Related Resources

Researching the Salem Witch Trials is easier than it used to be. Most of the primary source materials (statutes, transcripts of court records, contemporary accounts) are available electronically. Useful databases include HeinOnline Legal Classics Library (see Trials for Witchcraft before the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer, Salem, Massachusetts, 1692; The Salem Witchcraft (Clair, Henry St., 1840); and “Witch Trials,” 1 Curious Cases and Amusing Actions at Law including Some Trials of Witches in the Seventeenth Century (1916)), HeinOnline World Trials Library, HeinOnline Law Journal Library (also JSTOR, America: History & Life, Google Scholar, and the LexisNexis and Westlaw journal databases), Gale Encyclopedia of American Law (“Salem Witch Trials“), Google Books, Hathi Trust, and the Internet Archive. 

To find books and articles on the Salem Witch Trials and witchcraft and the law generally in the library catalog and journal indexes, Library of Congress subject headings include:

• Trials (Witchcraft) — Massachusetts — Salem
• Witchcraft — Massachusetts — Salem
• Witchcraft — New England.

Books & Media

• Adams, Gretchen A. The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. [eBook]
• Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015. [eBook]
• Boyer, Paul S., Stephen Nissenbaum, and American Council of Learned Societies. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974. See especially pages 1-59. [eBook]
• Boyer, Paul S., and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1972.
• Boyer, Paul, Stephen Nissenbaum, and United States. Work Projects Administration. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692. New York: Da Capo Press, 1977. 3v.
• Burr, George Lincoln. Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1914. [eBook]
• Calef, Robert. More Wonders of the Invisible World, Or, The Wonders of the Invisible World Displayed: In Five Parts : To Which Is Added a Postscript Relating to a Book Entitled, The Life of Sir William Phips. [Buffalo, NY]: William S. Hein & Co., 2009. [eBook]
• Condé, Maryse. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. Charlottesville, VA : University Press of Virginia, 1992; New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1994. Translation of Moi, Tituba, sorcière noire de Salem: roman [eBook] . [fiction]
• Fels, Tony. Switching Sides: How a Generation of Historians Lost Sympathy for the Victims of the Salem Witch Hunt. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.
• Fitzpatrick, Insha & Rowan MacColl. Who Was Accused in the Salem Witch Trials?: Tituba. New York: Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2023. [juvenile audience]
• Fox, Sanford J. Science and Justice: The Massachusetts Witchcraft Trials. Ann Arbor: Books on Demand, UMI.
• Francis, Richard. Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of the American Conscience. New York: Fourth Estate, 2005.
• Gagnon, Daniel A. A Salem Witch: The Trial, Execution, and Exoneration of Rebecca Nurse. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2021.
• Gemmill, William Nelson. The Salem Witch Trials: A Chapter of New England History. Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1924. [eBook]
• Godbeer, Richard. The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History With Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011.
• Goss, K. David. The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2008.
• Graystone, Philip. Elizabeth Jackson of Rowley : the East Yorkshire girl who emigrated to New England and was executed as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. [Hull, England] : Lampada Press, 1993. See also "Elizabeth Jackson, An East Yorkshire Witch" (Neil Chadwick, Hull History Centre, October 31, 2019).
• Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft At Salem. New York: G. Braziller, 1969.
• Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Devil's Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
• Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1997.
• LaPlante, Eve. Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall. New York: HarperOne, 2007.
• Le Beau, Bryan F. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials: "We Walked in Clouds and Could Not See Our Way". Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998.
• Levin, David. What Happened in Salem?: Documents Pertaining to the Seventeenth-century Witchcraft Trials. 2d ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1960. Trial evidence, contemporary commentary, legal redress. [link to 1952 1st ed. eBook]
• Martin, Michael & Brian Bascle. The Salem Witch Trials. Mankato, Minn. : Capstone Press 2005. [graphic novel]
• Mather, Cotton. The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Vvitches, Lately Excuted [!] in New England : And of Several Remarkable Curiosities Therein Occurring : Together With, I. Observations Upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils. II. A Short Narrative of a Late Outrage Committed By a Knot of Witches in Swede-land, Very Much Resembling, and so Far Explaining, That Under Which New-England Has Laboured. III. Some Councels Directing a Due Improvement of the Terrible Things Lately Done By the Unusual and Amazing Range of Evil-spirits in New-England. IV. A Brief Discourse Upon Those Temptations Which Are the More Ordinary Devices of Satan. Printed first, at Bostun [!] in New-England ; and reprinted at London: for John Dunton, 1693. [eBook]
• Mather, Increase, Samuel Willard, and Cotton Mather. Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits: Personating Men, Witchcrafts, Infallible Proofs of Guilt in Such As Are Accused With That Crime. All Considered According to the Scriptures, History, Experience, and the Judgment of Many Learned Men. Boston: Printed and sold by Benjamin Harris at the London Coffee-House, 1693. [eBook]
• Mather, Increase, and Deodat Lawson. A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches: With the Observations of a Person Who Was Upon the Place Several Days When the Suspected Witches Were First Taken Into Examination : To Which Is Added, Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcrafts and Evil Spirits Personating Men. London: Printed for J. Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1693. [eBook]
• Miller, William. Tituba. San Diego : Guilliver Books/Harcourt, ©2000.
• Nevins, Winfield S. Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692: Together With Some Account of Other Witchcraft Prosecutions in New England and Elsewhere. Salem, Mass.: North Shore Pub. Co., 1892. [eBook]
• Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Legal analysis, with appendices.
• Pagel, Scott B., Jamail Center for Legal Research, and Jacob Burns Law Library. The Literature of Witchcraft Trials: Books & Manuscripts From the Jacob Burns Law Library. Austin, Tex.: Jamail Center for Legal Research, the University of Texas at Austin, 2008. [eBook]
• Perley, M. V. B., and Elizabeth Jackson. A Short History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Trials: Illustrated By a Verbatim Report of the Trial of Mrs. Elizabeth Howe : A Memorial of Her. Salem, Mass.: M.V.B. Perley, 1911. [eBook]
• Powers, Edwin. Crime and Punishment in Early Massachusetts, 1620-1692: A Documentary History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966.
• 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. Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Da Capo Press, 2013.
• Rosenthal, Bernard, and Gretchen A. Adams. Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  • Richard B. Trask, “Legal Procedures Used during the Salem Witch Trials and a Brief History of the Published Versions of the Records”.
• Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Schiff, Stacy. The Witches: Salem, 1692. First edition. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2015.
• Upham, Charles W. (Charles Wentworth). Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions On Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. Boston: Wiggin and Lunt, 1867. [eBook]
• Wahl, Karen, Lawrence J. Ross, Mark W. Podvia, and American Association of Law Libraries. Meeting (105th : 2012 : Boston). The Law of the Salem Witch Trials. [Chicago, Illinois: American Association of Law Libraries], 2012. [CD-ROM]
• Weisman, Richard, and American Council of Learned Societies. Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984.
  • Includes a chapter on “The Crime of Witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay  Historical Background and Pattern of Prosecution.”  Appendixes includes lists of legal actions against witchcraft prior to the Salem prosecutions, Massachusetts Bay witchcraft defamation suits, persons accused of witchcraft in Salem, confessors, allegations of ordinary witchcrafts by case, afflicted persons.
• Woodward, W. Elliot (William Elliot). Records of Salem Witchcraft, Copied From the Original Documents. Roxbury, Mass.: Priv. Print. for W.E. Woodward, 1864. 2v. [eBook]

Journal Articles

• Brown, David C. "The Case of Giles Corey." Essex Institute. Historical Collections. (EIHC). 121 (1985): 282-299.
• Brown, David C. "The Forfeitures at Salem, 1692." The William and Mary Quarterly 50, no. 1 (1993): 85-111.
• Craker, Wendel D. “Spectral Evidence, Non-Spectral Acts of Witchcraft, and Confession at Salem in 1692.” The Historical Journal 40, no. 2 (1997): 331.
  • Table 1: Chronological chart of accusations of spectral appearance, at 338-339.
  • Table 2: Chronological chart of accusations of non-spectral acts of witchcraft, at 341.
  • Table 3: Chronological chart of confessions, at 344-345.
  • Table 4: Chronological chart of trials, at 348.
  • Master list: Chronological chart of accusations, at 351-358.
• Eaton, Rebecca Elise. “The Legitimacy of Spectral Evidence during the Salem Witchcraft Trials,” 2013. [eBook - thesis]
• Hoffer, Peter Charles. “Invisible Worlds and Criminal Trials: The Cases of John Proctor and O. J. Simpson.” American Journal of Legal History 41, no. 3 (July 1997): 287–314.
• Holmes, Clive. “The Opinion of the Cambridge Association, 1 August 1692: A Neglected Text of the Salem Witch Trials.” The New England Quarterly, no. 4 (2016): 643.
• Payne, Daniel G. “Defending against the Indefensible: Spectral Evidence at the Salem Witchcraft Trials.” Essex Institute Historical Collections 129, no. 1 (January 1993): 62–83.
• Pusey, Allen. “Oct. 29, 1692: Special Witch Trials Dissolved.” ABA Journal, October 2015, 1.
• Young, Martha M. “The Salem Witch Trials 300 Years Later: How Far Has the American Legal System Come? How Much Further Does It Need to Go?” Tulane Law Review 64 (November 1, 1989).

Blog Posts

• Evans, Rachel, David Rutland, Marie Mize, & Sharon Bradley. “An Early Legal History of Witchcraft,” A Library with a View, February 18, 2019 (Alexander Campbell King Law Library, University of Georgia School of Law blog).
• Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “The Salem Witch Trials Victims: Who Were They?” History of Massachusetts Blog, August 19, 2015.
• Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “Abigail Williams: The Mysterious Afflicted Girl.” History of Massachusetts Blog, October 6, 2015.
• Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “History of the Salem Witch Trials.” History of Massachusetts Blog, August 18, 2011.
• Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “Best Books about the Salem Witch Trials.” History of Massachusetts Blog, February 10, 2016.
• Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “Salem Witch Trials: Primary Sources.” History of Massachusetts Blog, July 7, 2018.
• "Welcome to Witchtober." The Burns Brief Library Blog (The Jacob Burns Law Library, George Washington). October 8, 2019.
  • "Part 2: Accusations of Witchcraft." October 11, 2019.
  • "Part 3: Samuel Parris." Octobere 17, 2019.
  • "Part 4: Tituba." October 22, 2019.
  • "Part 5: Abigail Williams." October 23, 2019.
  • "Part 6: Sarah Osborne." October 28, 2019.

Websites

• Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project (Benjamin Ray and the University of Virginia)(includes links to and online searchable text of the transcription of court records as published in Boyer/Nissenbaum's The Salem Witchcraft Papers, revised 2011, and e-versions of contemporary works).
• The Cornell University Witchcraft Collection (includes a Digital Witchcraft Collection)(The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library).
• Famous American Trials:  Salem Witch Trials, 1692 (Prof. Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School) .
• Witchcraft and the Law (Christine Corcos, LSU Law). [bibliography]