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"Reckoning and Reclaiming," an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum, located in the center of Salem, Massachusetts, ran from September 2021 through March 2022, bringing together materials from the Salem witch trials of 1692 with Frances F. Denny's photographs of contemporary Witches and a video of Alexander McQueen's' haute couture fashion show that he claimed was inspired by the trials. The mix of old and new witchcraft was visually jolting. Although the new materials provided some relief from the main part of the show that documents the horror of the state supported terror that was the trials, the mixing and matching of the two did neither full service. It further-more served as its own form of commercialization of witchcraft; something that in the past that the museum has avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history and fascination of the Salem Witch Trials continues to attract visitors to the American coastal city in Massachusetts. This paper will investigate what has been instigated in the form of memorialization to those that were accused and subsequently executed; nineteen were hanged and one was pressed to death, how has Salem confronted this part of their history? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Lectures on Witchcraft" by Unitarian minister Charles Wentworth Upham is presented. The book largely deals with the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. The article seeks to explain Upham's understanding of antebellum manhood in the U.S. as described in the work with its highly gendered language and characterizations.

The essence of witchcraft in the American Colonies in the 17th century - the pact with the Devil and the rejection of God's grace - was seen as the most wicked of crimes. By joining Satan's quest to build a kingdom of Evil on earth, a witch had forfeited her soul and had nothing human left in her. There was no way of redemption, no extenuating circumstance - or was there? If we look carefully at the Salem trials, a change seems to have occurred that redefined the perception of evil as abruptly and as clearly as in no other case to my knowledge. The trials started out of social tensions and the idea of the inherent sinfulness of women brought them into the spotlight as potential witches. Fear and the belief that Evil was amongst the Saints of Massachusetts was the fuel that drove the trials onward. Yet, at the height of the trials, the colonial government put a halt to the trials, pardoning remaining suspects and dismissing any further accusations. And even more surprisingly, the accused went back to their lives, perceivably without any repercussions, and were reintegrated into the community without any apparent animosity. What had been considered the essence of evil had changed - almost overnight. It is this redefinition that will be looked at more closely in this chapter. This approach may help to understand the perception of Evil as a cultural concept, and the dynamics behind its definition and redefinition. In an age where evil becomes a label for political agendas, I find it paramount to understand how our concept of evil has and can change, not just gradually, but within one particular situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1692, the Salem witch trials introduced perhaps the most famous early American girls-girls notoriously lambasted for instigating the death of twenty people. During that same year, Cotton Mather published Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion (hereafter referred to as Ornaments) and A Brand Pluck'd Out of the Burning (hereafter referred to as Brand). Ornaments served as a moral guidebook for Puritan girls to follow, while Brand details the possession of Mercy Short, an adolescent not directly involved with the witch trials but whose story represents the most thorough recorded account of possession that we have. These two works document the pressure exerted on colonial girls to remain silent, and help to reveal how possession gave them an outlet for the expression of their feelings. In examining them, it becomes possible to ascertain how the Puritan roots of girls' coerced silence and repressed aggression have endured into contemporary America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the examination records of five women from Salem, Massachusetts. It says that five women in focus are Tituba, Mary Warren, Martha Cory, Sarah Osburn, and Susannah Martin, among them, two confessed to witchcraft and survived, while three denied, were convicted hanged or died in prison. It focuses on the self-politeness strategies, verbosity, and the role of Puritan religion.

The article presents the author's insights in the various types of documents produced with the case of George Jacob Sr., character in the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials, from the warrant of arrest on May 10, 1692. He states that the material of the documents include examinations such a mittimus, a number of witness depositions, a summons and two accounts of physical examination. He adds that the warrants include the name of the accused, crime description, and persons issuing the complaint.

This paper explores The Crucible, Arthur Miller's dramatized version of the 1692 Salem witch-hunt, from a psycho-sociological point of view, using mainly the Girardian theoretical notions of scapegoating and sacrificial crisis as expounded in his seminal work The Violence and the Sacred (1972). The snowballing effect of paranoia in Salem is regarded, in the first part, as a means for the hide-bound and male chauvinistic community to exclude nonconventional women; and in the second part, as an outlet for the latter to challenge oppression and an opportunity to assert themselves within the community. Now given entire credit by the court of law, the female outcasts use victimization through daemonic possession as a suitable stalking horse to grow in heroic and saintly stature and gain back admission, if not vengefully attain absolute power in the community that has hitherto oppressed them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents literary criticism of the book "I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem" by Maryse Condé, focusing on the relationship between fiction and history. It discusses Condé's fantastical depiction of Tituba, a black slave owned by Puritan Reverend Samuel Parris, examining her confession to practicing witchcraft during the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials in 1692 and 1693. Tituba's origins in Barbados, her alleged voodoo and occult practices, and her legal examination are explored.