SITE ANALYSIS
Salem Witch Trials

Introduction

History of the Salem Witch Trials

Literature on the Salem Witch Trials

The website

SECTIONS OF THE WEBSITE REVIEWED

Documents and Transcriptions

Historical Maps

Archival Collections

Books and Letters

Project Missions and Educational sections

Notable People

Site Map
 

Conclusion

Footnotes

Bibliography
 
 

Introduction
The Salem Witch Trials web site is a historical archive that provides useful material for scholars as well successfully using hypertext in the electronic medium of the world wide web. Amongst many things in its searchable contents, the site provides documents and transcriptions, historical maps, archival collections as well as information on contemporary books and even educational material. The site contains a wealth of quality primary sources needed in a good historical archival website, however, some aspects are disappointing in terms of the sites performance as a hypertext medium so I will also be focusing some of the site's weaknesses.

History of the Salem Witch Trials?

The Salem Witch Trials are a part of American history which have aroused interest since they occurred in Massachusetts in 1692. The trials and executions have inspired novelists and playwrights and historians have studied the event from may perspectives. Many books contain collections of primary documents relating to the event so a web site such as this seemed inevitable considering the value placed upon material on the subject and the advantages of using hypertext with an archive.
Before the happenings at Salem Village, trials for witchcraft had been a fairly common occurrence in colonial America, (in fact, the trials in Salem were among the last of the major outbreaks) yet many didn't result in execution or even conviction. The trials of 1692 were unique to Salem because earlier trials had rarely involved more than a single accused witch. Only in Salem did accusations multiply so quickly as to envelop the entire community. Books on the subject include historical interpretations of the events as well as documentary records which like the web site feature archives of primary sources. It is important to note the differences a website offers when compared to standard texts. This site, for example, offers not just digital versions of existing archives but also entirely new archives made specifically for the web. It uses hypertext in a very effective way, testing certain aspects of theory like textually, narrative, and also the roles of reader and writer which is what any good historical web site should aim to do.

Literature on the Salem Witch Trials

Of all the scholarly literature found on the Salem Witchcraft trials, two stand out because of their similar nature to an archival website. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum's book Salem-Village Witchcraft -A documentary record of local conflict in colonial New England is similar to a web site archive in that it encourages the reader to draw conclusions based on the evidence presented and to participate in the historiographical process. The book includes transcripts of the preliminary proceedings and much of the testimony against five accused witches, two contemporary narratives of the 1692 witchcraft outbreak, and several sermons delivered in response to the trails. It also includes extensive documents relating to Salem Village and the lives of the accused and the accusers. A book by David D. Hall titled Witch-Hunting in seventeenth century New England is similar in that it uses primary sources such as court depositions court documents and reports. Both works are of high quality, yet the one thing they do not incorporate is hypertext. The electronic linking of hypertext is what makes a archive web site so different from an archival book. As George Landow remarks;
"Electronic linking shifts the boundaries between one text and another as well as between the author and the reader and between the teacher and the student. It also has radical effects upon our experience of author, text, and work, redefining each. Its effects are so basic, so radical, that it reveals that many of our most cherished, most commonplace ideas and attitudes toward literature and literary production turn out to be the result of that particular form of information technology and technology of cultural memory which has provided that setting for them."1
It lets readers to choose their own individual path and allows the reader to form their own interpretation which is very much how an archive is supposed to work itself whether electronic or otherwise.
So how does the Salem Witch Trial site use hypertext to its advantage?

The website.
 

The Salem Witch Trials site has been set up by the University of Virginia and was created under the supervision of Professor Benjamin C. Ray. The Transcription project is supervised by Professor Bernard Rosenthal together with a group of scholars. The main page of the site offers one many choices regarding the history of the witch trials. All information is laid out so that one would be able to access a certain piece of information quite quickly. There is a site map and search engine for the site as well. The site draws heavily upon the manuscript and rare book collections of several participating libraries, archives, and historical societies. The main page also offers access to an interpretation of the history for users. One can go to the Overview of the Salem Witch Trials and a summary describes the main events of the witchcraft trials, all of which are documented in the Archive's collection of primary resources. The overview also refers to some of the notable people who played important roles in the trials and in the debate about the legitimacy of the trials.

Documents and Transcriptions

The materials presented in the Documents and Transcriptions section consist of original court records and holdings from various archives such as the New York Public Library and Boston Public Library. There are also extensive record books from Salem Village Church. It is interesting to note that the court records are taken straight from the above mentioned book Salem-Village Witchcraft by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. They are reproduced without any real change besides the format. The book itself is very similar to the website because there is no narrative and it is nonlinear as is commented in the introduction to the work:
"In the documents that follow, men and women such as accused witch Rebecca Nurse, afflicted girl Ann Putnam and her embittered parents, and unhappy minister Samuel Parris all appear- and reappear- in one context after another: now in witchcraft testimonies, and then again in petitions, tax lists, probate disputes, even narrative accounts. By poring over and inter linking this varied material in different ways, the analytic possibilities are almost literally endless." 2
With this statement the authors are just about seeing the advent of hypertext with its many possibilities. Like the book, the offerings in the section are an extensive and focused group of source materials, the collection encourages the users to draw conclusions based on the evidence and to participate in the process of historical analysis.

Historical Maps

The maps presented in the Historical Maps section consist of older hand drawn maps and animated maps created specifically for the web site. Through these animated maps the user can follow a time-line at the bottom of the page as the places of  witchcraft accusations are highlighted on the map itself, using bursting stars for individuals on the day they were accused. Clicking on the dots at the side of the map then links users to biographical pages. For example if you want to know something about an accused slave you click on the red dot, the screen opens up with a list of the members of the household and the biography and some documents and images. Navigation in this part of the site is impressive and demonstrates another great advantage of hypertext, the ability to put text and graphic images together. The moving images themselves can actually provide a kind of interpretation as the maps give a graphic representation of historical context.

Archival Collections

The archival section of the site is very thorough and takes one out of the site to various libraries where particular archives are held. The primary sources presented here are fascinating, however these collections are basically not part of the site and are essentially links to library sites outside the actual site itself. Still, the quality is very good and they have an authentic quality that would be hard to reproduce in a book. David D. Hall's book Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England makes a good comparison. An advantage of the book is that in the index one can look up names and find all the relevant documents related to that person. This is not possible on the website because the information comes from different sources such as libraries. However the collections are vast and to put all this into a book would be impossible. A search engine based in the site that reaches outside the site would be preferable though.

Books and Letters

 

The books and letters section then transcribes hundred of pages of the contemporary books about the witchcraft trials as well as narratives about witchcraft cases. This is also a vast collection of documents yet again though if one would have to spend a lot of time wading through the materials to find something specific. The documents are of high quality though and to have these presented online is invaluable as it would be hard to access these materials otherwise.

Project Mission and Educational sections

The project mission section then attends to educational aspects of the historical subject as well scholarly book and video reviews. The educational section displays an outline for a Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature which took place in the Spring Semester of 2001. This section would be of particular interests to students as it contains assignments and student projects completed by past pupils. It could also supply inspiration for academics teaching courses related to the subject as it provides the course description and syllabus. The class related websites section doesn't really provide what one would hope for but it does lead to transcriptions of ebooks about the subject which can be downloaded. There are many to choose from and this part of the site would be of interest to anyone looking for information about the trials as it is virtually a library service of both narratives and other documents. Still, it's an idea that could be expanded upon to include more recent and varied texts.

Notable People

The notable people section allows the reader to search through names of people involved with the witch trials and then gives a brief biography of some of the important players. This is one of the most impressive parts of the site along with the maps section. As it really takes advantage of the use of hypertext. By clicking on a name with a red dot beside it (only half of them do at this stage yet one imagines this will be updated) a small window will appear with a brief biography. Click on biography at the bottom of the window and it will take the user to a larger biography of the person written by a student from the course. These biographies are just as impressive as anything found in a scholarly textbook. It is an advantage to be able to access different parts of the site from different areas as in demonstrates a good knowledge of what can be done better with an electronic text One problem encountered though was that links to the maps section and other searches was not working. Whether this is a temporary problem it is not known. Yet, to promise a feature in an introduction to the site and not deliver with no explanation is a bit disappointing.

Site Map

The site map is disappointing to say the least with just the heading for the particular section and brief outlines of that section underneath. There is a limited use of links with only one back to the home page and another to the documents and books section. When you compare this to other historical websites such as The Valley of the Shadow site it looks average. The Valley of the Shadow site uses its site map as a home page and it resembles  a building's floor map where a user can go into different rooms which will link one to various areas of the site. In terms of navigation the Salem Witch Trials site map is a major disappointment considering the promise shown in the rest of the site.

Conclusion
The web site provides good quality materials and some parts are easy to navigate because of the care staff have put in to categorizing them, other parts though have broken connections or simply won't work. Perhaps this will be only a matter of time, but some of the connections seem vital to the website functioning properly as a whole. For example, the site seems to pride itself on the map section even though when I used it there was no way to search for biographies while on the map page. Also a lot depends on which browser you prefer to use. Netscape Composer won't work with the map pages, yet, Internet Explorer won't work with loading pictures from other pages. The phrase "work in progress" can only be taken so far.
The site is obviously set up for the use of teachers, students and scholars at university level as there is no real interpretation of the documents besides the overview given on the main page. It seems to want users to construct their own narratives of the trials within the framework it presents. However, it's also designed for general reference rather then primarily focusing on presenting some kind of framework for teachers and students. Professor Ray actually states in the Press section of the site that according to web statistics, users generally seem to be educational institutions and individual members of the general public. It does not assume that its audience are novices or expert learners in the field as it basically just supplies the facts, it doesn't distinguish between general and specialised knowledge. The site is useful for students because of its searching ability. When the site works properly, a user can type in any word and receive every occurrence of that word in all the related documents. The archive provides access to material that may otherwise be difficult to find. To see the actual primary sources first-hand, for example, would be near impossible to access without the use of the archive.
Professor Ray states that the site is dedicated to putting texts online and maintaining them. "This archival site won't go away. It will be maintained for scholars in perpetuity. That is just part of the new direction of digital libraries, digital research. Our work is aimed both at research as well as application in the teaching mission. Because the site states that it is to be changeable and incomplete, a work in progress, this has the added benefit of tempting scholars and others interested in the subject to visit the site often, as new material could show up at any time." 3
The Salem Witch Trials, like many other historical periods is open to the nonlinear aspects of hypertext because most of its history has access to many different members of the Salem community and comes from sources such as court records, personal narratives and many other kinds of primary documents.
The Salem Witch Trials website can not be criticised when it comes to the quality of materials, these are definitely what make the site a vital archive resourse. When it comes to navigation, well, the website is a work in progress and is updated regularly so can only assume this area will be improved upon in the future. One would hope it will because it is one of the only areas holding it back from being one of the better historical websites.

Footnotes
1) George Landow, Hypertext 2.0, Introduction in HSTY3079: American History on the World Wide Web, p24.
2)Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Village Witchcraft-A Documentary Record of local conflict in Colonial New England, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1972, Introduction.
3)William R. Ferris, An Internet Witch-hunt, Digitizing Salem Village- A conversation with Benjamin Ray
Salem Witch Trials website: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/neh/NehSale.html
 
 

Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, Salem-Village Witchcraft- A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1972.

Hall, David. D, Witch-hunting in seventeenth century New England- A Documentary History, Northeastern University Press, New York, 1991.

Karlsen, Carol, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman : witchcraft in colonial New England, Norton, New York, 1987.

Hoyt, Charles Alva, Witchcraft, Southern Illinois University Press, 1981.

Reis, Elizabeth, Spellbound, Women and Witchcraft in America, Scholarly Resources Inc, Delaware, 1998.

Sebald, Hans, Witch-Children, Prometheus Books, New York, 1995.

By Matthew Kavanagh.
 
 

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