My final project for History 317- Mapping History and Cartography, I will be focusing on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Through historical mapping I plan to answer what role property disputes played in the Salem Witch Trials? I will use two sets of data to explore this theory, first, where each accuser and accused lived and second, who owned what in Salem Village and Salem Towne in 1692.? With my mapping project I hope to show that long held political and property disputes contributed to who was accused by the accusers. I also hope to create a timeline/provide brief background information on the events in Salem.
My mapping project will consist of creating a story map that details the history of the trials, why they are important, why they occurred, who owned what in Salem, and where each accuser was located. I also will use a number of historical sources that I have found online- one of these sources is from the William and Mary Quarterly titled “The Geography of Witchcraft Accusations in 1692 Salem” by Benjamin C. Ray. The article contains a lot of maps that details how the geography impacted the people of Salem. However, the map that is the most important from my project is “Figure II.”
The map mentioned on figure two in the article is a mad detailing where the accused and accusers lived. The map key is A= Accuser, D= Defender, and W= Accused Witch, as you can see in the map, nearly all of the accusers lived in Salem Village. Back in 1692, Salem was divided between Salem Towne and Salem Village. (Salem Towne is located in the eastern portion and Salem Village is located on the western portion of the map.) As you can probably imagine due to Salem Towne’s location by the port there was a large wealth disparity between the two areas. This wealth disparity might have played a role in the accusations, considering a significant amount of people in Salem Towne were wealthy. I plan to use this map as a “layer map” for my final project and I will try to add names of the most famous accusers and accused. A few of the names are already on the map however, I want to provide a brief biography and how they relate to the witchcraft trials at large?
One paragraph? Do you want to expand on this? I know we talked about specific data and resources to draw on – and you seemed to be taking notes. I’m looking to see evidence of that. If you want complete credit, update with a one page proposal and email when you’re done.