
This site employs excerpts from at least nine different published sources of information on the Salem Witch Trials to provide a detailed narrative of the events proceeding and following the first accusations of witchcraft in Danvers, MA. While the textual outline is extensive and supplemented by a number of good excerpts from trial records and scholars, it is not entirely accurate on a number of points. For example, the author of the narrative lists Tituba and John Indian as the "principle instigators" of the witchcraft episode. Tituba especially is described as having extensive knowledge of sorcery and palmistry, although this has never been verified by any concrete evidence. The concluding paragraph of the story also alludes to the possibility of ergot poisoning - another theory which has been effectively disproved. Despite its drawbacks, however, the site does have a number of nice graphics supplementing the text. There are pictures of the houses in which the trials were held, portraits of prominent figures such as Samuel Sewall, and a table of the hanged witches, with their execution dates and town residency. In addition, the author gives a thorough (but incomplete) list of the numbers jailed during the episode, by town.
