Books like The Salem witch hunt by Richard Godbeer

The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller that dramatizes the Salem witch trials of 1692-1693, reflecting on McCarthyism and American history through allegory.

An authoritative account of the 1692 Salem witch trials, detailing how fear and accusation turned a Massachusetts community into a scene of hysteria and execution.

Witch-hunt offers a clear, fact‑based look at the Salem witch trials, separating myth from reality in American history.

"In 1604, twenty-year-old Anne Gunter appeared to be bewitched: she suffered violent fits, fell into trances, contorted wildly in her bedchamber. Her garters and bodices unlaced themselves. She was said to be able to prophesy the future. Most remarkably, she vomited pins and "voided some pins downwards as well by her water or otherwise." Somewhat suspiciously, the three women she accused as her tormentors were involved in a murderous feud with her father. As Anne's case became ever more celebrated, Oxford dons and local notables weighed in with their opinions, providing us with an extraordinary record of her trials. Ultimately, Anne's case was appealed directly to King James I, a noted witch-hunter, and her examination in the king's imposing Star Chamber - with more than fifty witnesses - revealed all.". "Popular history at its best, The Bewitching of Anne Gunter opens a fascinating window onto the past. It's a tale of controlling fathers, willful daughters, nosy neighbors, power relations between peasants and gentry, and village life in early-modern Europe. Above all, it's an original and revealing story of one woman's experience with the greatly misunderstood phenomenon of witchcraft."--BOOK JACKET.

The Story of the Salem Witch Trials is a comprehensive history of the infamous 1692 witch-hunts in Salem, Massachusetts, providing a unique and accessible approach to an often misunderstood subject. It covers the complex decisions made by those responsible for the trials and highlights their actions that turned an otherwise minor event into a crisis that has captivated American history for over three centuries.

The essays in this handbook, written by leading scholars working in the rapidly developing field of witchcraft studies, explore the historical literature regarding witch beliefs and witch trials in Europe and colonial America between the early fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries. During these years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical power to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbours. Witches were also believed to have made pacts with the devil and sometimes to have worshipped him at nocturnal assemblies known as sabbaths. These beliefs provided the basis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for this offence. The trials resulted in as many as fifty thousand executions. These essays study the rise and fall of witchcraft prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in the Americas.

"Few events in American history are as well remembered as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. But there was another witch hunt that year, in Stamford, Connecticut, that has never been examined in depth. Now Richard Godbeer describes this "other witch hunt" in a concise narrative that illuminates the colonial world and shatters the stereotype of early New Englanders as quick to accuse and condemn. That stereotype originates with Salem, which was in many ways unlike other outbreaks of witch-hunting in the region." "Drawing on eye-witness testimony, Godbeer tells the story of Kate Branch, a seventeen-year-old afflicted by strange visions and given to blood-chilling wails of pain and fright. Branch accused several women of bewitching her, two of whom were put on trial for witchcraft. The book takes us inside the courtroom - and inside the minds of the surprisingly skeptical Stamford townsfolk. Was the pain and screaming due to natural causes, or to supernatural causes? Was Branch simply faking the symptoms? And if she was bewitched, why believe her specific accusations, since her information came from demons who might well be lying? For the judges, Godbeer shows, the trial was a legal thicket. All agreed that witches posed a real and serious threat, but proving witchcraft (an invisible crime) in court was another matter. The court in Salem had become mired in controversy over its use of dubious evidence. In an intriguing passage, Godbeer examines Magistrate Jonathan Selleck's notes on how to determine the guilt of someone accused of witchcraft - an illuminating look at what constituted proof of witchcraft at the time. The stakes were high - if found guilty, the two accused women would be hanged."--BOOK JACKET.