The Salem Transcribers

When reading the transcripts of Sarah Good and Tituba's examinations, a lot of things were stirring in my head. The first being, "how much can I trust these accounts." The second being, "dang, trials were pretty straightforward and to the point in Salem." The third and one I want to flesh out in this post being, "who recorded these examinations and is there any possibility that maybe, just maybe, there is some subconscious, subliminal bias strung within them."

Ezekiel Cheever is the first recorder we need to analyze today. Ezekiel Cheever is said to have been a male school teacher in the city of Salem. He was highly respected in the schooling arena and seemed to be within high regard with the colonial people. Cotton Mather even gave a speech at his funeral. Ezekiel Cheever is depicted in The Crucible as a subtle antagonist. He's characterized by being almost blindly obedient. It's interesting how this highly respected man, who allegedly was a wise schoolmaster, was also so blind to what he possibly was encouraging unintentionally. 

Jonathan Corwin is the second recorder in the books. Corwin was a politician in Salem and very deep in his community. What's interesting about Jonathan Corwin being a recorder for the examination is that he also served as a main judge throughout the trials. It gets me thinking, how could there not lie a subconscious bias in our text when a main judge is the one doing the transcribing.

The big clear thing is that both of our transcriber's are writing from the white, male perspective. Add on top of that that it's the 1600s and we have a case to crack. I think that perspective truly does play a large role in much of our history that we read and media we consume. From movies to tv shows to textbooks, you name it. It's important to remember the perspective in which things are being written from and in turn take into account the unintentional partialities that are at play. It's unfortunate we aren't able to see from every angle these trials in Salem. I have a funny feeling we may have more life in our story if we got a female perspective, a slave perspective, a black perspective, a child perspective, and so on. Was there fear in Tituba's eyes? Was Sarah Good anxiously tapping her foot? Fiddling with her hands? Was there someone in the room that maybe felt back for them and had a tinge of remorse when they noticed that tears may be pooling in their worn out eyes? Were the judges harsh? Stolid? Laughing? What was the crowd doing? Were they instigating forgiveness? Conviction? So many questions remain.

It's unclear if we can truly ever say if the transcripts are 100% real or slightly tainted, but regardless, it would be naive to forget the perspective we are given here and not let that sit in our minds while studying history.