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Instructions for The Salem Witch Trials College Essay Examples

Title: Salem Witchcraft Trials Theories of Causes

Total Pages: 8 Words: 3412 Bibliography: 8 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: Cite from a minimum of eight (8) distinct sources in your paper. No more than two of these are to be from any single author or anthology. (You may go beyond the minimum.)
These eight separate and distinct sources must be at least three different kinds of sources, for example, three periodicals, two Internet sources, three books; Or, two books, four newspaper articles, two periodicals; Etc.

1. 1692: The Truth Behind the Hysteria

2. I will explore the Salem Witchcraft Trials and analyze what occurred during the timeframe. I will explain the beliefs that contributed to the people believing that there were witches in Salem Town, Massachusetts. I will also explore the modern day theories on what actually may have been the reasoning behind the hysteria.

3. My purpose of this paper is to explain and inform.

4. Differentiate fact from fiction in regards to the persecution of the people accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.

5. My voice will be third person informative.

6. My audience will be people with an interest about the truth behind the Salem Witch Trials.

7. I plan to discuss several beliefs and points that led the people of Massachusetts to believe there were, in fact, witches living among them. The accounts and stories of the people who lived there and those who were accused and put to death will play an important role in the paper. The fact that the lies of one little girl, Abigail Williams, niece of Reverend Parris, helped to start the mass hysteria. The stories of the Tituba, a slave of Reverend Parris, recounted to the young girls in the town, which were about demons and witchcraft and how those stories activated the girl?s imaginations. The girls strange symptoms and how the physician, unable to make a diagnoses, concluded they were bewitched, because at that time anything unknown was evil. The modern day belief that ergot poisoning caused the symptoms and hallucinations shown in the young girls and the other people in town. Other modern day beliefs that Cotton and Increase Mather further escalated the hysteria to get people back to the church and the possibility that most of the accused were woman because it was a way of controlling the women who posed a threat to the power of men. Social roles and puritanical beliefs that differences were a result of the devils influence, instead of the reality that all people are different and differences need to be respected, not ostracized.


Works Cited (some that I came up with, not all need to be utilized, can use other sources...following guidelines above)

Brown, David C. ?A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692?. [Washington Crossing, Pa.]: D.C. Brown, c1984.

Carlson, Laurie M. ?A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials?. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1999.

Doty, Kathleen L. and Risto Hiltunen. "Formulaic Discourse and Speech Acts in the Witchcraft Trial Records of Salem, 1692." Journal of Pragmatics 41.3 (2009), 458-469.

Gragg, Larry Dale. ?The Salem Witch Crisis?. New York: Praeger, 1992.

Hill, Frances. ?A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials?. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997.

Landau, Elaine. ?Witness the Salem Witchcraft Trials with Elaine Landau?. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Elementary, c2006, 48.

Norton, Mary Beth. ?In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692? 1st Ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

Reed, Isaac. "Why Salem Made Sense: Culture, Gender, and the Puritan Persecution of Witchcraft." Cultural Sociology 1.2 (2007), 209-234.

Roach, Marilynne K. ?The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-day Chronicle of a Community under Siege?. 1st Cooper Square Press ed. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002.

Roach, Marilynne K. ?In the Days of the Salem Witchcraft Trials?. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Robinson, Enders A. ?The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft 1692?o .Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 2001, 1991.

Shapiro, Laura. ?The Lesson of Salem?. Newsweek August 31, 1992, UNITED STATES EDITION. THE ARTS; Culture, 64.

Starkey, Marion Lena. ?The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials?. Anchor Books Ed. New York: Anchor Books, 1989, c1949 1989.

Wells, F. L. "Problems of Personality: Studies Presented to Dr. Morton Prince, Pioneer in American Psychopathology." Psychological Bulletin 24.2 (1927), 128-131.

Woods, Geraldine. ?The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Headline Court Case?. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, c2000.

Woolf, Alan. Journal of Toxicology -- Clinical Toxicology, Jun2000, Vol. 38 Issue 4, p457-460, ERGOTISM; TRIALS (Witchcraft); MASSACHUSETTS; SALEM (Mass.); UNITED States.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: Salem Witch Trials

Total Pages: 8 Words: 2704 Sources: 0 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: This is a historical research paper. The topic must be narrowed down to the two families (Porters & Putnams) that played a key role in the Salem Witch Trials. One source I have already is the book by Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum concerning the social origins of witchcraft. No footnotes are required but at least 5 sources must be included in the paper. There must also be 5 pivotal points to be discussed. My e-mail is

Thank you

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: salem witch trials

Total Pages: 5 Words: 1241 References: 0 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: I need my paper to chronicle the events prior to and after the Salem witch trials with an emphasis on the motivations of the prosecutors that will, in turn, shed light on whether the "witch-like behavior" was, in fact, actual or alleged for the purposes of personal agenda, and whether it was actually socioeconomic, since the vast majority of those hunted were from less well off backgrounds while those organizing from wealthy. I need my paper to speically focus on the potential ulterior motivations of the prosecutors from this socioeconomic perspective.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: comparing and contrasting the book I Tituba to the movie The Crucible

Total Pages: 5 Words: 1642 Works Cited: 4 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: Compare the representation of the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible, the film based on Arthur Miller’s play, with Maryse Conde’s representation of the same event in I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. In what ways are they similar? How and why do they differ? For instance, what does each work identify as the underlying cause(s) of the social conflict that generated the witch hunt? How do they draw distinctions between apparent causes and underlying causes—through character, plot, narrative point of view?

Please include at least one citation from each source (must have minimum of four sources).

Excerpt From Essay:

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