Records of Salem Witchcraft
Dublin Core
Title
Records of Salem Witchcraft
Subject
Legal Testimony
Description
A two volume compilation of legal records kept during the Salem witchcraft trials. The book is an exhaustive compilation of legal proceedings that includes testimony and results of the trials. The book maintains both the prose and diction of the original documents which results in large sections of the records being written in Latin or using (now outdated) forms of writing such as replacing r's with f's.
The book provides us with a look into how legalistic codes and language can be used to mask atrocities. The archiving of these texts are insightful not just for what is included but what isn't. Documentation largely centers around the 'facts' of each case, leaving out the often logically and morally bankrupt ways in which people were tried for witchcraft. Some descriptions that often resulted in the brutal execution of the accused are less than a paragraph long.
One of the most interesting aspects of this topic and this book specifically is how explicit cultural fears regarding the changing role of women are in these works. Those accused of being witches were found to be guilty almost entirely along lines of ever-escalating (and increasingly untrue) sexual acts that initially started as an unfaithfulness to their husbands and ended with accusations of much more depraved sexual acts such as copulating with animals or demons. As we see from the other entries, icons and images of the witch were hypersexualized in a way that creates a sense of fear and abjectness towards a populace that participated in one of the worst cases of mass hysteria in world history.
The book provides us with a look into how legalistic codes and language can be used to mask atrocities. The archiving of these texts are insightful not just for what is included but what isn't. Documentation largely centers around the 'facts' of each case, leaving out the often logically and morally bankrupt ways in which people were tried for witchcraft. Some descriptions that often resulted in the brutal execution of the accused are less than a paragraph long.
One of the most interesting aspects of this topic and this book specifically is how explicit cultural fears regarding the changing role of women are in these works. Those accused of being witches were found to be guilty almost entirely along lines of ever-escalating (and increasingly untrue) sexual acts that initially started as an unfaithfulness to their husbands and ended with accusations of much more depraved sexual acts such as copulating with animals or demons. As we see from the other entries, icons and images of the witch were hypersexualized in a way that creates a sense of fear and abjectness towards a populace that participated in one of the worst cases of mass hysteria in world history.
Creator
Elliot Woodward (sponsor) and Da Capo Press (recorders)
Source
Fales Collection: O'Malley Library at Manhattan College
Publisher
Da Capo Press
Date
1969
Files
Citation
Elliot Woodward (sponsor) and Da Capo Press (recorders) , “Records of Salem Witchcraft ,” Manhattan College Omeka , accessed July 8, 2024, https://omeka-pilot.manhattan.edu/items/show/51.