Talk:Ann Putnam/Archive 1

Untitled
Is a link to mass murderers really appropriate here?


 * No probably not. Ive removed it. In future just go ahead and edit the article. Be bold it's the wiki way.


 * Except when some loud Talk page editors squawk and rail about "achieving consensus first" before changes are made! (Not this page, but on many others.) Therefore, I always tread lightly and allow the people who "own" the articles to make the changes that are beyond spelling and grammar errors. Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 21:34, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Changes to the recant quotation
A number of changes to the quotation of Putnam's recanting have been made over the last couple of days, by anonymous-IP editors, and without explanation. The quotation as-was was part of the original article, and to all appearances it was written with all seriousness and due care. By contrast, the changes lately made to the quotation have not been consistent with each other, and in many cases read oddly. Keep in mind that this is a direct quotation: Putnam said what she said, and not something else, whether or not that something else would have said it better. In other words, don't edit the quotation unless you have a source that says her words were different from the ones originally put into this article. If someone truly has different information as to the actual words which Putnam used in recanting, please say so, and give your source. Otherwise, these seemingly gratuitous and erroneous changes will be reverted as mistaken (or worse). -- Lonewolf BC 04:40, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Circumstances of Apology
I think something should be added as to the circumstances of her "apology", in that it was made in order to join the Puritan church congregation. She didn't issue this apology spontaneously, out of a guilty conscience, but (IMO and implied by the circumstances) to try to win over the members of the congregation, who were bitter about the whole situation. She waited 14 YEARS to make the apology, and even then, passed it off as the influence of the devil, and not of her own doing.

I would make this change myself, but I cannot claim to be neutral as my great aunt was Sarah Averill Wildes, who was hung as a witch as result of the false testimony of the girls. - Dunc0029 (talk) 14:50, 7 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Putnam said that she was lead astray by Satan's influence, but never once did she say that she didn't know what she was doing. She never claimed that she had had hallucinations or that her mind was so clouded that she didn't remember the whole affair. It seems to me (allowing for WP:good faith in history as well as here), that she had great contrition for her reprehensible acts and was thoroughly ashamed. Her life was never normal again and the events must have hung over her like a heavy damask. Wordreader (talk) 21:42, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Citations and sources
With all the respectable websites and stacks of authoritative books on the subject, I find it hard to think that only one source could be found for this article on Putnam's life and her involvement in the witch trial events.

University of Virginia: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html, http://salemwitchtrials.org/transcript.html University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of law: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM Essex National Heritage Area: http://www.essexheritage.com/salemwitchhunt/index.shtml WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Salem+Witch+Trial

Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 23:16, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

First Name
In all my reading, I have generally seen Ann's name spelled without the trailing e. However, her signature, as shown in the article, seems to clearly have the trailing e (Anne). Any thoughts on whether she should be referred to using the latter version? I know names tended to be spelled differently by different people in those days, even among siblings, but it seems like the person's own signature would be about as authoritative source as you could get, given the time period in question (admittedly, a person could intentionally misrepresent their own name). Dunc0029 (talk) 17:42, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Also why is her name "Annie" throughout the article but "Ann" in the title? 135.23.171.213 (talk) 18:25, 2 November 2021 (UTC)