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Six Women of Salem
Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials | Marilynne K. Roach
19 posts | 18 read | 28 to read
Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 had been afflicted, 32 had officially accused their fellow neighbors, and 255 ordinary people had been inexorably drawn into that ruinous and murderous vortex, and this doesn't include the religious, judicial, and governmental leaders. All this adds up to what the Rev. Cotton Mather called a desolation of names. The individuals involved are too often reduced to stock characters and stereotypes when accuracy is sacrificed to indignation. And although the flood of names and detail in the history of an extraordinary event like the Salem witch trials can swamp the individual lives involved, individuals still deserve to be remembered and, in remembering specific lives, modern readers can benefit from such historical intimacy. By examining the lives of six specific women, Marilynne Roach shows readers what it was like to be present throughout this horrific time and how it was impossible to live through it unchanged.
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LadyCait84
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Pickpick

Amidst the historic play-by-play, Roach takes the time to really focus on 6 specific women of the trials: How did they each come to be living in Salem, 1692 (indisputably a WRONG place & WRONG time)? What fears, hopes, misunderstandings could‘ve led innocent women to confess? What traumas & biases, left to fester, could have brought about such hysteria?

This book doesn‘t pretend to have all the answers. But it‘s important to ask the questions.

43 likes1 stack add
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mrsmarch
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The awkward moment when you‘re halfway through an audiobook and find yourself face to face with the author! Marilynne K Roach of the Watertown Historical Society at the 125th anniversary of the Joseph Coolidge Chapter NSDAR.

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Kayla8
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Bailedbailed

I have tried to read this book twice, and bailed both times.
I just wish this book took more of a narrative/storytelling approach. Felt a little like the genealogy accounts in the Bible if I‘m being honest (so and so accused so and so accused so and so). Very hard to keep track of it all in my head.
Think I‘ll stick to the podcast I‘m listening to now instead to learn about the Witch Trials: Unobscured. Check it out!

#history #salemwitchtrials

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SMayWrites
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@AprilMaesBookHabit Ahhhh!!! Thank you so much! I love everything! Your card cracked me up 😆 I love the crystal book and new tarot set! Can't wait to break into those! I'm also super excited about the crystals you sent, I've never heard of Zebra Jasper! That mug is great and so is everything else! Im looking forward to reading the book! Sounds super interesting! You did an amazing job! Thank you!!! Happy Halloween!
@monalyisha #witchpleaseswap

AprilMae Glad you like it!!! 6y
SMayWrites @AprilMaesBookHabit I really do! Thank you!!! 6y
monalyisha The card!!! 😅😅😅 The whole package is great but the card is the real MVP. I love everything. Hope you two had a happy #WitchPleaseSwap experience! Thank you for taking part. 🖤🔮✨ 6y
39 likes3 comments
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EadieB
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Day 28 - #salem #octoberputaspellonyou

"A focused look at the lives of six of the accused, their accusers, and their neighbors who were part of a dark period in American history."
― Roanoke Times

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 🖤🖤🖤 6y
Crazeedi Have you heard of the podcast called *unobscured* ? It's about the salem witch trials 6y
EadieB @Crazeedi No I never heard of it. Sounds interesting! 6y
71 likes4 stack adds3 comments
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StellaDz
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Pickpick

This was a good pick for Halloween, but it wasn‘t terrifying because of paranormal happenings; it was frightening because it involved people. Normal people caught up in an hysteria. Voices of reason were ignored, punished, or executed. Families were ruined and innocents were sent to their death. We can look back and wonder how it happened, but I wonder if 200 years from now, people will look at our times the same.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CoverToCoverGirl I think they might! 6y
StellaDz @CoverToCoverGirl a hard truth! 6y
16 likes1 stack add2 comments
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StellaDz
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Can I break a record this year?? It‘ll be tight with just over two months remaining!! Wish me luck! 🤞🤞🤞

StellaDz 💪💪💪📚📚📚 6y
MirrorMask Good luck!!!! 6y
rather_be_reading u got this! 6y
14 likes5 comments
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StellaDz
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My little gal has joined me in the nook this evening, but she‘s not quite sure what to make of it. LOL #currentlyreading

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StellaDz
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Enjoying some wine and this maddening, yet good book in the new nook! #currentlyreading

19 likes2 stack adds
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StellaDz
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This book is maddening, angering and absolutely heartbreaking. Making it even more real, is that Rebecca Nurse, one of the unfortunate souls executed for witchcraft, is a co-worker‘s ancestor. 😢

kricheal I'm an ancestor of Martha and Giles Corey, she was hung, he was pressed to death during the Salem Witch trials. 6y
StellaDz @kricheal oh my, I‘m so sorry. I‘m learning a lot about them as well. I saw both their memorial markers when I was in Salem. 6y
13 likes2 comments
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StellaDz
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On to the next #Halloween read! Excited to dive into this one! #nonfiction #currentlyreading

15 likes1 stack add
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Bookishlie
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Because I just can‘t concentrate on pathophysiology one more minute…

18 likes1 stack add
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BookaholicNatty
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So I have been wanting to read something on the Salem Witch Trials. I don‘t know what to get tho so I always just end up getting nothing. Do you all have any good suggestions in this category?

ohyeahthatgirl It's long, but so well reasearched and written. The author also did the really popular Cleopatra bio. 7y
PirateJenny Thirded on The Witches. It depends on what type of book you want to read though. Salem is one of my big areas of interest. The author of the book you have in your hand is also quite good. There's also a podcast called Salem Witch Hunt where the first season is about the trials. The Penguin Book of Witches is good on source docs. 7y
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Lcsmcat Agree about The Witches! I found it very readable. 7y
Lea The Witches is good. My ancestor is in it! 7y
Li_21 I have this in my tbr, let me know if you enjoyed it. 7y
107 likes4 stack adds6 comments
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Ekkross
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As a girl in Yarmouth she has seen a seat in the grand stone church there made from the skull and vertebrae of a whale that had washed up on a nearby shore, a trophy from the sea. To sit in it was to pretend to be Jonah swallowed by the whale. Now, in this distant rustic land, she feels swallowed indeed, consumed by events.

17 likes1 stack add
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winemom
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The rest of my humble book haul from the other day. Idk which one to choose next?

rubyslippersreads The tagged book sounds interesting. 7y
winemom @rubyslippersreads I‘m jumping between all three, but that one is my favorite so far! 7y
15 likes2 comments
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MeJeMiller
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Mehso-so

Interesting listen about a dark part of history.

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Ekkross
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Joriebooks
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#SomethingforSept Numbers in the title. I think I have more but one of my shelves is currently hidden.

Btw my husband says he has never seen me so into an app before Litsy. Guess I found my other addiction.

Louise Yes! I find I'm favoring Litsy over Facebook by far! It's exciting to find others who love books so much and to see what everyone is reading. My TBR list is growing by the day, and I'm okay with that. 📚 8y
Bookzombie Same. I spend way more time on Litsy. I love the community here! 💕 8y
readinginthedark Yessssss 8y
54 likes1 stack add3 comments