Delving Into the Past...History Resources @ the SFU Library (and Beyond)

Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit's friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty. Elizabeth George Speare won the 1959 Newbery Medal for this portrayal of a heroine whom readers will admire for her unwavering sense of truth as well as her infinite capacity to love.

A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community   "I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria.   In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.   Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing: "Political opposition...is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

In an era of uncertain survival in the New World, the Devil himself was believed to prey on society--and his witches could be convicted by mere children. Deliverance from Evil brings to life the Salem witch trials, one of the most uncanny times in our nation's history. Young girls in trances pointed out neighbors, leaders, relatives--over 150 people were arrested, with many hanged for their supposed sins. Frances Hill, author of A Delusion of Satan, brings her deep historical and political understanding together with her honed skills as a novelist to produce a picture of the trials both realistic and emotional. She has written an extraordinary and gripping novel of hysteria, power plays, and love in colonial America.

Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch inSalem,Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived. Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendent of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.

Susanna English desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at the parsonage, but she doesn’t realize the leader of the group, the malicious Ann Putnam, is about to set off a torrent of false accusations that will lead to the imprisonment and execution of countless innocent people-victims of a witch-hunt panic.

At 15, Charity Fowler has lost much: her mother, and her illusions of love. Now her father has withdrawn from her, and her aunt Susannah struggles to find her place in the family. When a red bodice is found in Susannah's trunk, rumours sweep through Salem.

"A fresh present-day story infused with an original take on popular history. Forget broomsticks and pointy hats; here are witches that could well be walking among us today. This debut novel flows with poetic charm and eloquence that achieves high literary merit while concocting a gripping supernatural puzzler. Katherine Howe's talent is spellbinding." --Matthew Pearl, author of The Poe Shadow and The Dante Club A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history-the Salem witch trials. Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge. As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined. Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.

From Printz Honor winner and Your Own, Sylvia author Stephanie Hemphill comes this fictionalized account of the Salem Witch trials from three of the real young women living in Salem in 1692. Ann Putnam Jr. is the queen bee. When her father suggests a spate of illnesses in the village is the result of witchcraft, she puts in motion a chain of events that will change Salem forever. Mercy Lewis is the beautiful servant in Ann's house who inspires adulation in some and envy in others. With her troubled past, she seizes her only chance at safety. Margaret Walcott, Ann's cousin, is desperately in love. She is torn between staying loyal to her friends and pursuing a life with her betrothed. With new accusations mounting against the men and women of the community, the girls will have to decide: Is it too late to tell the truth?

This searing graphic novel goes inside the head of Ann Putnam, the only girl to apologize for sending 26 people to their death in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. In Salem's dark days of 1692 and 1693, young girls pointed fingers and accused others of witchcraft, sentencing them to torture or even death. When the cloud lifted, and accusations were shown to be false, the girls faced little, if any, penalty. Were they sorry? No one knows. Only one girl, Ann Putnam, Jr., felt moved to show remorse publicly. Fourteen years after the trials, Ann wrote a letter of apology. This is her story.

Fifteen-year-old Molly-visiting her aunt in Salem, Massachusetts, while her professor mom goes on a job interview in Boston-is in danger. First, Dora, the owner of the antique shop next door, dies in a mysterious fire, and then Brian, the son of the owner of the bookstore, falls overboard during a cruise and drowns. Molly believes that both deaths are related but her only clue is a letter she found hidden inside the cover of an old book. Molly discovers that both Dora and Brian are descendants of one of the original nineteen witches who were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. When another descendant dies and Molly's mom is kidnapped, Molly is sure she is right. Who is the witch hunter? Molly and her best friend, Chloe, vow to stop the witch hunter before he or she strikes again. Can they do it in time?

Mary, her mother, and her brother Caleb live in Salem, Massachusetts, during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. When their mother is accused of practicing witchcraft, Mary and Caleb must decide whether their mother is innocent, and if she is, how they can help her escape before it is too late.

Suzanne Weyn brings her trademark mix of history, romance, and the supernatural to the Salem Witch Trials. For fifteen-year-old Sarah Owen, having a scientist father is a blessing and a curse. He doesn't bat an eye at her psychic abilities, since he researches them; and she knows more about the invisible worlds of microbes, electricity, and gravity than most girls in the 17th century. But when Sarah travels to the Americas with her father to do more research, she's shipwrecked and lands for a time on the Gullah Islands. Later, when the plantation owners find her and send her north to Salem, Massachusetts, her abilities get her into trouble. Can Sarah save herself when she's accused of witchcraft? Or will she and the rest of the innocents she's accused with be found guilty...and sentenced to hanging?