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"For more than a year, between January 1692 and May 1693, the men and women of Salem Village lived in heightened fear of witches and their master, the Devil. Hundreds were accused of practicing witchcraft. Many suspects languished in jail for months. Nineteen men and women were hanged; one was pressed to death. Neighbors turned against neighbors, children informed on their parents, and ministers denounced members of their congregations." "Approaching the subject as a legal and social historian, Peter Charles Hoffer offers a fresh look at the Salem outbreak based on recent studies of panic rumors, teen hysteria, child abuse, and intrafamily relations. He brings to life a set of conversations - in taverns and courtrooms, at home and work - which took place among suspected witches, accusers, witnesses, and spectators. The accusations, denials, and confessions of this legal story eventually resurrect the tangled internal tensions that lay at the bottom of the Salem witch hunts." "Hoffer demonstrates that Salem, far from being an isolated community in the wilderness, stood on the leading edge of a sprawling and energetic Atlantic empire. His story begins in the slave markets of West Africa and Barbados and then shifts to Massachusetts, where the English, Africans, and Native Americans lived under increasing pressures from overpopulation, disease, and cultural conflict. In Salem itself, traditional piety and social values appeared endangered as consumerism and secular learning gained ground. Guerrilla warfare between Indians and English settlers - and rumors that the Devil had taken a particular interest in New England - panicked common people and authorities. The stage was set, Hoffer concludes, for the witchcraft hysteria."--BOOK JACKET.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
History, Social conditions, Trials (Witchcraft), Witchcraft, Witchcraft, massachusetts, Salem (mass.), Procès (Sorcellerie), Sorcellerie, Histoire, Hexenverfolgung, Heksenvervolgingen, Processen (rechtspraak), Geschichte 1692-1693Places
Massachusetts, Salem, Salem (Mass.)Times
17th centuryShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
The Devil's Disciples: The Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials
March 10, 1998, The Johns Hopkins University Press
Paperback
in English
0801852013 9780801852015
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2
The devil's disciples: makers of the Salem witchcraft trials
1996, Johns Hopkins University Press
in English
0801852005 9780801852008
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Book Details
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"MY ACCOUNT of what happened in Salem is one of an overlapping set of stories scholars are just beginning to tell about the Atlantic Rim 1692."
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