Giles Cory and the Salem Witchcraft Trials


http://www.coryfamsoc.com/articles/witch.htm

Theme: Educational
Purpose: To provide an extensive outline of the events leading up to and during the Salem Witch Trials, with a particular emphasis on the involvement of Giles and Martha Corey, two of the accused.
Author: The Cory Family Society
Design Elements: Extensive text, two links (one inactive and one to the Salem Memorial Website), a table listing those who were hanged, and interspersed images of Salem historical sites, portraits and paintings to accompany the text.
Special Features: Textual narrative of the events before and during the trials is especially detailed, with a number of direct quotes from trial transcipts and scholarly sources.
Authenticity: 4
Accuracy: 3
Navigability:3
Scope: Outlines the events leading up to the first accusations of witchcraft, and the subsequent trials through the release of the final prisoners authorized by Gov. Phips and the confession of Abigail Williams 14 years later.
Overall Rating:


Abstract:

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.



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