Essay on The Devil in Massachusetts Book Review - 796 Words

The Salem witch craft trials are the most learned about and notable of Europes and North Americas witch hunts. Its notoriety and fame comes from the horrendous amount of people that were not only involved, but killed in the witch hunt and that it took place in the late 1700s being one of the last of all witch hunts. The witch craft crises blew out of control for several reasons. Firstly, Salem town was facing hard economic times along with disease and famine making it plausible that the only explanation of the towns despoilment was because of witches and the devil. As well, with the stimulation of the idea of witchs from specific constituents of the town and adolescent boredom the idea of causing entertainment among the town was an†¦show more content†¦When discussing the indictment of Bridget Bishop in Boyer and Nissenbaums documents it states separately the complaint, examination offense and testimonies of all the witnesss continuously from pages 36-52 . It follows a close chronological order of the proceedings from start to finish. However in Starkeys version the events surrounding Bishop are spread throughout the book. While the major focus of the indictment and trial was on pages 104-108 other information was placed in sporadically, like for example, her personal style ...she had a great store of laces. These she liked to vary, and sometimes brought pieces to Samuel Shattuck of Salem Town to have dyed. While that may be historically correct it is hardly relevant to the indictment or court proceedings and is also not even an attempt or a good one, to establish character persona. Starkeys version confuses and hinders the collection of information because of the drawn out and detailed description of each person, event and location. While it is clear with Starkeys depiction of the events that she is not going for an intellectual documentation of straight facts, however her vocabulary and the terms she uses for explanation is some what `challenging for those that this book is geared towards. Starkey uses confusing historical terms in a book that is clearly written in present day English. For example when explaining when an event takes place, ...were placed in a cart andShow MoreRelatedThe Salem Witch Trials : Crisis1601 Words   |  7 PagesThe Salem Witch Trials: Crisis in Salem Village Many people know of the Salem witch trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692 spilling over into the year 1693. But for those who do not know, the Salem witch trials were a series of trials against men, women, and children accused of being a witch and or practicing witchcraft. 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Hard work and church consumed