In the devil's snare : the Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692 / by Mary Beth Norton.
2002
BF1575 .N67 2002 (Mapit)
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Title
In the devil's snare : the Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692 / by Mary Beth Norton.
Author
Norton, Mary Beth.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
037540709X
9780375407093
0965460975
9780965460972
9780375407093
0965460975
9780965460972
Imprint
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Language
English
Description
436 p. ; 25 cm.
Call Number
BF1575 .N67 2002
Dewey Decimal Classification
133.4/3/097445
Summary
In January 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, two young girls began to suffer from inexplicable fits. Seventeen months later, after legal action had been taken against 144 people, 20 of them put to death, the ignominious Salem witchcraft trials finally came to an end. Mary Beth Norton gives us a unique account of the events at Salem, helping us to understand them as they were understood by those who lived through the frenzy. Describing the situation from a seventeenth-century perspective, Norton examines the crucial turning points, the accusers, the confessors, the judges, and the accused, among whom were thirty-eight men. She shows how the situation spiraled out of control following a cascade of accusations beginning in mid-April. She explores the role of gossip and delves into the question of why women and girls under the age of twenty-five, who were the most active accusers and who would normally be ignored by male magistrates, were suddenly given absolute credence. Norton moves beyond the immediate vicinity of Salem to demonstrate how the Indian wars on the Maine frontier in the last quarter of that century stunned the collective mindset of northeastern New England and convinced virtually everyone that they were in the devil's snare. And she makes clear that ultimate responsibility for allowing the crisis to reach the heights it did must fall on the colony's governor, council, and judges.
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Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Under an evil hand
Gospel women
Pannick at the Eastward
Dreadfull apparition of a minister
Many offenders in custody
Endeavors of the judges
Burroughs their ringleader
All sorts of objections
New witch-land.
Under an evil hand
Gospel women
Pannick at the Eastward
Dreadfull apparition of a minister
Many offenders in custody
Endeavors of the judges
Burroughs their ringleader
All sorts of objections
New witch-land.