Beyond the witch trials


Book Description

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book looks at aspects of the continuation of witchcraft and magic in Europe from the last of the secular and ecclesiastical trials during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, through to the nineteenth century. It provides a brief outline of witch trials in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Finland. By the second half of the seventeenth century, as the witch trials reached their climax in Sweden, belief in the interventionist powers of the Devil had become a major preoccupation of the educated classes. Having acknowledged the slight possibility of real possession by the Devil, Benito Feijoo threw himself wholeheartedly into his real objective: to expose the falseness of the majority of the possessed. The book is concerned with accusations of magic, which were formalised as denunciations heard by the Inquisition of the Archdiocese of Capua, a city twelve miles north of Naples, during the first half of the eighteenth century. One aspect of the study of witchcraft and magic, which has not yet been absorbed into the main stream of literature on the subject, is the archaeological record of the subject. As a part of the increasing interest in 'popular' culture, historians have become more conscious of the presence of witchcraft after the witch trials. The aftermath of the major witch trials in Dalarna, Sweden, demonstrates how the authorities began the awkward process of divorcing themselves from popular concerns and beliefs regarding witchcraft.




Beyond the Burning Time


Book Description

When, in the winter of 1691, accusations of witchcraft surface in her small New England village, twelve-year-old Mary Chase fights to save her mother from execution.




The History and Haunting of Salem


Book Description

In 1692, a small village in Salem, Massachusetts, was suddenly attacked by the specters of flying witches and all manner of evil. A group of young girls began "crying out" against their neighbors and family members. By the time it was over, nineteen people were hanged, one man crushed to death, and five succumbed to the ordeal of imprisonment. Today, despite the plague of witchcraft that had inflicted England, we still look at this one isolated incident of hysteria and madness, and ask "How did this happen?" This book offers answers to that question, along with exclusive interviews with the Salem Witch Trials top experts. A focus on the paranormal activity happening in Salem is offered in The Haunting Section. You will also find a nod to Hocus Pocus and other movies. Rebecca F. Pittman is a best-selling author of 13 books, including The History & Haunting of Lizzie Borden, The History and Haunting of Salem, and many more. Her love of mysteries has found her on multiple TV and radio programs.Her website is www.rebeccafpittmanbooks.com .




Caliban and the Witch


Book Description

"Women, the body and primitive accumulation"--Cover.




Ukrainian Witchcraft Trials


Book Description

Ukrainian Witchcraft Trials is an analysis of early modern witchcraft trials and legal procedures in Ukrainian lands, along with an examination of quantitative data drawn from the different trials. Kateryna Dysa first describes the ideological background of the tribunals based on works written by priests and theologians that reflect attitudes towards the devil and witches. The main focus of her work, however, is the process leading to witchcraft accusations. From the stories of participants of the trials she shows what led people to enunciate first suspicions then accusations of witchcraft. Finally, she presents a microhistory from one Volhynian village, comparing attitudes towards two "female crimes" in the Ukrainian courts. The study is based on archival research together with previously published witch trials transcripts. Dysa approaches the trials as indications of belief and practice, attempting to understand the actors involved rather than dismiss or condemn them. She takes care to situate Ukrainian witchcraft and its accompanying trials in a broader European context, with comparisons to some African cases as well.




Six Women of Salem


Book Description

The story of the Salem Witch Trials told through the lives of six women Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 had been "afflicted," 32 had officially accused their fellow neighbors, and 255 ordinary people had been inexorably drawn into that ruinous and murderous vortex, and this doesn't include the religious, judicial, and governmental leaders. All this adds up to what the Rev. Cotton Mather called "a desolation of names." The individuals involved are too often reduced to stock characters and stereotypes when accuracy is sacrificed to indignation. And although the flood of names and detail in the history of an extraordinary event like the Salem witch trials can swamp the individual lives involved, individuals still deserve to be remembered and, in remembering specific lives, modern readers can benefit from such historical intimacy. By examining the lives of six specific women, Marilynne Roach shows readers what it was like to be present throughout this horrific time and how it was impossible to live through it unchanged.




Switching Sides


Book Description

Starkey's devil in Massachusetts and the Post-World War II consensus -- Boyer and Nissenbaum's Salem possessed and the anti-capitalist critique -- An aside: investigations into the practice of actual witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England -- Demos's entertaining satan and the functionalist perspective -- Karlsen's devil in the shape of a woman and feminist interpretations -- Norton's in the devil's snare and racial approaches, I -- Norton's in the devil's snare and racial approaches, II




Witchcraft in Early North America


Book Description

Witchcraft in Early North America investigates European, African, and Indian witchcraft beliefs and their expression in colonial America. Alison Games's engaging book takes us beyond the infamous outbreak at Salem, Massachusetts, to look at how witchcraft was a central feature of colonial societies in North America. Her substantial and lively introduction orients readers to the subject and to the rich selection of documents that follows. The documents begin with first encounters between European missionaries and Native Americans in New France and New Mexico, and they conclude with witch hunts among Native Americans in the years of the early American republic. The documents—some of which have never been published previously—include excerpts from trials in Virginia, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; accounts of outbreaks in Salem, Abiquiu (New Mexico), and among the Delaware Indians; descriptions of possession; legal codes; and allegations of poisoning by slaves. The documents raise issues central to legal, cultural, social, religious, and gender history. This fascinating topic and the book’s broad geographic and chronological coverage make this book ideally suited for readers interested in new approaches to colonial history and the history of witchcraft.




Satan & Salem


Book Description

This book looks beyond single-factor interpretations to offer a far more nuanced view of why the Salem witch-hunt spiraled out of control. Rather than assigning blame to a single perpetrator, Ray assembles portraits of several major characters, each of whom had complex motives for accusing his or her neighbors. In this way, he reveals how religious, social, political, and legal factors all played a role in the drama.




Salem on Trial


Book Description

When Sabrina needs to do research for a local history paper, Salem helps her travel back in time to Colonial-era Westbridge.