Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt
Cambridge University Press, 3/26/2009
EAN 9780521661669, ISBN10: 0521661668
Hardcover, 1012 pages, 28.4 x 22.6 x 6.1 cm
Language: English
This book represents a comprehensive record of all legal documents pertaining to the Salem witch trials, in chronological order. Numerous manuscripts, as well as records published in earlier books that were overlooked in other editions, offer a comprehensive narrative account of the events of 1692–3, with supplementary materials stretching as far as the mid-18th century. The book can be used as a reference book or read as an unfolding narrative. All legal records are newly transcribed, and included in this edition is a historical introduction, a legal introduction, and a linguistic introduction. Manuscripts are accompanied by notes that, in many cases, identify the person who wrote the record. This has never been attempted, and much is revealed by seeing who wrote what, when.
1. List of facsimile plates
2. General introduction Bernard Rosenthal
3. Legal procedures used during the Salem witch trials and a brief history of the published version of the records Richard Trask
4. Linguistic introduction Peter Grund, Risto Hiltunen, Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, Merja Kytö, Matti Peikola and Matti Rissanen
5. Editorial principles
6. Chronological arrangement Bernard Rosenthal and Margo Burns
7. List of the records of the Salem witch hunt
8. The records
9. Timeline
court of Oyer & Terminer and Superior Court of Judicature
10. Biographical notes Marilynne K. Roach
11. Works cited
12. Acknowledgements
13. Index.
'Few events of American history continue to grip our imagination as does the Salem witchcraft outbreak of 1692. This monumental new work of collaborative historical scholarship presents nearly a thousand legal documents relating to that outbreak, freshly edited with scrupulous care and introduced with a series of helpful essays. In this definitive assemblage of the episode's legal records, human anguish, terror, confusion, and grim certitude constantly break through the legalese. Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt will be welcomed not only by legal scholars, linguists, American Colonial historians, and students of witchcraft, but by all who continue to be drawn to the dark events that unfolded in a New England village more than three centuries ago.' Paul Boyer, co-author with Stephen Nissenbaum of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft