Extension History Proposal

Extension History Proposal
Alice Melton

1 Description of preliminary research
Initially my research was aimed at allowing me to attain a sense of the atmosphere that pervaded 1962 Salem, as I was unsure about what my focus points for my History Project would be. I was interested in the social, cultural and religious context of the time, and through class discussion and suggestions from my peers I read The Crucible by Arthur Miller [1]. This play provided both the general arc of events and encapsulated the paranoia of the townsfolk, adding to my accumulating fascination of why the Salem Witch trials occurred.

To add to my general knowledge, I also read various websites on Salem, primarily Wikipedia [2] and the online article Salem Witchcraft: The Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials by Tim Sutter [3]. Along with the book WITCHCRAFT: A secret history by Michael Streeter [4]and Jess Blumberg’s article for Smithsonian.com A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials [5], it was made evident that the most important historiographical issue was not context, but cause. From here I have made an attempt to collect as many different theories as possible, and there are surprisingly many. The evidence we have from the time before, during and after the trials is open completely to interpretation, as is the evidence that isn’t there (especially the use of spectral ‘evidence’ and the misdiagnosis of the strange afflictions of the young girls as the devils work.) In particular, Linda Caporeal’s 1976 hypothesis from Science ‘Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?’[6], which investigates the possibility of a physiological condition as the cause for the girls illness’; and the more recent 2008 article ‘Were the American colonists drugged during the Salem witchcraft trial?’[7] by Josh Clark, demonstrate the continual debate over cause amongst historians.

2. Describe the process you went through to arrive at your questions.

At first I wanted to look at the aforementioned topic-how did the religious, social and historical context of Salem lead to the trials? I was also interested in why the Salem trials are so well known. What was it about them that make them more memorable than previous witch trials in Europe and America? After we went through the readings and different historical schools for this course however, it became apparent that my question needed to focus more on historiography and how history has been perceived differently by different people, which is why I have decided on the following question:

Analyse different opinions on the cause/s of the Salem witch trials. How and why has it been interpreted differently?

In order to answer this question, I have made a list of subsidiary questions:

* Why is determining the cause/s of the Salem witch trials so difficult and controversial?
* What different approaches have been taken by historians and other individuals in order to try and explain why the trials happened?
* Are they valid approaches and claims? Why/Why not? What do I believe?
* How do different approaches to history reflect both the context of the Historian and the ideology they have? (I want to look briefly at Post-modern theorist Louis Althusser if I have time)

3. Research intentions in relation to areas/texts to examine

I aim to select three opposing theories on the cause of the Salem witch trials to dissect and analyse for my project. At this stage I am interested in looking further into Linda R. Caporeal’s theory on convulsive ergotism, and the oppressive religious beliefs and customs of the Puritan religion. Through further investigation I intend to select another theory from the extensive list which I believe best demonstrates the contrasting approaches to this historical issue.

There are also a number of books and websites that I intend to utilise sometime in the not so distant future- in particular this work The Salem Witch Trials : A Reference Guide by David K. Goss that Mr Wright found for me on e library, and Frances Hill’s books Delusion of Satan: Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials and The Salem Witch Trials Reader. I hope to get these books off www.bookdepository.com as I was unable to locate any books on the Salem witch trials at Penrith City Library, but I have been informed of inter-library loans and I would also like to visit Fisher Library at Sydney University.


4. Research intentions in relation to methodology

My history project focuses primarily on the historical debate over the cause/s of the Salem Witch trials, a controversial topic that has raged for over 300 years. From my research it has become clear that in order to deal with this issue I must focus heavily on the contrasting approaches taken by historians (and others) and why they have taken them. My enquiry questions will hopefully be answered by continued research and investigation into the hypotheses presented by various historians, and through my own ability to acknowledge that history is never black and white. Instead it is complex and there is no such thing as a 'right' answer in relation to cause. Through my project I have an opportunity to better understand how and why a historical event is continually reviewed, revised, debated and theorised over time by historians.

Footnotes
[1] Miller, A The Crucible. Penguin Group, Great Britain, 1968
[2] Wikipedia, Salem witch trials, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. updated 1/3/2011, viewed on 21/12/2010, 2/2/2011, 8/2/2011, 1/3/2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
[3] Sutter, T Salem Witchcraft: the Events and Causes of the Salem Witch Trials, Siteclopedia Network, 2003, viewed on 21/12/2010, 8/2/2011, 28/2/2011
[4] Streeter, M WITCHCRAFT: A secret history, New Burlington Books, London, 2002,
[5] J Blumberg, ‘A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials’, Smithsonian Institution, October 24, 2007, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief-salem.html
[6] L Caporael, ‘Ergotism: The Satan loosed in Salem?’, Science, Vol. 192, 2 April 1976
[7] J Clark, ‘Were the American colonists drugged during the Salem witchcraft trial?’, HowStuffWorks, Inc., 2011, viewed 27/2/2011, http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/drugged-salem-witchtrial.htm/printable