimacy. By examining the lives of six specific women, Marilynne Roach shows readers what it was like to be present throughout this horrific time and how it was impossible to live through it unchanged.

Orphan-girl Hannah True battles strange happenings, suspicion, and angry villagers when her town believes it's under attack by witches. The Survival Series that celebrates the awesome history of us. From bestselling author Scott Peters and Salem Witch whiz Juliet Fry comes a gripping retelling of the Salem Witch Trials for modern young readers. Short attention spans | Chapter Book | Ages 8-12 | B&W Illustrations On a stormy night, young orphan Hannah is terrified to see witches’ fingers tapping at her bedroom window. Are they real or just a trick of the moon? The next morning, her best friend says a witch's spirit attacked her in the dark. Hannah is alarmed. Could this be true? When a neighbor's child begins acting strangely, villagers are sure that witchcraft is at work. A dear friend of Hannah's mother is blamed--but Hannah refuses to believe such terrible talk. Unfortunately, Hannah's rebellion makes her look suspicious. Why is she protecting this woman? Whose side is she on? Hannah is no witch expert--she's a servant in a farmhouse. She has no one to defend her and she's out of her element. Can this brave but frightened colonial girl ever hope to escape disaster? This is the 6th children's book in the I Escaped Series about brave boys and girls who face real-world challenges and find ways to escape disaster. Sure to appeal to fans of New York Times Bestseller Lauren Tarshis's I Survived Series, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, What Were The Salem Witch Trials, and The Witches by Roald Dahl. The short chapters make for easy wins, and Hannah's gripping situation keeps even reluctant readers turning pages just to find out what's going to happen next. Great for kids book clubs and classrooms--a study guide is available at https://scottpetersbooks.com/worksheets Packed with a special section on facts about the Salem Witch trials that's sure to satisfy curious minds. Flesch Reading Ease: 85.6 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 3.2 An important, relevant read about bravery, kindness, and courage. Collect the whole I Escaped Series "a must for every reading list" Can Hannah survive disaster? Read it and find out!

Decades after witch-hunting had begun to die down in Europe, North America was about to witness its bloodiest witch hunt in history. The Massachusetts of 1692 was a very different one to the state we know today. Populated by colonists, many of them a generation or less from life in an England bathed in religious turmoil,