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Summary: The Salem Witch Trials

826 Words4 Pages

Sarah van den Barselaar
Review of literature

Review of Literature
Source A:
Wilson, L. L. (1997). The Salem Witch Trials [p 27]. London: Lerner Publishing Group.

Summary:
Tituba confesses to being a witch. In her confession she makes reference to a lady in the Bible who used the same method to kill, this only further helps the ministers use religion to support the idea of witchcraft and start the salem witch trials.
Validity:

Reliability:
This source is an extract from Lori Lee Wilsons novel The Salem Witch Trials. Lori Lee Wilson is a historian who has studied the Salem witch trials for many years. The source shows how a Puritan ministers used a mere coincidence that has something to do with a religious reference to reinforce the idea of …show more content…

However it is an extract of the novel and therefore is only showing one cause and one part of her findings. It is not bias and is purely factual based on her findings. This makes it a reliable source.
Usefulness: this source helps answer the question to what extent did Christianity cause the Salem Witch Trials as it shows that it was due to the Puritans need to purify the community that the witch hunt began. It is a secondary source so it shows what this historina has discovered and concluded after her years of research.
Limitations: this source is an extract and therefore only shows one of her findings and we do not have the full context nor the other causes she has mentioned in her novel. It is a secondary source and therefore the author was not alive during the time and cannot give a first-hand account of what actually happened but only her historian perspective on the situation. This can be useful when comparing it to other

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