I am writing a paper on the Salem Witch Trials and I am trying to figure out if newspapers outside of the Salem/Andover areas covered the trials while they were occurring. I've found plenty of references to Cotton and Increase Mather's works, but I'm having trouble finding anything about any of the journalists at the time writing about what was going on.
Short of actually going to Salem or the Newseum in DC I don't really know where I should be looking. Thoughts?
Oh, well never mind...I seem to have found an answer here: www.historybuff.com/library/refnews1692.html
Apparently, since it was economically difficult to be a newspaper publisher in the COlonies during that time, there were no newspapers printed on American soil during the Salem Witch Trials; colonists received their news from sea captains bearing newspapers from England, so most of their connection to the happenings in the world was 6 months late and took place an ocean away.
All news that may have been spread throughout the Colonies about the Witch Trials would have been spread via word of mouth.