@article{801922,
      recid = {801922},
      author = {Baker, Emerson W.,},
      title = {A storm of witchcraft : the Salem trials and the American  experience /},
      pages = {1 online resource (xv, 398 pages) :},
      abstract = {"Beginning in January 1692, Salem Village in colonial  Massachusetts witnessed the largest and most lethal  outbreak of witchcraft in early America. Villagers--mainly  young women--suffered from unseen torments that caused them  to writhe, shriek, and contort their bodies, complaining of  pins stuck into their flesh and of being haunted by  specters. Believing that they suffered from assaults by an  invisible spirit, the community began a hunt to track down  those responsible for the demonic work. The resulting Salem  Witch Trials, culminating in the execution of 19 villagers,  persists as one of the most mysterious and fascinating  events in American history. Historians have speculated on a  web of possible causes for the witchcraft that stated in  Salem and spread across the region-religious crisis, ergot  poisoning, an encephalitis outbreak, frontier war  hysteria--but most agree that there was no single factor.  Rather, as Emerson Baker illustrates in this seminal new  work, Salem was "a perfect storm": a unique convergence of  conditions and events that produced something extraordinary  throughout New England in 1692 and the following years, and  which has haunted us ever since. Baker shows how a range of  factors in the Bay colony in the 1690s, including a new  charter and government, a lethal frontier war, and  religious and political conflicts, set the stage for the  dramatic events in Salem. Engaging a range of perspectives,  he looks at the key players in the outbreak--the accused  witches and the people they allegedly bewitched, as well as  the judges and government officials who prosecuted  them--and wrestles with questions about why the Salem  tragedy unfolded as it did, and why it has become an  enduring legacy."--Amazon.com viewed on October 9, 2014.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/801922},
}