Salem Witch Trials
http://members.nbci.com/uranalcakes/witch.htm
Theme: Educational
Purpose: To present the viewer with an
occult-sympathizer's interpretation of the Salem Witch
Trials in a persuasive narrative of the trials as the
product of Abigail Parris' and the rest of Salem's attempt
to free themselves of blame in a hypocritical
Puritanical society and exact revenge on each other.
Author: Saligh - 16-yr-old (part of a larger personal
website)
Design Elements: Animated graphic of a witch stirring her
cauldron and a spinning skull, black background with
blood-red text, links to an incomplete list of Salem
victims, and a the author's personal homepage with
additional links to spells, magic, and occult webrings.
Special Features: Victims list is incomplete, and the
narrative of the events of the trials is grossly
inaccurate, with no evidence of scholarship and extremely
loose language and swears.
Authenticity:1
Accuracy: 1
Navigability:3
Scope: This page is the amateurish product of a
web designer who's overall motive seems to be promoting
sympathy for those persecuted for their alleged link to the
occult by providing an inaccurate but persuasively written
derogatory narrative about Abigail Williams and her
position as the key instigator of the Witch Trials.
Overall Rating:
Abstract:
This site is neither scholarly or altogether
persuasive in its rhetoric. It is part of a larger
personal webpage designed to promote sympathy for the
occult by a 16-yr-old who describes himself as somewhere
between insane and sane. The graphics consist solely of
forbidding blood-red text on black backgrounds, an animated
graphic of a witch stirring her cauldron, and a spinning
skull linking to the list of the victims of the witch
trials. Almost every detail of the narrative provided about
the trials is grossly inaccurate or subject to other
interpretations. The principal accuser, young Abigail, is
described as having danced naked with Tituba in the woods,
and being rumored to have become a whore in Boston after
the trials were over. Language utilized in the
description of the trials is inappropriate for scholarly
research (for example, "when the shit hit the fan", and
points to the biased perspective of the author, while
rampant misspellings suggest this site was not thoroughly
researched or well-constructed. Amusing in sociological
terms of providing a modern, non-academic take on the
trials, but entirely useless for anyone doing a serious
study of the events themselves.
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