The most plausible explanation to date of an implausible aspect of
early American history: the witchcraft hysteria in the New England
Colonies that led to over 350 public accusations of pacts with the
devil and supernatural powers. With the multitude of details
typical of a doctoral dissertation - which this book indeed once
was - Karlsen (History/U. of Michigan) presents an astounding array
of facts about the accusations and trials of witchcraft in Colonial
America. Combing through records surviving from 17th- and early
18th-century Puritan settlements in New England, she describes the
lives of accusers and accused. The first few chapters bog down
under an avalanche of names, dates, places, and statistics, but the
pace quickens like a bolero as Karlsen begins to unravel and
analyze factors of age, gender, economics, historical context,
politics, Puritan belief systems, and family and community
relationships. With the patience and skill of a good lawyer
building a case of seemingly disparate and complex clues, she shows
how careful examination of each factor eventually reveals
witchcraft accusations as Puritan reactions to evidence of
independence or rebelliousness in women. This is an explanation of
witch hunts long proffered in feminist circles, but with little or
no solid information to support it. Karlsen provides the evidence.
Although some of the statistics are based on small numbers, the
author's material is abundant, her analysis keen and thoughtful,
and her conclusions make sense. In fact, once presented, they seem
to have been obvious always. An enlightening contribution to US
historical studies and to the comprehension of some of the legal
and lethal mechanisms of gender stereotyping. (Kirkus Reviews)
"A pioneer work in . . . the sexual structuring of society. This is not just another book about witchcraft."--Edmund S. Morgan, Yale University
Confessing to "Familiarity with the Devils," Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens, was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. In 1662, Ann Cole was "taken with very strange Fits" and fueled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events in Salem took place.
More than three hundred years later the question still haunts us: Why were these and other women likely witches? Why were they vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft? In this work Carol Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.
"A remarkable achievement. The 'witches' come alive in this book, not as stereotypes, but as real women living in a society that suspected and feared their independence and combativeness."--Mary Beth Norton, Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, Cornell University
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