Until the 1680s, Massachusetts government had been dominated by conservative Puritan secular leaders. Puritans, influenced by Calvinism, opposed many of the traditions of the Protestant Church of England, including the Book of Common Prayer, the use of priestly vestments (cap & gown) during services, the use of the Holy Cross during baptism, & kneeling during the sacrament, all of which constituted "popery" to the Puritans. Repression of these dissenting non-Anglican views accelerated in the 1620s & 1630s, resulting in a major migration of Puritans & other religious minorities to North America, & resulted in the establishment of several colonies in New England. Self-governance came naturally to them, since building a society based on their religious beliefs was one of their goals. Colonial leaders in Massachusetts were elected by the freemen of the colony, who were those individuals who had had their religious experiences formally examined, & had been admitted to one of the colony's Puritan congregations. The Puritan British American colonial leadership were prominent members of their congregations, & regularly consulted with the local ministers on issues facing the colony.
In the 1640s, England erupted in civil war, resulting in the Puritan-dominated Parliamentary faction winning & then executing King Charles I. The Commonwealth's failure under the Lord Protector's successor Richard Cromwell led to restoration of the old order under Charles II. Emigration to New England slowed significantly in these years, & a successful merchant class began to develop which was less religiously motivated than the British American colony's early settlers.
In the small Salem Village as in the colony at large, all of life was governed by the precepts of the Puritan Church, which was Calvinist in the extreme. Music, dancing, celebration of holidays such as Christmas & Easter, were absolutely forbidden, as they supposedly had roots in Paganism. The only music allowed at all was the unaccompanied singing of hymns—the folk songs of the period glorified human love & nature, & were therefore against God. Toys & especially dolls were also forbidden, & considered a frivolous waste of time. The only schooling for children was in religious doctrine & the Bible, & all the villagers were expected to go to the meeting house for 3-hour sermons every Wednesday & Sunday. Village life revolved around the meeting house, & those celebrations permitted, such as those giving thanks for the harvest, were centered there.
Prior to 1692, there had been rumors of witchcraft in villages neighboring Salem Village & other towns. Cotton Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church was a prolific publisher of pamphlets & a firm believer in witchcraft. In his book Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts & Possessions (1689), Mather describes his "oracular observations" & how "stupendous witchcraft" had affected the children of Boston mason John Goodwin. Mather illustrates how the Goodwins' eldest child had been tempted by the devil & stole linen from the washerwoman Mary Glover. Glover was a miserable old woman whom her husband often described as a witch; this is perhaps why Glover was accused of casting spells on the Goodwin children. After the event, four out of six Goodwin children began to experience strange fits or what some people referred to as "the disease of astonishment." The manifestations attributed to the disease quickly became associated with witchcraft. These symptoms were things like neck & back pains, tongues being drawn from their throats, & loud random outcries; other symptoms included having no control over their bodies such as becoming limber, flapping their arms like birds, or trying to harm others as well as themselves. These symptoms would fuel the craze of 1692.
Cotton Mather 1663-1728
Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions... Written by Cotton Mather, Minister of the Gospel, and Recommended by the Ministers of Boston, and Charleston. Printed at Boston in N. England by R.P. 1689.
Witchcrafts and Possessions. The First Exemple.
Section I. There dwells at this time, in the south part of Boston, a sober and pious man, whose Name is John Goodwin, whose Trade is that of a Mason, and whose Wife (to which a Good Report gives a share with him in all the Characters of Vertue) has made him the Father of six (now living) Children. Of these Children, all but the Eldest, who works with his Father at his Calling, and the Youngest, who lives yet upon the Breast of its mother, have laboured under the direful effects of a (no less palpable than) stupendous Witchcraft...
Sect. II. The four Children (whereof the Eldest was about Thirteen, and the youngest was perhaps about a third part so many years of age') had enjoyed a Religious Education, and answered it with a very towardly Ingenuity....
Sect. III. About Midsummer, in the year 1688, the Eldest of these Children, who is a Daughter, saw cause to examine their Washerwoman, upon their missing of some Linnen ' which twas fear'd she had stollen from them; and of what use this linnen might bee to serve the Witchcraft intended, the Theef's Tempter knows! This Laundress was the Daughter of an ignorant and a scandalous old Woman in the Neighbourhood; whose miserable Husband before he died, had sometimes complained of her, that she was undoubtedly a Witch, and that whenever his Head was laid, she would quickly arrive unto the punishments due to such an one. This Woman in her daughters Defence bestow'd very bad Language upon the Girl that put her to the Question; immediately upon which, the poor child became variously indisposed in her health, an visited with strange Fits, beyond those that attend an Epilepsy or a Catalepsy, or those that they call The Diseases of Astonishment.
Sect. IV. It was not long before one of her Sisters, an two of her Brothers, were seized, in Order one after another with Affects' like those that molested her... for one good while, the children were tormented just in the same part of their bodies all at the same time together; and tho they saw and heard not one anothers complaints, tho likewise their pains and sprains were swift like Lightening, yet when (suppose) the Neck, or the Hand, or the Back of one was Rack't, so it was at that instant with t'other too.
Sect. V. The variety of their tortures increased continually... Sometimes they would be Deaf, sometimes Dumb, and sometimes Blind, and often, all this at once. One while their Tongues would be drawn down their Throats; another-while they would be pull'd out upon their Chins, to a prodigious length. They would have their Mouths opened unto such a Wideness, that their Jaws went out of joint; and anon they would clap together again with a Force like that of a strong Spring-Lock. The same would happen to their Shoulder-Blades, and their Elbows, and Hand-wrists, and several of their joints. They would at times ly in a benummed condition and be drawn together as those that are ty'd Neck and Heels;' and presently be stretched out, yea, drawn Backwards, to such a degree that it was fear'd the very skin of their Bellies would have crack'd. They would make most pitteous out-cries, that they were cut with Knives, and struck with Blows that they could not bear. Their Necks would be broken, so that their Neck-bone would seem dissolved unto them that felt after it; and yet on the sudden, it would become, again so stiff that there was no stirring of their Heads; yea, their Heads would be twisted almost round; and if main Force at any time obstructed a dangerous motion which they seem'd to be upon, they would roar exceedingly...
From Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions… by Joseph Glanvill. London, 1689.
Sect. VI. It was a Religious Family that these Afflictions happened unto; and none but a Religious Contrivance to obtain Releef, would have been welcome to them. ...
Sect. VII. The Report of the Calamities of the Family for which we were thus concerned arrived now unto the ears of the Magistrates, who presently and prudent y apply'd themselves, with a just vigour, to enquire into the story... when she was asked, Whether she believed there was a God? her Answer was too blasphemous and horrible for any Pen of mine to mention. An Experiment was made, Whether she could recite the Lords Prayer; and it was found, that tho clause after clause was most carefully repeated unto her, yet when she said it after them that prompted her, she could not Possibly avoid making Nonsense of it, with some ridiculous Depravations...
Sect. VIII. It was not long before the Witch thus in the Trap, was brought upon her Tryal... Order was given to search the old womans house, from whence there were brought into the Court, several small Images, or Puppets, or Babies, made of Raggs, and stuff't with Goat's hair, and other such Ingredients. When these were produced, the vile Woman acknowledged, that her way to torment the Objects of her malice, was by wetting of her Finger with her Spittle, and streaking of those little Images... when they asked her, What she thought would become of her soul? she reply'd "You ask me, a very solemn Question, and I cannot well tell what to say to it." She own'd her self a Roman Catholick; and could recite her Pater Noster in Latin very readily; but there was one Clause or two alwaies too hard for her, whereof she said, " She could not repeat it, if she might have all the world." In the up-shot, the Doctors returned her Compos Mentis; and Sentence of Death was pass'd upon her.
Sect. IX. Diverse dayes were passed between her being Arraigned and Condemned. In this time one of her Neighbours...had seen Glover sometimes come down her Chimney; That she should remember this, for within this Six years she might have Occasion to declare it. This Hughes now preparing her Testimony, immediately one of her children, a fine boy, well grown towards Youth, was taken ill, just in the same woful and surprising manner that Goodwins children were. One night particularly, The Boy said he saw a Black thing with a Blue Cap in the Room, Tormenting of him; and he complained most bitterly of a Hand put into the Bed, to pull out his Bowels.The next day the mother of the boy went unto Glover, in the Prison, and asked her, Why she tortured her poor lad at such a wicked rate? This Witch replied, that she did it because of wrong done to her self and her daughter. Hughes denied (as well she might) that she had done her any wrong. "Well then," sayes Glover, "Let me see your child and he shall be well again." Glover went on, and told her of her own accord, "I was at your house last night." Sayes Hughes, "In what shape?" Sayes Glover, "As a black thing with a blue Cap." Saye's Hughes, "What did you do there?" Sayes GIover, "with my hand in the Bed I tryed to pull out the boyes Bowels, but I could not..."
Sect. X. While the miserable old Woman was under Condemnation, I did my self twice give a visit unto her. She never denyed the guilt of the Witchcraft charg'd upon her; but she confessed very little about the Circumstances of her Confederacies with the Devils; only, she said, That she us'd to be at meetings, which her Prince and Four more were present at. As for those Four, She told who they were; and for her Prince, her account plainly was, that he was the Devil...
From Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions… by Joseph Glanvill. London, 1689.
Sect. XI. When this Witch was going to her Execution, she said, the Children should not be relieved by her Death... It came to pass accordingly, That the Three children continued in their Furnace as before, and it grew rather Seven times hotter than it was. All their former Ails pursued them still, with an addition of (tis not easy to tell how many) more, but such as gave more sensible Demonstrations of an Enchantment growing very far towards a Possession by Evil spirits.
Sect. XII. The Children in their Fits would still cry out... the Boy obtain'd at some times a sight of some shapes in the room. There were Three or Four of 'em... A Blow at the place where the Boy beheld the Spectre was alwaies felt by the Boy himself in the part of his Body that answered what might be stricken at; and this tho his Back were turn'd; which was once and again so exactly tried, that there could be no Collusion in the Business. But as a Blow at the Apparition alwaies hurt him, so it alwaies help't him too; for after the Agonies, which a Push or Stab of That had put him to, were over, (as in a minute or 2 they would be) the Boy would have a respite from his Fits a considerable while ' and the Hobgoblins disappear...
Sect. XIII. The Fits of the Children yet more arriv'd unto such Motions as were beyond the Efficacy of any natural Distemper in the World. They would bark at one another like Dogs, and again purr like so many Cats. They would sometimes complain, that they were in a Red-hot Oven, sweating and panting at the same time unreasonably: Anon they would say, Cold water was thrown upon them, at which they would shiver very much. They would cry out of dismal Blowes with great Cudgels laid upon them; and tho' we saw no cudgels nor blowes, yet we could see the Marks left by them in Red Streaks upon their bodies afterward. And one of them would be roasted on an invisible Spit, run into his Mouth, and out at his Foot, he lying, and rolling, and groaning as if it had been so in the most sensible manner in the world; and then he would shriek, that Knives were cutting of him. Sometimes also he would have his head so forcibly, tho not visibly, nail'd unto the Floor, that it was as much as a strong man could do to pull it up. One while they would all be so Limber, that it was judg'd every Bone of them could be bent. Another while they would be so stiff, that not a joint of them could be stir'd. They would sometimes be as though they were mad, and then they would climb over high Fences, beyond the Imagination of them that look'd after them. Yea, They would fly like Geese; and be carried with an incredible Swiftness thro the air, having but just their Toes now and then upon the ground, and their Arms waved like the W'ings of a Bird. One of them, in the House of a kind Neighbour and Gentleman (Mr. Willis) flew the length of the Room, anout 20 foot, and flew just into an Infants high armed Chair; (as tis affirmed) none seeing her feet all the way touch the floor.
Sect. XIV. Many wayes did the Devils take to make the children do mischief both to themselves and others... "They say, I must do such a thing!" Diverse times they went to strike furious Blowes at their tenderest and dearest friends, or to fling them down staires when they had them at the Top, but the warnings from the mouths of the children themselves, would still anticipate what the Devils did intend. They diverse times were very near Burning, or Drowning of themselves...When they were tying their own Neck-clothes, their compelled hands miserably strangled themselves, till perhaps, the standers-by gave some Relief unto them. But if any small Mischief happen'd to be done where they were. as the Tearing or Dirtying of a Garment, the Falling of a C'up, the breaking of a Glass or the like; they would rejoice extremely, and fall into a pleasure and Laughter very extraordinary...
Sect. XV. They were not in a constant Torture for some Weeks, but were a little quiet, unless upon some incidental provocations; upon which the Devils would handle them like Tigres, and wound them in a manner very horrible. Particularly, Upon the least Reproof of their Parents for any unfit thing they said or did, most grievous woful Heart-breaking Agonies would they fall into... It would sometimes cost one of them an Hour or Two to be undrest in the evenin , or drest in the morning. For if any one went to unty a string, or undo a Button about them, or the contrary; they would be twisted into such postures as made the thing impossible. And at Whiles, they would be so managed in their Beds, that no Bed-clothes could for an hour or two be laid upon them; nor could they go to wash their Hands, without having them clasp't so odly together, there was no doing of it. But when their Friends were near tired with Waiting, anon they might do what they would unto them. Whatever Work they were bid to do, they would be so snap't in the member which was to do it, that they with grief still desisted from it. If one ordered them to Rub a clean Table, they were able to do it without any disturbance; if to rub a dirty Table, presently they would with many Torrnents be made uncapable. And sometimes, tho but seldome, they were kept from eating their meals, by having their Teeth sett when they carried any thing unto their Mouthes.
From Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions… by Joseph Glanvill. London, 1689.
Sect. XVI. But nothing in the World would so discompose them as a Religious Exercise. If there were anv Discourse of God, or Christ, or any of the things which are not seen qnd are eternal, they would be cast into intolerable Anguishes... Once, those two Worthy Ministers Mr. Fisk' and Mr. Thatcher bestowing some gracious Counsils on the Boy, whom they there found at a Neighbours house, he immediately lost his Hearing, so that he heard not one word... Yea, if any one in the Room took up a Bible to look into it, tho the Children could see nothing of it, as being in a croud of Spectators, or having their Faces another way, yet would they be in wonderful Miseries, till the Bible were laid aside...
Sect. XVII...I took the Eldest of them home to my House. The young Woman continued well at our house, for diverse dayes... But on the Twentieth of November in the Fore-noon, she cry'd out, "Ah, They have found me out! I thought it would be so!" and immediately she fell into her fits again. ..
Sect. XVIII. Variety of Tortures now siez'd upon the Girl... she often would cough up a Ball as big as a small Egg, into the side of her Wind-pipe, that would near choak her, till by Stroking and by Drinking it was carried down again. At the beginning of her Fits usually she kept odly Looking up the Chimney, but could not say what she saw. When I bad her Cry to the Lord Jesus for Help, her Teeth were instantly sett; upon which I added, "Yet, child, Look unto Him," and then her Eyes were presently pulled into her head, so farr, that one might have fear'd she should never have us'd them more. When I prayed in the Room, first her Arms were with a strong, tho not seen Force clap't upon her ears; and when her hands were with violence pull'd away, she crted out, " They make such a noise, I cannot hear a word!" She likewise complain'd, that Goody Glover's Chain was upon her- Leg, and when she essay'd to go, her postures were exactly sluch as the chained Witch had before she died...
Sect. XIX. In her ludicrous Fits, one while she would be for Flying; and she would be carried hither and thither, tho not long from the ground, yet so long as to exceed the ordinary power of Nature in our Opinion of it: another-while she would be for Diving, and use the Actions of it towards the Floor, on which, if we had not held her, she would have throwrn her self...
Sect. XX. While she was in her Frolicks I was willing to try, Whether she could read or no; and I found, not only That If she went to read the Bible her Eyes would be strangely twisted and blinded, and her Neck presently broken, but also that if any one else did read the Bible in the Room, tho it were wholly out of her sight, and without the least voice or noise of it, she would be cast into very terrible Agonies...
From Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions… by Joseph Glanvill. London, 1689.
Sect. XXI. ... A few further Tryals, I confess, I did make; but what the event of 'em was, I shall not relate, because I would not offend...
Sect. XXII. There was another most unaccountable Circumstance which now attended her... Ever now and then, an Invisible Horse would be brought unto her, by those whom she only called, "them," and, "Her Company... "They say, I am a Tell-Tale, and therefore they will not let me see them." Upon this would she give a Spring as one mounting an Horse, and Settling her self in a RidingPosture-she would in her Chair be agitated as one sometimes Ambleing, sometimes Trotting, and sometimes Galloping very furiously...
Sect. XXIII. One of the Spectators once ask'd her, Whether she could not ride up stairs; unto which her Answer was, That she believe'd she could, for her Horse could do very notable things. Accordingly, when her Horse came to her again, to our Admiration she Rode (that is, was tossed as one that rode) up the stairs: there then stood open the Study of one belonging to the Family, into which entring, she stood immediately upon her Feet, and cry'd out, "They are gone; they are gone! They say, that they cannot,-God won't let 'em come here! "
Sect. XXIV. ...Presently upon this her Horse returned, only it pestered her with such ugly paces, that she fell out with her Company, and threatned now to tell all, for their so abusing her. I was going abroad, and she said unto them that were about her, "Mr. M. is gone abroad, my horse won't come back, till he come home; and then I believe"...
Sect. XXV. From this day the power of the Enemy was broken; and the children, though Assaults after this were made upon them, yet were not so cruelly handled as before...
Sect. XXVI. Within a day or two after the Fast, the young Woman had two remarkable Attempts made upon her... Another time, they putt an unseen Rope with a cruel Noose about her Neck, Whereby she was choaked, until she was black in the Face; and though it was taken off before it had kill'd her, yet there were the red Marks of it, and of a Finger and a Thumb near it, remaining to be seen for a while afterwards.
Sect. XXVII. This was the last Molestation that they gave her for a While...
Sect. XXVIII. ... I was in Latin telling some young Gentlemen of the Colledge, That if I should bid her Look to God, her Eyes would be put out, upon which her eyes were presently served so. I was in some surprize, When I saw that her Troublers understood Latin, and it made me willing to try a little more of their Capacity. We continually found, that if an English Bible were in any part of the Room seriously look'd into, though she saw and heard nothing of it, she would immediately be in very dismal Agonies.
Sect. XXIX. Devotion was now, as formerly, the terriblest of all the provocations that could be given her...During the time of Reading, she would be laid as one fast asleep; but when Prayer was begun, the Devils would still throw her on the Floor, at the feet of him that prayed. There would she lye and Whistle and sing and roar, to drown the voice of the Prayer; but that being a little too audible for Them, they would shutt close her Mouth and her ears, and yet make such odd noises in her Threat as that she her self could not hear our Cries to God for her. Shee'd also fetch very terrible Blowes with her Fist, and Kicks with her Foot at the man that prayed; but still (for he had bid that none should hinder her) hei, Fist and Foot would alwaies recoil, when they came within a few hairs breadths of him just as if Rebounding against a Wall; so that she touch'd him not, but then would beg hard of other people to strike him, and particularly she entreated them to take the Tongs and smite him; Which not being done, she cryed out of him, "He has wounded me in the Head." But before Prayer was out, she would be laid for Dead, wholly sensless and (unless to a severe Trial) Breathless; with her Belly swelled like a Drum, and sometimes with croaking Noises in it; thus would she ly, most exactly with the stiffness and posture of one that had been two Days laid out for Dead...When Prayer was ended, she would Revive in a minute or two, and continue as Frolicksome as before.
Sect. XXX. After this, we had no more such entertainments. The Demons it may be would once or twice in a Week trouble her for a few minutes with perhaps a twisting and a twinkling of her eyes, or a certain Cough which did seem to be more than ordinary...
Sect. XXXI. ...We could cheat them when we spoke one thing, and mean't another. This was found when the Children were to be undressed. The Devils would still in wayes beyond the Force of any Imposture, wonderfully twist the part that was to be undress't, so that there was no coming at it. But, if we said, untye his neckcloth, and the parties bidden, at the same time, understood our intent to be, unty his Shooe! The Neckcloth, and not the shooe, has been made strangely inaccessible...
Sect. XXXII. The Last Fit that the young Woman had, was very peculiar. The Daemons having once again seiz'd her, they made her pretend to be Dying; and Dying truly we fear'd at last she was: She lay, she tossed, she pull'd just like one Dying, and urged hard for some one to dy with her, seeming loth to dy alone... Anon, the Fit went over; and as I guessed it would be, it was the last Fit she had at our House...
Sect. XXXIII. This is the Story of Goodwins Children, a Story all made up of Wonders! I have related nothing but what I judge to be true. I was my self an Eye-witness to a large part of what I tell...
From Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions… by Joseph Glanvill. London, 1689.
See Massachusetts' books & articles...
MA -- Books & Articles -- Church and Town Histories
First Church [Danvers MA.]. Proceedings at the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Parish at Salem Village, Now Danvers, October 8, 1872 ... Boston: Congregational Pub. Society, 1874
Hanson, J. W. History of the Town of Danvers, From Its Early Settlement to the Year 1848. Danvers, MA: J.W. Hanson, 1848. Reprint: Salem, MA: Higginson Book Co., 1987
Tapley, Harriet Silvester. Chronicles of Danvers (Old Salem Village) Massachusetts, 1632-1923. Danvers, MA: Danvers Historical Society, 1923
Books & Articles -- Salem Witchcraft Trials
Adams. Brooks. The Emancipation of Massachusetts: The Dream and the Reality. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1887 Feels that Samuel Parris preached “inflammatory” sermons and “garbled the testimony it was his sacred duty to truly record.”Image of a man speaking with women outside from the book "Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions…" by Joseph Glanvil
Bliss, William Root. Side Glimpses from the Colonial Meeting-House. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894 Chapter XII, “The Notorious Ministers,” is on the Salem witchcraft trials.
Bonfanti, Leo. The Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692. Wakefield MA: Pride Publications, 1971 Overview of the Salem trials.
Boyer, Paul and Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974 Describes social and economic conditions in Salem that led to the witchcraft accusations.
Boyer, Paul S. and Nissenbaum, Stephen, comps. Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1972 Transcriptions of original proceedings and testimony pertaining to the cases of Sara Good, Rebecca Nurse, Bridget Bishop, John Willard, and George Burroughs and related Salem records.
Breslaw, Elaine G. Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians & Puritan Fantasies. The American Social Experience. New York: New York University Press, 1996 Examines the life of one of the instigators of events resulting in the Salem witchcraft trials.
Carlson, Laurie M. A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999 Attributes the 1692 Salem witchcraft craze to encephalitis.
Caufield, Ernest. Pediatric Aspects of the Salem Witchcraft Tragedy: A Lesson in Mental Health "Reprinted from the American Journal of Diseases of Children, May 1943, Vol. 65, pp. 788-802."
Demos, John. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982 A psycho-historical analysis of the trials; sees desires for attention as one of the motives of the afflicted.
Fowler, Samuel P., ed. Salem Witchcraft: Comprising More Wonders of the Invisible World, Collected by Robert Calef, and Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather…. Boston: W. Veazie, 1865
Fox, Sanford J. Science and Justice: The Massachusetts Witchcraft Trials. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press [1968]
Francis, Richard. Judge Sewall’s Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of An American Conscience. New York: Fourth Estate, 2005 Insights into Judge Samuel Sewall's shift in conscience between 1692, when he served as a judge in the witchcraft trials, to his public apology in 1697.
Gemmill, William Nelson. The Salem Witch Trials: A Chapter of New England History. Chicago: A. C. McGlurg & Co., 1924
Gragg, Larry. The Salem Witch Crisis. New York: Praeger, 1992 Chapter 10, “Afterword,” compares the approaches of the various books on the Salem witch trials that were published as of 1992.
Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, 1969 States that real black magic was practiced and contributed to the Salem hysteria.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Devil’s Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1996
Hutchinson, Thomas. The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692. Boston: D. Clapp & Sons, 1870 "Reprinted from the New-England Historical and Genealogical Register for October, 1870, pp. 381-414. Written by a Governor of Massachusetts (1771-1774), also a historian. As Governor, Hutchinson had unlimited access to state papers on the trials. Includes partial transcriptions of questioning in Andover witchcraft trials, among others. The draft upon which this survived the riots of 1765, when a mob attacked his house. (A later draft went into his History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, ed. by Wm. Frederick Poole. 3 vols. Orig pub. 1764-1828. Reprint New York: Arno Press, 1972)
Kenses, James. “Some Unexplored Relationships of Essex County Witchcraft to the Indian Wars of 1675 and 1689.” Essex Institute Historical Collections 120 (July 1984): 179-212.
Koehler, Lyle. A Search for Power: the “Weaker Sex” in Seventeenth-Century New England. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980 States the afflicted girls and women challenged the gender relationship/hierarchy.
Konig, David. Law and Society in Puritan Massachusetts: Essex County, 1629-1692. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979 Suggests that the afflicted accusers in the witchcraft trials used the legal system to challenge authority.
LaPlante, Eve. Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall. New York: HarperOne, 2007 An overview of Samuel Sewall’s life by a descendant of Anne Hutchinson.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The New-England Tragedies. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868 See Chapter II, “Giles Corey of Salem Farms.” Corey did not admit either guilt or innocence and was pressed to death, thus allowing his goods to go to his heirs and not the sheriff.
Moore, George Henry. Notes on the History of Witchcraft in Massachusetts. Worcester, MA: Printed by C. Hamilton, 1883 A leading writer of the later 1800s on the witchcraft trials.
Mudge, Zachariah A. Witch Hill: A History of Salem Witchcraft: … Sketches of Persons and Places. New York: Carlton & Lanahan, 1870
Murdock, Kenneth Ballard. Increase Mather: The Foremost Puritan. Cambridge: University Press, 1925 See Chapter XVII, “Dolefull Witchcraft,” pp. 287-317, on the belief in witchcraft in late 1600s New England and on the involvement of the Mathers in the Salem trials. Also see “Appendix B: The Return [i.e.,statement]…Upon the Present Witchcraft in Salem Village,” pp. 405-6, for witchcraft trial guidelines from 1693.
Nevins, Winfield S. Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692. Salem, MA: Salem Press Co., 1916 Has a number of drawings and photos of places connected with the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.
Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Examines the effect the prominence of women in the witchcraft trials had on society; also discuss the possible post-traumatic influence of pre-1692 Maine Indian raids on the coming forth of the trials in Salem.
Parkin, Robert E. Our Ancestral Witch. St. Louis: Genealogical R.& P., [1986] About Susanna Martin of the Salem witchcraft trials.
Parrington, Vernon Louis. Main Currents in American Thought: An Interpretation of American Literature from the Beginnings to 1920. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1927-30. Suggests that Cotton Mather’s “speech and writings dripped with devil–talk” that encouraged the witchcraft “delusion.”
Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, MA See pp. 254-95 for "The Witchcraft Delusion."
Robinson, Enders A. Salem Witchcraft and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1992
Roach, Marilynne K. The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002 Day-by-day chronology of the Salem witch trials and related events.
Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge Studies in American Literature & Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995 An analytical view of the Salem trials.
Starkey, Marion Lena. The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949 Sees the witchcraft hysteria as caused by teenagers with no real emotional outlets. Image of a man flying from the book from the book "Saducismus Triumphatus or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions…" by Joseph Glanvil
Trask, Richard B. The Devil Hath Been Raised: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak. Danvers, MA: Danvers Historical Society, 1992
Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. Reprint 1959 (2 vols.). New York: Ungar Mr. Upham, a native of Salem, was one of the first to thoroughly examine all the Salem town records -- land and probate as well as vital and church -- and to analyze the trials in the light of the town’s history and previously little-known “jealousies, discontent, and animosities” of its residents.
_________. Lectures on Witchcraft, Comprising a History of the Delusion in Salem in 1692. Boston: Carter, Hendee and Babcock, 1831
_________. Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather…. Morrisania, NY: n.p., 1869
Weisman, Richard. Witchcraft, Magic and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984 A historical, theological, and sociological examination of the Salem witchcraft trials.
Whitmore, William Henry. Andros Tracts: … a Collection of Pamphlets and Official Papers Issued … Between the Overthrow of the Andros Government and the Establishment of the Second Charter of Massachusetts…. Boston: The Prince Society, 1868-74 Robert Calef’s accusations against Cotton Mather as a promoter of the Salem witchcraft hysteria, and Cotton Mather’s replies.