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Witches' Children

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During a long winter, one after another of ten young girls began having visions seeing the Devil and thrashing about in wild outbursts and conclusions. After a cursory investigation, the town elders quickly concluded that these poor possed children were under a dreaded evil influence..... Witches The narrator of this often frightening tale, based on historical facts. Mary Warren, a bound girl and one of the ten possed. In her vivid account, she tells of the semindly uncontrollable sequence of events, of which she was part, leading to the now-infamous Salem with-hunt and trials of 1692 andof how fear and imagination run wild brout an elding no one ever expected.

This is a beautiful book. it's written in the narrative form of a young girl in Salem, who finds the courage to stop helping in the accusation of inocent women as witches. If you are looking to research the Witch trials of 1692, or just to enjoy a touching book, this is a book you have to read.

This is one sobering but highly readable book based on historical fact, which makes it all the more shocking. Seven sources are listed in the Bibliography, but don't think that you will be bored! There is nothing stuffy about mass hysteria; nothing dry in the shedding of innocent blood. The era of the Salem Witch Trials and juvenile power is a black blot on New England's spiritual copybook, yet one which we must not ignore. We keep asking ourselves; how could this farce-turned-tragedy happen; how could things be carried so far? Where were men of reason, women of compassion? Unfortunately for the victims, the science of Psychology had not yet been invented. Alas, the Devil's minions stalked and frolicked unchecked for many months in modest Salem Village.

Narrated by Mary Warren, bound girl in the Proctor household, and herself one of the ten "poor, afflicted girls," this story describes in chronological order the incredible chain of events and passionate emotions which swept through this unassuming community during the winter of 1692/93. This tale of horror and psychological strangulation began as a harmless game of fortune telling by Tituba, the slave from Barbados. Egged on despite her better judgment, Tituba obeyed the minister's manipulative niece and sickly daughter. This contagion of senselss hate and spite spat its venom through the sleepy village, reaching a crescendo of horror which resulted in the death of many innocent souls and the destruction of their shocked families. No one was safe from the dramatic accusations of the "tormented" girls, who suddenly achieved social power and status beyond mere Salem.

Just what or who unleashed the forces of evil that overlong winter? Surely the accused were not really witches--Tituba was the only person who might have wielded Black Power--but beware the fruit of stifled femininity, of idle minds if not hands. Do we blame the bored and socially-imprisoned girls, town gossips looking for slander, group hysteria, the over-active imagination of pre-teens, and one possibly real case of epilepsy? All these factors combined to distort facts and contort morality into a hate campaign, thirsting for human blood. Not even the minister's home was safe; in fact this foul contagion festered and throve there, shifting to Ingersoll's tavern, thence to the courtroom and ultimately the gallows. Dost see Goody So and So perched like an owl on the rafters? Help--she is pinching and clawing me! And the ravings of these young girls were taken seriously! The truth could not be heard; only lies were believed. Confess to witchcraft and thou shalt be pardoned.

A chilling tale of puerile illusion and adult mania, with only the swift-paced dialogue fictionalized (based on journals and trial records). Clapp's style is fluid and hooks you in from the start. Read it for Colonial history, or for Psychology or just for Halloween, but don't miss this literary cauldron of deceit and mass brainwashing. At least we can be take comfort in the secure knowledge that such horrors could never be repeated in this century of enlightenment...can't we ...?

This is an excellent book! Very gripping. An wonderfully written account of the Salem Witch Trials. This book never gets boring. I couldn't put it down. The mian character is wonderfully portrayed. Her struggle with what is happening in here town, and with being a part of it. She must decide to tell the truth, or to keep quiet and go along with the other girls. She knows if she tells the truth, she could be condemned as a witch herself. This is a book you will never forget, and will want to read over again. A definate "DON'T MISS".

I read this in early 1996 in the 6th grade. I still remember how I read it so many times and was fascinated and chilled by what it told. I'm in the 11th grade now, more than 5 years later, (a lot in a child's growing mind), and one of the few things I remember is reading that book for a whole semester, over and over again. The intrest stayed with me, and I have searched and learned as much as I can about this. I visited Salem itself in 2000 and saw the museum and memorial park. This year my term paper focuses on Salem Witch Trials relations to modren situations, like McCarthyism. I also just finished assistant directing a full performance of The Crucible. I'ver read so many books on the subject, about it and other witchcraft cases. I've even learned to preform an exorcism! Still, this book is the starting point in my memory and I learned more from it than all the texts and biographies. I have a fond spot for this book, and wish I could find that old copy I flipped through so much. I hope more people read this and relize it's not just a children's book, but a fascinating story you can't think is history.

This book was AWSOME!! I fiinshed it in a day! Patricia Clapp is one of the best writers of all time! Witches' Children recapes the Salem Witch trials and hangings of 1692. I simply cound not put it down.

This is an excellent book. It tells the story so well, you feel like you are right there. This is a very interesting part of history for me, and this book makes it exciting to read about. You get drawn in by the excellent story telling. The horror the condemned witches felt. You also see the struggle in the main characters mind. To go along with the afflicted girls, or to tell the truth and possibly be condemned herself. This is a deffinate "don't miss".