A Delusion Of SatanDuring the bleak winter of 1691 in the rigid Puritan community of Salem Village, Massachusetts, a group of young girls began experiencing violent fits, allegedly tormented by Satan and the witches who worshipped him. From the girls' initial denouncing of a black slave, their accusations soon multiplied; in less than two years nineteen men and women were hanged, one was pressed to death, and over a hundred others were imprisoned and impoverished.This evenhanded and insightful history illuminates this horrifying episode with visceral clarity, from the opportunistic Putnam clan, who fanned the crisis to satisfy personal vendettas and greed, to four-year-old "witch" Dorcas Good, chained to a dank prison wall in darkness till she went mad. By placing the distant period of the Salem witch trials in the larger context of more contemporary eruptions of mass hysteria and intolerance, the author has created a work as thought-provoking as it is emotionally powerful. |
Contents
SOWING THE DRAGONS Teeth | 1 |
A WITCH CAKE | 15 |
THE HAND OF SATAN | 24 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials Frances Hill No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
Abigail Williams accused witches afflicted girls Alden Andover Ann Putnam arrest believe Betty bewitched Boston Boyer and Nissenbaum Bridget Bishop Burr Burroughs's Calef church member claimed Cloyce confession Cotton Mather court cried daughter death Deodat Lawson devil Dorcas doubt Elizabeth Hubbard England evil examination fear fits Gallows George Burroughs George Jacobs Giles Cory Goody guilty hanged Hathorne asked Hathorne's hurt husband hysteria ibid Ingersoll's innocent jail John Hale John Indian John Proctor John Putnam judges later lived magistrates Martha Carrier Martha Cory Mary Easty Mary Walcott Mary Warren Massachusetts meetinghouse Mercy Lewis minister Narratives Nathaniel never Nicholas Noyes Parris's parsonage persons petition prayer prison Puritan Putnam Senior Rebecca Nurse Salem Town Salem Village Salem Witchcraft Papers Samuel Parris Sarah Osborne Satan seems sermon Sewall Sir William Phipps specter Susannah Thomas Putnam tion Tituba told tortured trial Upham wife witch-hunt woman women Wonders