Resources

I'm finding that this topic is a researcher's dream. There are so many sources that it's hard to know where to stop. I have especially found a number of primary resources which you will find links to in a new section on the side bar. These sources will be especially useful to the actors playing ministers and judges. I won't have time to relay all the great information in these sources to the actors but I want to share these links so you will have the chance to explore them on your own.
Malleus Maleficarum: The Hammer of Witches  by Heinrich Kramer was written in the 1400s and served as a guide for witch hunters.
A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft... is John Hale's book about his participation in the Salem Witch Trials.
The Wonders of the Invisible World by Cotton Mather and Increase Mather. Increase and Cotton Mather were widely known and respected ministers in the 1600's and 1700's (Cotton Mather was a sort of role model to Benjamin Franklin when he aspired to be a minister in his early life before turning to politics). Their religious authority would have influenced the actions of the ministers and judges in the Salem Trials.

Visit to Salem and Danvers

Last week I made a trip to Salem, MA to visit the location of the real events seen in this play. If anyone else is planning a similar visit, let me warn you that Salem's off season is roughly Nov-Early April. Check out the links on the side for more information about some of the places I visited. Here's what's available to see in the "off seasons".

This memorial was built in 1992 on the border of the Old Burying Point to commemorate the deaths of the accused in the 1692 witch trials. The Old Burying Point is Salem's oldest cemetery and the resting place of John Hathorne, one of the judges who presided over the witch trials. Please note that this is only a memorial and not actual graves.

  Rebecca Nurse Homestead



Because of their crimes, witches were considered unfit to be given a proper burial. According to tradition, the executed witches were buried unceremoniously in a pit near the gallows. In secret, some families retrieved the bodies of their loved ones to bury them at home. Both Rebecca Nurse and George Jacobs were reburied in this way. Rebecca's grave remained unmarked but is known to be somewhere on her family's homestead where the original house is still standing in Danvers, MA. In 1885 a memorial was built for Rebecca in the graveyard on her home. An additional memorial with the names of those who petitioned Rebecca's innocence was added in 1892.

A very kind women at The Trolley Depot in Salem told me the following story about George Jacobs:

After his execution, George Jacob's family secretely stole his body from its mass grave for a proper burial at home. The site remained unmarked but its location was passed down from generation to generation. When photography developed, the tradition evolved, each family was photographed pointing to the same spot on the family farm. In the 1950s when the property was sold to developers, George Jacob's body was found in this spot. In 1992 he was given a funeral and reburied in the graveyard of the Nurse Homestead.