History Extension Proposal – Salem Witch Trials

rendering of Preliminary Research The capital of Oregon enamor trials occurred in colonial milliampere between 1692 and 1693, and involved oer two hundred people beingness accused of practicing witchcraft. After the execution of twenty people, the colony admitted the trials were a defect and compensated the families of those convicted. Following the events, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice, and continues to beguile the mutual imagination.Initially, I aimed my query at allowing myself to attain a sense of the asynchronous transfer mode that pervaded capital of Oregon, Massachusetts in 1962, as I was unsure about the cerebrate of my fuddle. After reading playw ripe Arthur Millers The Crucible, my interest in the social, cultural and religious context of the time was enhanced. The play encapsulated the hysteria of the townspeople and provided a general arc of the events, adding to my fascination ring the capital of Oregon witch trials and why they occurred. To enhance my knowledge, I proceeded to examine the general and historiographical information surrounding the event.I looked at various websites, primarily Wikipedia, the online article Salem witchery The Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials written by Tim Sutter and A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials, an article written by Jess Blumberg. I extracted information from books including Witchcraft A Secret History, written by Michael Steeter and ___________. From my research I self-contained that the most important historiographical issue was not in fact the context, scarce the cause of the event, and I have extracted as many theories from my readings as I could collect.The evidence we have from the time before, during and after the period of the trials is expansively adequate to(p) to interpretation, as is the evidence that isnt there, this being the spectral evidence and misdiagnosis of the afflictions of the maintain witches. Linda Caporeals hypothesis Ergotism The Satan Loosed in Salem? investigates a realizable psychological condition afflicted on the women as the cause of the girls illness and misconduct. The recent article Were the American Colonists Drugged During the Salem Witchcraft Trial? ritten in 2008 by Josh Clarke demonstrates the continual weigh over the cause of the trials amongst various historians. Description of Historiographical Focus The Research Intentions My project will focus primarily on the historical debate over the cause of the Salem witch trials, as from my research it has become draw in that in order to deal with this topic, I must focus on the contrasting perspectives of historians and others, and why they hold certain opinions.In order to proceed with my research, I have comprised a list of subsidiary questions, these being -Why is the cause of the trials a controversial issue? -What approaches have been taken by historians and others to investigate why the trials occurred? -How do di fferent approaches to history reflect both the context of the historian and their ideology? I am aware there is no right answer in relation to cause, but I will investigate the answers to these questions and will attempt to better understand why a historical event is continually revised, reviewed, debated and theorised by historians.I intend to select, dissect and analyse cardinal opposing theories surrounding the cause of the trials. At this stage in my research I am interested in exploring the oppressive religious beliefs and custom of the Puritan religion, as well as the Linda Caporeals opening on convulsive ergotism. I aim to select a third theory that will best demonstrate conflicting approaches to the ordeal following still investigation into the topic. Preliminary Essay Question Ideas