The Salem witch trials were much more complicated than what I had been led to believe. Stacy Schiff sorts out all the variables for us with her extenstive research, thwarted somewhat by Massachusetts Bay's inability to preserve or outright destruction of court records.
The first culprit in the happening was Samuel Parris, the Salem village minister, whose niece, Abigail Williams, was struck with strange afflictions, along with her nine-year old cousin, Parris's daughter Betty. “The cousins complained of bites and pinches by 'invisible agents' They barked and yelped. ..” We single out Samuel because he may have been overzealous as a minister, taking his job home with him. He also told his flock they had a duty to love him. Puritans were encouraged to examine their behavior and that of others for evidence of evil. An Indian slave, Tituba, made it worse by embellishing in elaborate detail on the witchcraft she'd seen as the girls and others of their ilk began to finger neighbors and even family members as witches and warlocks. Poor George Burrough's, Salem village's first minister, was labeled as the devil. His major crime may have been his rejection of Salem village when he left of his own accord, tired of the back-biting and the rumor mongering.
As we know, 19 men and women were eventually hanged, including two ministers, and an old man was crushed to death.
Then there's good old Cotton Mather, who couldn't seem to stop publishing, Over four hundred books, according to Schiff. At first Mather was rather helpful, when he insisted that “spectral evidence” such as witches flying through the air on boards was not reliable evidence. Later he changed his mind or seemed to anyway. He was also positive that the end times were near. As St. Augustine had feared when Revelation was added to the New Testament, its contents were viewed as literal. Just when you're thinking Mather is an utter ninny, the smallpox epidemic runs rampant in Massachusetts Bay. Mather, who had had some medical training, was for inoculations. He paid the price. Puritans didn't like to interfere in God's providence.
Perhaps the man who bares the brunt of the blame is William Stoughton, the head magistrate of the trials. He was also acting governor and supreme court justice. When Rebecca Nurse was found not guilty, Stoughton called the jury back, pointing out that Rebecca had recognized two other accused witches when they entered the court and said something like “What are you doing here?” She had been in prison with them for months. Anyway, he sent them back to contemplate some more and she was found guilty. Stoughton's motto seemed to be “guilty until proven innocent”and sometimes not even then.
Another variable was the animosity between the Putnam family of Salem Town and the Town family of Salem Village. This was a litigious society and the Towns and Putnams were constantly squabbling about property rights. Rebecca Nurse maiden name was Town.
Stacy Schiff goes into extensive detail about what might have possessed the young girls who testified about the accused witches. She never quite says they were faking, as were the Swedish girls that Mather mentioned in his book on previous unexplained phenomena. But she implies that the girls might have had some adult help. Every time an accused witch entered the courtroom, they sent into convulsions as if they'd been coached. They also knew enough to calm down during the “touch test.” Supposedly, if you were a witch, and you touched a victim, your venom would bounce back on you and the victim would appear normal.
Schiff also implies that this sort of hysteria has happened before, as in the Communism scare of the early fifties which resulted in the hearings on Un-American activities and McCarthyism; she never does say they're happening now with the paranoia involving ISIS, but she does say Americans have a penchant for this type of hysteria.
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From the Publisher
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Jail census and prison transfers of accused witches, as of 23 May 1692.” (Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass) |
Two women meet the devil, from an early English chapbook. |
Yellow boards? Brown boards? How to do this stunning jacket — and the endpaper map — justice? |
Some office bookshelves. Note interloping Loeb Classical Library at top, orphans from the Cleopatra years. |
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Customer reviews
Reading this book is a task in itself although very well-written it is all over the place and repetitive. It is tedious at best and overdone at worst. I commend the author for trying her best however. I did not care much for one Her quoting Rumsfield I can only assume in a mocking way or her sarcasm sprinkled throughout the frenetic-paced book. Her potshots at McCartyhism and So-called Redbaiting(a noble witchhunt if there ever was) and her Pseudo-Freudian apologetics for the accusers or explaining them as if it was cabin-fever for the accusing girls. Or the comment to the effect comparing a Sighting of the Mother Of God to a spectre,The book should have been just straight to the point minus the psychology,and what everyone already knew about the Puritans and their being uptight and nonsensical to start with. A very flawed look at Salem with no answers nor a concrete conclusion by the author.
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Top reviews from other countries
Cat Lee
A good, solid book for those beginning their journey into Salem
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 11, 2021
J. McDonald
The Witches: Salem, 1692.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 7, 2020
Jon
Good but ignore the Stephen King reference on the cover!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 3, 2019Christopher R.
Detailed and informed. Hard work out of context
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 31, 2017
