A Woman broken & distracted in her mind: Evaluative Language of Attitude used in Petitions of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692

Abstract

This study was conducted to understand how petitioners use language to portray people accused of witchcraft as innocent, trustworthy, and undeserving of the punishment they were to face. This study of petitions from the Salem witch trials of 1692 to 1693 draws on material from 19 petitions collected in Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt (2009). The petitions were selected because they shared a genre and purpose, were written at the height of the witch trials, and sought to defend the victims.

The study combines qualitative close reading of evaluative language, using the Appraisal Framework by Martin and White (2005), with quantitative findings to identify evaluative instances and their targets. The primary focus was on the Attitude system and its three subcategories: Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation.

The findings demonstrate that the subcategory of Judgment is the dominant category emerging from the texts. The analysis shows that petitioners repeatedly portray the accused as morally pious, honest, and socially respectable, in contrast to the negative portrayal of the accusations, evidence, and legal process. Appreciation and Affect appear less often and are used to support the main argumentation based on moral reasoning. This study indicates that petitioners drew on evaluative language to emphasize the accused’s morally approved behavior, to support their defense, and to prompt the reader to question the accusations presented. However, given this study’s limited scope, further research is needed to investigate this topic more comprehensively.