Review
"Well-written and eye-opening!" -- USA Book News, October 2006
From the Publisher
We recently had a conversation with him about his new book.
"The first family discussion I remember started with an English lesson. 'Pictures are hung,' my mother told me. 'People are hanged.' I lived with those discussions constantly and they had a definite effect on my world view. For example, as an outward display of contempt for what my mom and dad considered a narrow-minded and dangerously-superstitious world view, they named my sister 'Susannah North Martin' after the family martyr."
Martin's book is a fascinating and enthralling read. The feedback we've had so far has been nothing but positive.
"What happened in New England long ago was tragic and horrific," Martin said. "And if someone you are directly descended from was caught up in it and actually killed by it, you might say it makes you look at things differently. For one thing, you don't automatically assume people in authority know what they're talking about. It's given me the tendency to keep my own counsel and to hold off on accepting conventional wisdom until some evidence or pattern causes it to click into place in my gut."
It has also led Martin to dismiss the usual explanations for the witch hysteria of 1692. "It definitely wasn't ergot of rye, and I have a hard time believing all the accusers were faking their symptoms," Martin said. "One vomited blood in court in front of the judges and a whole courtroom full of spectators. Others had deep skin lesions that appeared to have been made by human teeth. Some coughed up pins."
What does Martin think led to the witch hysteria that left two dozen dead?
"Like most things, a combination of factors brought it about," Martin said. "But the most powerful single element was belief. Just about everyone in Massachusetts at that time believed witchcraft was real. And you know what? In a society that fully believes in witchcraft, witchcraft has power -- it is real. In primitive societies, for example, it's been documented that people have dropped dead after being cursed by a shaman."
Does that mean there really were witches in Massachusetts?
"Oh, there were witches in New England all right," Martin said. "But that doesn't mean the people who were hanged were witches, or that the accused were actually bewitched." Martin smiled. "To find out what really happened, you're going to have to read my book."
