Download or read book The Real Witches of New England written by Ellen Evert Hopman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the origins and history of the New England witch hysteria, its continuing repercussions, and the multilayered practices of today’s modern witches • Shares the stories of 13 accused witches from the New England colonies through interviews with their living descendants • Explores the positive role witches played in rural communities until the dawn of the industrial age, despite ongoing persecution • Includes in-depth interviews with 25 modern witchcraft practitioners, interwoven with practical information on the sacred calendar, herb lore, spells, and magical practices New England has long been associated with witches. And while the Salem witch trials happened long ago, the prejudices and fears engendered by the witchcraft hysteria still live on in our culture. What forces were at work that brought the witch hysteria quickly from Europe to the new American colony, a place of religious freedom--and what caused these prejudices to linger centuries after the fact? Weaving together history, sacred lore, modern practice, and the voices of today’s witches, Ellen Evert Hopman offers a new, deeper perspective on American witchcraft and its ancient pagan origins. Beginning with the “witch hysteria” that started in Europe and spread to the New World, Hopman explores the witch hunts, persecutions, mass hysteria, and killings, concluding that between forty and sixty thousand women and men were executed as witches. Combining records of known events with moving interviews with their descendants, she shares the stories of 13 New England witches persecuted during the witch trials, including Tituba and Mary Bliss Parsons, the Witch of Northhampton. Despite the number of false accusations during the witch hysteria in the New England colonies, Hopman reveals how there were practicing witches during that time and describes the positive role witches played in rural communities until the dawn of the industrial age. Exploring how the perception and practices of witches has evolved and expanded over the centuries, Hopman also includes in-depth interviews with 25 modern-day practitioners from a variety of pagan faiths, including druids, wiccans, Celtic reconstructionists, and practitioners of the fairy faith. Emerging from their insights is a treasure trove of practical information on the sacred calendar, herb lore, spells, and magical practices. Bringing together past and present, Hopman reveals what it really means to be a “witch,” redefining the label with dignity and spiritual strength.
Download or read book Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases 1648 1706 written by George Lincoln Burr and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Witchcraft in Old and New England written by George Lyman Kittredge and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Storm of Witchcraft written by Emerson W. Baker and published by Pivotal Moments in American Hi. This book was released on 2015 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an historical analysis of the Salem witch trials, examining the factors that may have led to the mass hysteria, including a possible occurrence of ergot poisoning, a frontier war in Maine, and local political rivalries.
Download or read book Witch Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England written by David D. Hall and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2005-02-04 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This superb documentary collection illuminates the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting in seventeenth-century New England. The cases examined begin in 1638, extend to the Salem outbreak in 1692, and document for the first time the extensive Stamford-Fairfield, Connecticut, witch-hunt of 1692–1693. Here one encounters witch-hunts through the eyes of those who participated in them: the accusers, the victims, the judges. The original texts tell in vivid detail a multi-dimensional story that conveys not only the process of witch-hunting but also the complexity of culture and society in early America. The documents capture deep-rooted attitudes and expectations and reveal the tensions, anger, envy, and misfortune that underlay communal life and family relationships within New England’s small towns and villages. Primary sources include court depositions as well as excerpts from the diaries and letters of contemporaries. They cover trials for witchcraft, reports of diabolical possessions, suits of defamation, and reports of preternatural events. Each section is preceded by headnotes that describe the case and its background and refer the reader to important secondary interpretations. In his incisive introduction, David D. Hall addresses a wide range of important issues: witchcraft lore, antagonistic social relationships, the vulnerability of women, religious ideologies, popular and learned understandings of witchcraft and the devil, and the role of the legal system. This volume is an extraordinarily significant resource for the study of gender, village politics, religion, and popular culture in seventeenth-century New England.
Download or read book Damned Women written by Elizabeth Reis and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-18 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her analysis of the cultural construction of gender in early America, Elizabeth Reis explores the intersection of Puritan theology, Puritan evaluations of womanhood, and the Salem witchcraft episodes. She finds in those intersections the basis for understanding why women were accused of witchcraft more often than men, why they confessed more often, and why they frequently accused other women of being witches. In negotiating their beliefs about the devil's powers, both women and men embedded womanhood in the discourse of depravity.Puritan ministers insisted that women and men were equal in the sight of God, with both sexes equally capable of cleaving to Christ or to the devil. Nevertheless, Reis explains, womanhood and evil were inextricably linked in the minds and hearts of seventeenth-century New England Puritans. Women and men feared hell equally but Puritan culture encouraged women to believe it was their vile natures that would take them there rather than the particular sins they might have committed.Following the Salem witchcraft trials, Reis argues, Puritans' understanding of sin and the devil changed. Ministers and laity conceived of a Satan who tempted sinners and presided physically over hell, rather than one who possessed souls in the living world. Women and men became increasingly confident of their redemption, although women more than men continued to imagine themselves as essentially corrupt, even after the Great Awakening.
Download or read book Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts written by Peter Muise and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts is a collection of legends and historical accounts about witches and warlocks from the Bay State. Organized by region, city and town, the book's dozens of stories include the earliest Puritan accounts of 17th century witches, urban legends about desolate locations haunted by ghostly witch hunt victims, tales of Cape Cod sailors battling witches, and other stories of sinister (and sometimes sympathetic) spellcasters. Massachusetts has a rich history of witchcraft that spans nearly four centuries. Most people are aware of the Salem witch trials but fewer know about the Dogtown witches, the Pepperell farmer who hired a hypnotist to save his bewitched daughter, or Half-Hanged Mary, the witch who died twice and inspired The Handmaid's Tale. These stories are known locally in the towns where they occurred but have never been collected into one book before.
Download or read book The Witches written by Stacy Schiff and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic. As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, The Witches is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story -- the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.
Download or read book Cases of Male Witchcraft in Old and New England 1592 1692 written by E. J. Kent and published by Brepols Pub. This book was released on 2013 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this book include: Nicholas Stockdale, Norfolk, 1593-1619; Edwin Haddesley, Essex, 1597-1607; John Lowes, Suffolk, 1600-45; Hugh Parsons, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1648-52; John Godfrey, Massachusetts, 1640-75; and George Burroughs, Salem Village, Massachusetts, 1692.
Download or read book The Salem Witch Trials written by Don Nardo and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mass hysteria in the late 17th century led to trials of people suspected to be witches in Salem, Massachusetts. Anyone could be accused of causing mysterious maladies or unfortunate occurrences, such as the death of cattle. Readers discover important facts and captivating details about this fascinating time in American history. The dangers of leveling accusations without proof and succumbing to panic are discussed in this engaging text, which is supplemented with a fact-filled timeline, full-color photographs, and primary sources.
Download or read book New England s Witches and Wizards written by Robert Ellis Cahill and published by Old Saltbox. This book was released on 1992 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Funny and fearful true stories of witches, innocent victims and their accusers in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Curses that seemingly worked their magic and cures by healers that begot them the gallows. Emphasis is on Salem Village in 1692, where 20 accused of witchcraft were executed."
Download or read book A Fever in Salem written by Laurie M. Carlson and published by Ivan R. Dee Publisher. This book was released on 1999 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laurie Winn Carlson offers an innovative explanation for the madness behind the Salem Witch Trials.
Download or read book Creating Connecticut written by Walter W. Woodward and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Connecticut State Historian Walter Woodward helps us understand how people and events in Connecticut’s past played crucial roles in forming the culture and character of Connecticut today. Woodward, a gifted story-teller, brings the history we thought we knew to life in new ways, from the nearly forgotten early presence of the Dutch, to the time when Connecticut was New England’s fiercest prosecutor of witches, the decades when Connecticans were rapidly leaving the state, and the years when Irish immigrants were hurrying into it. Whether it’s his investigation into the unusually rough justice meted out to Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, or a peek into Mark Twain’s smoking habits, Creating Connecticut will leave you thinking about our state’s past––and its future––in a whole new way.
Download or read book Vexed with Devils written by Erika Gasser and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-12-15 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern England through the last official trials in colonial New England Those possessed by the devil in early modern England usually exhibited a common set of symptoms: fits, vomiting, visions, contortions, speaking in tongues, and an antipathy to prayer. However, it was a matter of interpretation, and sometimes public opinion, if these symptoms were visited upon the victim, or if they came from within. Both early modern England and colonial New England had cases that blurred the line between witchcraft and demonic possession, most famously, the Salem witch trials. While historians acknowledge some similarities in witch trials between the two regions, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of witches were women, the histories of these cases primarily focus on local contexts and specifics. In so doing, they overlook the ways in which manhood factored into possession and witchcraft cases. Vexed with Devils is a cultural history of witchcraft-possession phenomena that centers on the role of men and patriarchal power. Erika Gasser reveals that witchcraft trials had as much to do with who had power in the community, to impose judgement or to subvert order, as they did with religious belief. She argues that the gendered dynamics of possession and witchcraft demonstrated that contested meanings of manhood played a critical role in the struggle to maintain authority. While all men were not capable of accessing power in the same ways, many of the people involved—those who acted as if they were possessed, men accused of being witches, and men who wrote possession propaganda—invoked manhood as they struggled to advocate for themselves during these perilous times. Gasser ultimately concludes that the decline of possession and witchcraft cases was not merely a product of change over time, but rather an indication of the ways in which patriarchal power endured throughout and beyond the colonial period. Vexed with Devils reexamines an unnerving time and offers a surprising new perspective on our own, using stories and voices which emerge from the records in ways that continue to fascinate and unsettle us.
Download or read book Detestable and Wicked Arts written by Paul B. Moyer and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Detestable and Wicked Arts, Paul B. Moyer places early New England's battle against black magic in a transatlantic perspective. Moyer provides an accessible and comprehensive examination of witch prosecutions in the Puritan colonies that discusses how their English inhabitants understood the crime of witchcraft, why some people ran a greater risk of being accused of occult misdeeds, and how gender intersected with witch-hunting. Focusing on witchcraft cases in New England between roughly 1640 and 1670, Detestable and Wicked Arts highlights ties between witch-hunting in the New and Old Worlds. Informed by studies on witchcraft in early modern Europe, Moyer presents a useful synthesis of scholarship on occult crime in New England and makes new and valuable contributions to the field.
Download or read book The Salem Witch Trials written by Marilynne K. Roach and published by Taylor Trade Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Salem Witch Trials is based on over twenty-five years of archival research--including the author's discovery of previously unknown documents--newly found cases and court records. From January 1692 to January 1697 this history unfolds a nearly day-by-day narrative of the crisis as the citizens of New England experienced it.
Download or read book The Wonders of the Invisible World written by Cotton Mather and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
