The devil in the shape of a woman : witchcraft in colonial New England
onfessing to "familiarity with the devils," Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. The case of Ann Cole, who was "taken with very strange Fits," fueled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events at Salem. More than three hundred years later, the question "Why?" still haunts us. Why were these and other women likely witches-vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession? Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.
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Subject |
Witchcraft > New England. Witchcraft > Social aspects > New England. Witchcraft > New England > History > 17th century. |
- ISBN: 9780393317596
- Physical Description xvii, 370 pages ; 21 cm
- Publisher New York : W.W. Norton, [1998]
- Copyright ©1998
Content descriptions
General Note: | Originally published: New York : Norton, 1987. "First published as a Norton paperback 1998"--T.p. verso. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-352) and index. |