The Anatomy of Correction: Additions, Cancellations, and Changes in the Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Trials

Abstract

The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 hold a special place in early American history. Though limited in comparison with many European witch persecutions, the Salem trials have reached mythical proportions, particularly in the United States. The some 1,000 extant documents from the trials and, in particular, the pre-trial hearings have been analyzed from various perspectives by (social) historians, anthropologists, biologists, medical doctors, literary scholars, and linguists (see e.g. Rosenthal 1993: 33–36; Mappen 1996; Grund, Kytö and Rissanen 2004: 146). But despite this intense interest in the trials, very little research has been carried out on the actual manuscript documents that have survived from the trials. Instead, studies have focused on the content or language of the documents rather than the documents themselves, and these studies have almost exclusively been based on one of the many available editions. However, the manuscript documents contain a great deal of information about the context and procedure of the trials that it is not possible to glean from the currently available editions.