This detailed volume tells the dark story of the Salem witchcraft trials with a lively narrative and primary source documents, such as transcripts and letters, that highlight the tales and voices of both the victims and the perpetrators. Readers will learn about the harsh living conditions as well as the religious and social views of the day and how they influenced society's reactions to the unknown and difficult (or impossible) to explain. This text also meets the Common Core standards for history and social studies, such as evaluating various explanations for actions or events and determining which explanation best accords with textual evidence.

Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study. In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear, and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many traumatized refugees—including the main accusers of witches—had fled to communities like Salem. Meanwhile the colony’s leaders, defensive about their own failure to protect the frontier, pondered how God’s people could be suffering at the hands of savages. Struck by the similarities between what the refugees had witnessed and what the witchcraft “victims” described, many were quick to see a vast conspiracy of the Devil (in league with the French and the Indians) threatening New England on all sides. By providing this essential context to the famous events, and by casting her net well beyond the borders of Salem itself, Norton sheds new light on one of the most perplexing and fascinating periods in our history.

Something wicked was brewing in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It started when two girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, began having hysterical fits. Soon after, other local girls claimed they were being pricked with pins. With no scientific explanation available, the residents of Salem came to one conclusion: it was witchcraft! Over the next year and a half, nineteen people were convicted of witchcraft and hanged while more languished in prison as hysteria swept the colony. Author Joan Holub gives readers and inside look at this sinister chapter in history.

This detailed volume tells the dark story of the Salem witchcraft trials with a lively narrative and primary source documents, such as transcripts and letters, that highlight the tales and voices of both the victims and the perpetrators. Readers will learn about the harsh living conditions as well as the religious and social views of the day and how they influenced society's reactions to the unknown and difficult (or impossible) to explain. This text also meets the Common Core standards for history and social studies, such as evaluating various explanations for actions or events and determining which explanation best accords with textual evidence.

This book offers a comprehensive record of legal documents written in 1692 and 1693 in connection with the Salem witch trials. It is the most comprehensive edition of those records ever published, and includes for the first time the records in chronological order, all newly transcribed from the original manuscripts

This book traces the Alamo's history, from the Native American peoples who lived in the area when the mission was first built through the continuing efforts to preserve the historic site. Particular attention is paid to the Battle of the Alamo and how the bravery of its defenders inspired Texans during the Texas War of Independence.

When the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution authorized women’s suffrage in 1920, it was the culmination of decades of work by women who had fought to be considered equal to men under the law. Accompanied by primary source documents, this resource chronicles the birth of the women’s rights movement at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848; the suffragists’ sometimes-contentious partnership with the abolitionist movement; and the slow build toward national suffrage. The efforts of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other important leaders are recognized.