Marilynne K. Roach's Six Women of Salem

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Before reading historian Marilynne K. Roach’s Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials, it must be clear that I hadn’t known much about the Salem Witch Trials besides what knowing they were in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692-93. I only recognized that there were a few unfortunate women who had been accused of being witches, sentenced to their deathbeds, and brutally burned in front of the whole town. After reading Roach’s book, I’ve found out that this thought alone was false because none of the accused were meant to be burned at all but instead the whole town was called out to watch these women being hung. It created an example for the town and explained to them the consequences of being convicted of witchcraft. What I’m now recognizing is what I did ignore: how it came to be and how it all ended, who was accused, and was giving these accusations out.
Roach does an impeccable job at making sure all of these are rightfully understood. As the book unfolds, the stories of six women in particular begin to arise. The first to shake up the idea of witchcraft was the slave Tituba, who brought upon accusations amongst the other women. Bridget Bishop and Rebecca Nurse were two elderly women found guilty of being witches and were sent to hang. Ann Putnam, began as the mother of an accuser, but later claimed to see the spirits of the witches. Mary English being a rich woman who was sent to prison after being accused but managed to escape later on. It all falls down to one last woman named Mary Warren who was first seen accusing women, and later was accused. She goes through telling each story with the same amount of research and insight avoiding a bias. She also finds ways to explain thi...

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...was outstanding. She gives great insight to the horrors and the suffering and allows the reader to be placed into the same place with a large understanding of the emotions that took place. The only thing to complain about is the prolonging amount of detail on the dates and statistics. It’s hard to follow and difficult for one to pay attention and that’s where it became mundane. I can definitely confirm that it was worth the purchase and the time spent into the read. I could honestly say that I’ve already recommended it to others, and I will continue to do so. The people I’d recommend it to though is people interested in the subject and overly eager to learn about new things as opposed to my buddies.

Works Cited

Roach, Marilynne K. Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. Massachusetts: Da Capo, 2013. Print.

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