Description: This book represents the first comprehensive record of all legal documents pertaining to the Salem witch trials, in chronological order. Numerous newly discovered manuscripts, as well as records published in earlier books that were overlooked in other editions, offer a comprehensive narrative account of the events of 1692-93, with supplementary materials stretching as far as the mid - 18th century. The book may be used as a reference book or read as an unfolding narrative. All legal records are newly transcribed, and errors in previous editions have been corrected. 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.
Publication made possible with generous support by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.http: //www.archives.gov/nhprc/index.html
Brief description: Bernard Rosenthal has written widely on American literature and culture. His monographs include City of Nature and Salem Story, and he has edited published volumes, including an updated edition of The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman, Jr. He is also the author of numerous articles and reviews. Rosenthal has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, one shared with Benjamin Ray, and a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in support of this book. Rosenthal was also a Fulbright lecturer in 1996--7 at Tampere University in Finland. Rosenthal edited this volume in collaboration with an international group of ten Associate Editors.
Review Quotes: "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.