The Salem Witchcraft Trials

The Salem Witchcraft Trials site is produced by Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM

The Salem Witchcraft Trials site is primarily composed of edited primary source documents regarding the Salem Witch Trials. The documents are listed on the page and include an introduction to the events of the trial which is continued onto another page. This offers a general narrative of the events that can be found in a textbook. “The primary materials are not organized in any specific way and one is easily finished clicking on every link in the site”. “The materials of the site include a detailed (but plain) typed chronology of the events of the trial. Included are the works of Cotton Mather but there is no original scan, merely a typed edited edition of one of his major works. There is a scan of an original death warrant that does offer some sense of historical feel to the site but it is barely readable. There are some good maps of Salem and witch trials in Colonial America. Also included is a link to the complete Salem Witchcraft Papers that are part of the UVA etext program. This site is primarily aimed at a pre-collegiate environment offering tools for both the student and the instructor. The student can learn from such games as "You're Accused" where they have to make choices from the perspective of an accused witch. Another game is "Salem Witchcraft Jeopardy" where they choose dollar amounts and answer questions that increase in difficulty as the dollar amount increases. For the instructor, there are teaching tools such as "Causes" "Why it Ended" and "Lessons" which address what we can learn from the trials. The Salem Witchcraft Trials page is part of a larger project focusing on famous trials throughout history including such examples as the trials of Jesus, Galileo, Lizzie Borden, the Scopes "Monkey Trial", all the way up to O.J. Simpson and the 9/11 trials.”

It is important to have a basic understanding of web page navigation, understand how links work, and understand how to cite a source correctly.

This project provides data about the witch trials, and a lot of the information is able to be found in textbooks. However, I do not feel that another program acts quite the same because this project actually takes all the information from the trials and organizes it in a way on the interface.

One should keep in mind the time period that this occurred for context and make sure to be comfortable navigating all corners of the project. Being interested in history would be beneficial.