#witchtrials

Categories: Nonfiction, US History, 17th Century, Puritanism, Witches and Witch-hunts

Ratings: 3.25 on GR (20k ratings), my rating 3 stars ✨

My Summary + Thoughts ⤵️

Presented by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this book is a lengthy exposition of what scholars and historians know and theorize about the infamous Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s.

In the colonial Massachusetts lands, the witch trials resulted from a town’s mass hysteria involving people claiming possession by devil or knowledge of those working with demonic forces. Puritan sensibilities made this accusation detrimental to one’s reputation… and eventually, their lives and freedom.

Topics this book substantially covers:

• Salem: what was the town like?

• Church + Religion: What was its importance in Salem and how did town politics get involved in the church?

• Members of Community: Relevant people such as prominent families, those afflicted with bewitching, those accused of witchcraft, the authorities + ministers, skeptics.

• The Bewitching: How the first young girls acted and theories held by community, Tituba’s involvement, getting info about the accused from known people to strangers from afar

• Accused: interrogators/investigators, jailing and its conditions, trial and jurors + accusations & defenses

• Symbols: Things the puritans described as signs of guilt or trouble, including their elaborate stories of the accused’s antics and seeing black cats, red books, brooms, different types of animals, etc.

• Hysteria & Sociology: the social contagion + mass hysteria of the witch-hunt and high profile cases. Some theories on why this happened.

And much more. The book fills in gaps and bridges material with details contextualizing the trials. Anything from pointing out influences of feuding families to describing PTSD from Indian attacks, the book provides some padding to the sources. At some points, it’s a bit of a slog because it takes a lot of winding away from the point it’s making, but in all, a decent collection of info presented in a narrative style.

English Magistrate: Ye may aske, what maketh this woman a witche? What proof do ye haveth? Behold! The devil's marks!

*yanks up my sleeve to reveal my Sonichu tattoo*

In 1563, Witchcraft was deemed a capital offence in Britain. Between 1645-1646 East Anglia became increasingly concerned about witches. Matthew Hopkins known as the Witchfinder General did his part in putting “witches” to death during this time.[1] 

In 1647, Hopkins published his book The Discovery of Witches. In it, he answers questions posed to him about his way of finding witches. These include: 

“Many poore People are condemned for having a Pap, or Teat about them, whereas many People (especially antient People) are, and have been a long time troubled with naturall wretts on severall parts of their bodies and other naturall excressencies, as Hemerodes, Piles, Childbearing, &c. and these shall be judged only by one man alone and a woman, and so accused or acquitted.”

“How can it possibly be that the Devill bring a spirit, and wants no nutriment or sustentation, should desire to suck any blood? and indeed as he is a spirit he cannot draw any such excressences, having neither flesh nor bone, nor can be felt, &c.”

“When these Paps are fully discovered, yet that will not serve sufficiently to convict them, but they must be tortured and kept from sleep two or three nights, to distract them, and make them say any thing; which is a way to tame a wilde Colt, or Hawke, &c.”

During his time as a witch hunter, Hopkins and his associates are thought to be responsible for the deaths of 300 women. The means of identification usually involved some form of torture, such as sleep deprivation to coerce a confession, cutting the accused arm with a knife, needle or pin to see if they bled, and the classic “swimming test” where the accused were bound by the arms and legs and thrown into a pond (if they drowned they were not a witch.) Hopkins was paid by the towns where his “services” were provided and is estimated to have collected £1000. [2]

[1] https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Witches-in-Britain/

A Witch’s Mark or a Devil’s mark was the imprint of the Devil’s initials on a witch using his claws or a hot iron. During witch trials in the 1600s, the practice of “pricking a witch” came about where witches had pins driven into old scars or calluses to find an area free of pain that proved a communion with the devil.