The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Com… (2024)

This hefty tome packs in a lot about the day to day history of the Salem witchcraft trials, literally, as it tells in straightforward language what happened on particular dates over the period from the beginning of the accusations, with the events in Samuel Parris' vicarage, to 1695 when the New England community was still trying to come to terms with the outcome of the disaster and to make some reparations for it.

The book also includes a useful introductory essay which should be read beforehand to set the scene of the political infighting, the ongoing war with France which was resulting in a lot of disastrous raids by the Native American tribes who were French allies, the outbreaks of disease and the other stresses on the English colony. And there is an afterword which briefly talks about the subsequent views developed over the following centuries, that the trials were the result of land disputes/teenage hysteria/fakery and how the communities themselves either tried to downplay or to commercialise the events.

The main value of this book is that it provides a sanity check when you might be reading another account of the trials because you can dip into it to check what happened on various days and what the details were, rather than read it cover to cover as I did. It does become a bit heavy going if you read it right through because at the height of the accusations so many people are brought in, often inter-related, that it's possible to get a bit lost with who was who. There are some useful tables at the back, such as one listing the accused and what happened to each of them, plus some maps at the start. The only problem I found with those was that the maps didn't cover all the areas discussed.

The book attempts to give a context for why people behaved and thought as they did, and is written in a simple narrative style. All in all it forms a good background check for any of the many other books on this subject which sometimes veer off into anachronism and flights of fancy/speculation. This one doesn't; it is factual without being too dry in style. So it is a good reference book to the time and place in question.

This is a monumental work, both in that it is more than 600 pages long, counting appendices and in that, as the author says, it took her twenty-plus years. It's a day by day recounting of the Salem Village witchcraft crisis, correlated with things happening in surrounding villages, in Salem Town, in Boston (especially in the households of Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewell, since those gentlemen obligingly left records), on the Maine frontier, in England. She starts with an overview of Salem Village history from 1661 to 1691, then begins her exhaustive timeline in January 1692 and ends it with Samuel Sewell's apology in 1697, though she continues, in her epilogue, to note the aftereffects of the trials all the way to 2001, when the last of the accused were finally legally cleared of the charge of witchcraft. Her appendices list the accused, the afflicted, the accusers, those who signed petitions, and the membership of the Salem Village church. I longed for genealogical charts, but they would have required a supplementary volume to themselves, and she does note when two people are sisters or in-laws or otherwise related, revealing a web of interconnections and inter-relations that has not been apparent in any other book on Salem that I have read, even Boyer and Nussbaum's Salem Possessed, which is all about how the tensions between two Salem families were instrumental in causing the crisis. (She also, by noting the deaths of the Mather and Sewell children---and Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewell's reactions---makes very immediate and personal the horrible infant mortality rate in colonial New England, and really puts paid to the stereotype that the Puritans did not love their children.)

She does not speculate as to causes and motivations, merely notes the evidence as presented in the testimony of witnesses, both those who testified to the reality of the afflicted persons' sufferings and those who caught them in instances of fraud. She sorts out very patiently who said what and when they said it, and clarifies, for instance, that Cotton Mather never attended any of the witchcraft trials (only one hanging) and thus wrote his apologia on the simple assumption, not that spectral evidence was valid, but that if the judges---being intelligent and learned men---convicted a person, they must have done so for good reasons.

This is well-written, thoughtful, careful, extremely readable, even though it sounds like it wouldn't be. Highly recommended.

I bought this for research, but it was a compelling read on its own merits.

This books covers the details of the events in Salem Village and the surrounding area in amazing detail. An almost day-by-day account for two years plus fairly detailed accounts for several more years. The epilogue brings the legacy into the late 20th century.

Of all that I have read about the witch trials this is by far the most definitive account. More than just the trials it covers the historical context in and around Massachusetts so that events don't just happen in historical isolation.

At nearly 700 pages it is definitely not light reading (pun intended) but it is fascinating reading.

I tried reading the preface first. I just couldn't get into this nor the rest of the book. I am fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials but this was more like a textbook. If I was in school, maybe I would have been able to get into it. I think I'd rather read about this topic on the Internet.

Hysteria begets hysteria. A fascinating look at mean girls, bad neighbors, and really bad legal reasoning.

The popular image of witch trials hews closer to the Monty Python scene from "Holy Grail" with pitchfork brandishing mobs burning an innocent woman at the stake. ("She turned me into a newt.....I got better.")

That's what makes Roach's 2001 chronicle of the Salem witch trials so fascinating -- in that it was the exact opposite of a bloodthirsty mob. Oh it was hysteria (and hysterical) to be sure, but Roach takes the reader on a DAY-BY-DAY account of the period from 1692-1697 to show just how simmering the entire spectacle of accusation, counter-accusation, "evidence," trial, and judgment proceeded.

Drawing extensively on source documents (trial testimony, letters, official proceedings, etc), Roach presents a maddening tale of manipulative teen girls, overly credulous adults, bad neighbors, and idiotic evidence collection and trial procedure.

That's the other subversion of expectations, most think of the Salem witch trials as being a byproduct of patriarchal religious intolerance. I.E. bunches of Puritanical men accusing women of consorting with the devil. The reality is that the majority of those accused and the vast majority of those "afflicted" were women.

These were typically a group of young girls accusing a neighbor woman of "afflicting" them -- rarely directly -- most of the trials relied on "spectral" evidence -- i.e. the accused's GHOST did the afflicting. The afflictions often took the form of pinching, poking, or rendering someone unable to speak.

What's frustratingly amazing additional evidence against the accused would be found during the trials when the afflicted would be suddenly overcome by pain/blindness/headaches etc -- and it was all attributed to the accused -- WHILE EVERYBODY IS SITTING IN THE SAME ROOM.

It worked like this, the accused would scratch her arm and the afflicted, seeing this, would shout out that they felt a fiery touch on their own arm. Repeat x 10. It boggles the legal mind that this worked. Yet it did. Again and again.

And that's also where Roach's book excels -- she gives the facts to the reader letting them draw their own conclusions. She doesn't editorialize but makes clear that while some people were certainly lying (at least accused of fraud by others), others clearly believed that they saw or suffered what they did.

Roach does a great job of also describing the fallout from the trials of surrounding towns and how quickly they realized how bad these trials were from a legal, scriptural, and evidentiary perspective such that there was an almost immediate attempt to correct the record. That didn't fully take place until 2001 when all those convicted were formally declared innocent, but the desire of all involved to put it all behind them was strong (strong COVID-19 "mistakes were made" vibes there)

All told, this is a dense, detailed, and fascinating look at a oft parodied and more oft misunderstood period in American colonial history.

It is crucial to recall that during the years 1692-97, there were numerous political issues. The Puritans distanced themselves from England, not yet having recognition as a “church” forming their own society away from Britain, the war with France was occurring that included the aid of the Indigenous, later left to survive and/or die when the war ended and after that, the treaty of Ryswick obliged King Louis to finally acknowledge England’s Protestant succession.

The puritans, who had left England due to religious persecution, feared their religion was under attack again and worried they were losing control of their colony. The political instability and threat to their religion created a feeling of uneasiness and discontent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

During these years, this small village started an anxiety ridden hysterical hunt after mostly women, and several men, based upon their dealings with the “devil” claiming innocent people were “witches” responsible for the antics of villagers coerced by their minister Parris and other villagers.

Since the “accused witches” were considered dangerous prisoners, they were kept in a dungeon chained to the walls because jail officials believed this would prevent their spirits from fleeing the jail and tormenting their victims.

English law at the time dictated that anyone who refused to enter a plea could be tortured in an attempt to force a plea out of them. This legal tactic was known as “peine forte et dure” which means “strong and harsh punishment.”

The torture consisted of laying the prisoner on the ground, naked, with a board placed on top of him. Heavy stones were loaded onto the board and the weight was gradually increased until the person either entered a plea or died.

Many modern theories suggest the accusers, starting with the young girls [who were apparently being attacked by “witches” and partly responsible for the witch hunts, along with adults that coerced, threatened and beat others into believing this rubbish] were suffering from epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, and mental illness.

This book is fantastic if one seeks a day to day account of what life was like during this time. It is not a book to be picked up and simply read, rather, studied. The author, Roach, is a historian and this book is an exemplary example of her work. This is THE “go to” book on all you ever need to know about the Salem Witch Trials.

The interesting aspects of this era and village is that divinatory methods, herbal healing, healers, folk medicine and “psychic” abilities and practices were commonplace. That alone is proof enough that mass hysteria and mental illness were responsible for the trials and deaths.

This historical account blatantly shows that this village and the people living in it, were beyond naive and filled with fear, hence, the horrid slaughter of innocent people based upon collective fear, judgment and the absolute insane mindsets of people where common sense, sense of self and self respect was never present. Everyday illnesses, deaths, random occurrences, noises, visions, marks on the body like moles, were all blamed on “witchcraft” and in todays world, the things that occurred are able to be explained medically, scientifically and spiritually.

This account has taught me that most, if not all of the people living in this village were beyond mentally deranged. Instead of needing a “religious” leader and community, perhaps psychiatrists, psychotherapists and trained mental health professionals would have recognized mass hysteria and prevented the sweeping fear that overtook Salem Village. Sadly, the accused had their land, livestock and all possessions taken from them. It points to a larger motive, not just fear and control, but land grabbing and greed.

As for why these victims were targeted in the first place, historians have noted that many of the accused were wealthy and held different religious beliefs than their accusers.

This, coupled with the fact that the accused also had their estates confiscated if they were convicted has led many historians to believe that religious feuds and property disputes played a big part in the witch trials.

To date, 120 people [88 women, 32 men] were suspected of “witchcraft” between 1638-91, most on trial repeatedly concluding in 121 trials involving 85 women and 36 men. 38 cases were slander suits brought against accusers.

Of the 83 witch trials, not the slander trials, which includes “spotty” record keeping, there were roughly 11-17 executions [all women, two men] occurring in Connecticut and Massachusetts, where the majority of the English population lived.

Others who were not hanged, but tortured to death, including suspected animals, evaded punishment, escaped jail, found not guilty, were pardoned, or died while jailed, added to the above numbers. There was never “burning at the stake” as most people assume.

In 1703, families, 21 people, of the accused and murdered started legal petitions to the General Courts. The Courts found all evidence against the murdered and accused to be weak and insufficient.

It was not until 1712 that the names of the executed and accused were cleared and their families given reparation based on testimony from living accusers and the financial gains of Reverend Parris, now made public. The Courts decided that “original charges came from people influenced by evil spirits then, and [some of them] “of profligate and vicious” lives now.

It was not until 2001, the state of Massachusetts amended the initial 1957 apology and legally cleared the names of the remaining unnamed victims.

The true evil existed only within the people that lied, allowing the innocent to be brutally killed. The true evil exists only within those that lead the naive into the dark.

This is an important and informative chronicle of the witch trials of 1692 and their aftermath over the following five years. It is almost purely chronicle developed from primary sources. The epilogue addresses some of the misunderstandings and myths of the trials and the people involved. The only drawback to the book is if you do not live on the North Shore of Boston or are otherwise not familiar with the names and locations of towns, you will need to consult another resource because this knowledge is assumed.

I hate giving this a low review because the author clearly put in so much time and effort to write this book. It gives so much factual information and references to almost every piece of documentation we have from that time. If you are looking to do formal research on this topic, I would definitely suggest this book. As someone who is just interested and eager to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials, I would suggest sticking to online research and podcasts. The way the information was presented was very dry and hard to get through.

Wow

This book is insane....good insane. Lots.of information about the trials. Great pictures and charts. The whole situation in history was crazy!!

Although I appreciate the extensive research that went into this book, it was so dry just stating facts, but a tremedous resource for research.

Daunting is the only word to describe this. The volume of work compiled is obviously overwhelming because the author doesn't quite pull it off. Citations are tired and vague (at the end of each paragraph so that if you want to identify the source of a particular fact you must sift through up to five or six original sources to find what you're looking for), there are far too many references to events outside the scope of the Salem witch craze (they may give an idea of the atmosphere of New England at the time, but I'm not reading a 700-page research text because I'm new to the era or because I'm interested in unrelated topics), and the use of 'probably' and 'perhaps' is far too common toward the end (I'm looking for data and answers, not conjecture - is this an academic source or not?). Readers genuinely interested in the history of the trials are better off investing in the works listed on the bibliography than in this book.

Rather daunting book to try to read. I read the first 1/3 and skimmed the rest. It reads like a textbook and is very dry. I did get some insights into the Salem Witch trials and what it was like at the time. Unfortunately I was looking more for a summary of events and the reasons for such hysteria. How could normal people get so transfixed by this movement that they would ignore common sense to get a satisfactory conclusion to the events that were taking place. Her prologue did fill in the context of the times they lived in but not very well.

There's some good research here, and much of it is quite interesting. It reads far more neutral than most witch trial recounts, using the descriptions given by the people involved rather than interpreting and imbuing motive on their actions. The downside is that it is quite dry reading - it's essentially a timeline diary. Interesting when the bigger events unfold, but a bit dull inbetween.

Still, for anyone interested in the Salem Witch Trials, I'd recommend it.

"...the Devil improves the darkness of this affair, to push us into a blind man's buffet, and we are even ready to be sinfully, yea, hotly, and madly, mauling one another in the dark."

"There is 'no truth more certain to a man than that which he hath formerly doubted or denied, and is recovered from his error [...] And what grief of heart it brings to a tender conscience, to have been unwittingly encouraging of the sufferings of the innocent.' "

This book was an exhaustive, chronological narrative of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. It started a couple years before the trials happened and ended with an epilogue discussing its legacy hundreds of years later. I thought it was very interesting to read especially with how it connects to modern day. People are still quick to persecute others for things that shouldn't be their business, especially those in minority groups.

It was sometimes difficult to keep track of all the names, especially because so many people were accused and were often related to each other so the names started blurring together. I was appreciative that Roach supplied a glossary of names in the appendix and showed who was accused, who wasn't by bolding or unbolding names. The event itself is still hard to comprehend that it actually happened because it seemed so fast and unexpected. But I liked that Roach told of other events happening in the colonies at this time, like the ongoing conflicts with France and their Native American allies as well as raids into settlements. So the anxiety of the time was already piqued so maybe it wasn't so unexpected that this event burst out so suddenly. I also liked that Roach would compare how Salem was dealing with the Witch Trials to other cities like Hartford, Connecticut. In Hartford, they immediately acquitted and tossed out cases for the accused as all of the evidence was spectral and therefore not admissable. In Salem, it took them way too long to figure out that wasn't a valid form of evidence and too many people died before they realized that.

I had been expecting it to go a little bit more into analysis of the trials themselves and why they might've happened but Roach did a brief explanation of some of those theories in the epilogue. And historical events like these often don't have one neat, gift of an answer but many different reasons all steamrolling into each other to cause mass hysteria and persecution. It's definitely not a book that'd you'd read front to cover as it did get a little dry at time, as it's basically like reading a calendar of dates and events. I think it works more as a reference book if you're studying the Salem Witch Trials rather than a typical historical narrative book. Not to say it wasn't a worthwhile read because it was, but I think it works more for research.

Overall, read this book if you're especially interested in the Salem Witch Trials or if you need a good source for research on this topic!

I don't understand Goodreads reviewers who are giving this book less than 4-stars because it is boring and "a textbook."

The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege is, shock of all shocks, a day by day chronicle of the events leading up to, concurrent with, and immediately following The Salem Witch Trials. It is compiled from court records, letters, private journals, transcribed meeting minutes, and sermons. In other words, it is a well-researched and sober laying bare of what actually happened in Salem in 1692.

It exists largely as a response to the wealth of more exciting but sensationalized material on the topic. It is boring. Intentionally boring. Its purpose is to inform, not to entertain. I understand readers who are looking for a quick overview of The Witch Trials being overwhelmed by this book. I understand this not being what many readers were looking for, but I don't understand how you got to the point of consuming this book without realizing what it was. It is 752-pages long. Reading even one page of the text tells you exactly what tone this book is going to take. This is not a bait-and-switch.

There are reasons this book is important and deserves to be rated highly. The first is that, while it is dense, it is not impenetrable. The heavy lifting of building a logical narrative is done for the reader. It is not an academic paper requiring a masters level understanding of historical documents. It is as close to that as you can get while still being accessible to the general public. The second reason is that it heavily values understanding the context and culture in which these trials took place. Colonial America in 1692 is an alien place to most people who are looking to understand what happened. Without understanding the people, the politics, the culture, and the various flavors of Christianity vying for dominance, you run the risk of applying over 300-years of hindsight and personal agendas to a complicated issue.

At the end of the day, without books like this you cannot have a decent podcast or video essay (alternatives I saw recommended) on the subject. It needs to be profitable for publishers to greenlight books like this. Writing a "Boring, 2-stars" review on a book that is very up front about prioritizing thoroughness and accuracy over entertainment is not helping anyone, including your preferred podcast. Trust me.

Ever wonder about the emotion and fear that was felt during the Salem Witch Trials? With this book you get a look into the world day-by-day of how this time in history got started and what the people in Salem were going through. Through everyone's story and what they saw and how no one was to be trusted at that time. Trust is a word that at this time in history seemed to be lost, you could not trust anyone at this time not your family or your friends no one. Everyone was not safe once they were accused they were tried and sent to jail to either be banished or hanged for being in the dark arts. Tests were given to the accused, and if you passed you were hung because clearly you were involved with the devil. This will show you one of the craziest times in our history. A time that no one truly knows what happened or how this whole thing got started. Some have their suspicions but no one truly knows for sure what truly happened at that time.
The people that should read this book are the history people. The ones that also like the darker parts of history and the parts that don't make sense. This book was a bunch of girls that would have these fits of pain, and say that they have see people that live is Salem village hurting them. Their parents and people had no idea what was happening all they could see were children in pain. Abigail Williams parents have said to have see their daughter, "The two girls gestured oddly and gabbled phrases neither they nor anyone could understand"(7). These children and older woman were acting like they were possessed which then brought the the talk about the devil. They were acting crazy and what ever they said the people believed because they had no idea what was truly happening. This book is for the people truly interested in what happened during this time and how the people were truly feeling.

4.5 only reason it's not a full 5 is because of a few mistakes (that I learned about from other reading). She calls Dorthy Good Dorcas Good (her name was incorrectly listed as Dorcas on her arrest warrant but its generally agreed that her name was Dorthy). In the center of the book there are pictures, two of the pictures are of Increase Mather and Cotton Mather she incorrectly captioned the picture of Cotton Mather with a death year of 1723 (which was the death year of Increase Mather which was correct Cotton didn't die until 5 years later in 1728). Also I was confused about Sarah Good's infant, in the book she said Sarah Good took an infant to prison with her but in other things I have read it says Sarah Good gave birth in prison (I'm not sure which is correct). All in all I think a few mistakes is forgivable in a work this ambitious and comprehensive I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The first 400 or so pages of this work are a slog. M. Roach has done meticulous research and gives the reader almost complete transcripts of the 1692 Salem Witch trials. She also gives accounts of other events in Mass, New Hampshire, Canada, and what will become Maine. Because of this, and lets be real, trial transcripts and news of Indian and French attacks on the boarder lands can be tedious. But, all the information is very helpful to understand what happened in New England 300 plus years ago. The lessons of the witch trials also are lessons for today as more and more Americans look on their neighbors as other, either from jealousy, fear, anger, race, skin color, or religion. Remember what happened in Salem. Don't commit that size sin or even murder and have to live with that and die with it.

This book is the real deal. It’s not a sexy made-for-tv adaptation of the Salem witch trials. It’s a chronology, perhaps a bit tired at times, a day by day account of not just this epidemic but the throngs of New England history at the turn of the century. Only about thirty or so pages of author synthesis and epilogue, which truly elucidates how interpretative the trials were and still are. Experts are still scratching their heads over what really happened in that tiny town hundreds of years ago. So the author by and large leaves the interpreting up to the reader which I appreciate.

this was a well-sourced book that i would definitely return to if i wanted to remember or research something about the salem witch trials. reading it straight through was at times a little bit dry, but i liked the perspective of going day by day with significant events (or sometimes kind of insignificant events, that were still relevant to fleshing out the overall picture) and i liked that it included several years after the hangings, showing how the town and church community continued to grapple with the whole thing and what their parts had been in it.

*Incredibly* well researched. Original sources, the entirety of the Salem Witch Papers, every extant document on the topic is wrapped up into this tome. The book is exactly what it says it is - a day by day chronicle. It is not a compelling narrative, or a novel, or a single viewpoint, or anything that would make it slide smoothly for the reader; it is strictly a research volume. It is not putting forward any particular theory about the "why" of the situation, only laying out every single fact in the order in which it occured. A truly impressive feat.

I have three copies of this book. One that is highlighted and marked up and used as reference material. One that is signed and enshrined in my collection and one that is for regular use!

If you wanna know what really happened, if you wanna get beyond the Hollywood in the hype, this is the book you need to read. It’s not told in story format, but more of diary entries taken day by day from the transcripts that remain.

I now know everything there is to know about the Salem Witch Trials down to what they ate on some days. It can get pretty tedious since some days nothing interesting happened. To me, those girls were definitely bored and made up their afflictions. People being hanged was just a consequence to them of their afflicted fame.

A very accurate description of what happened in Salem. It all takes life with the description of people who was accused and what their destiny was. Really, really accurate. A great reading for anyone who is curious about it.

The detail in this book is amazing. I've read it through and then bought a second copy to highlight and tab into oblivion as I do my genealogy research. There are so many players in this puzzle and this book is a huge help in trying to understand the big picture.

Quite the captivating read. The author stringently compiled all the known information, including both written accounts and local folktales, on one of the most notorious events in New England history. A must read for anyone interested in the topic.

This book was daunting (as another reviewer, put it) very extensive (well researched) with +100 pages of notes and appendix material. Due to the nature of how it was written, (day-by-day), some of it (to me) felt very repetitive

This book was so comprehensive and dry that it ended up being boring. If it had it to do again I would just skip to the end and only read the part where it summarizes everything and talks about what happened after.

Just too dry, couldn't finish it.