Reprinted from The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692, edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum
Published 1977
Seventeenth century colonists believed in witches, as did their European ancestors. The Great European Witch Hunt occurred from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Belief in magic and witchcraft was widespread in the American colonies. It was normal to profess a strong faith in the Almighty God and at the same time to employ magical charms and potions to ward off witches and the devil. Relatively few individuals, however, were accused of witchcraft and fewer still were prosecuted and executed. Accusations were often dismissed, or those convicted received light sentences. The exception played out in New England in the early 1690s. The most famous American witch hunt occurred from May through October 1692 in Salem Town, Essex County, Massachusetts.
For More Information
Books
Aronson, Marc. Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003.
Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692. Vol. 2. New York: Da Capo Press, 1977.
Hill, Frances. Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997.
Le Beau, Bryan F. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.
Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies. New York: Viking, 2001.
Web Sites
Salem Witch Museum. http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com (accessed on August 24, 2004).
"What About Witches." Salem, Massachusetts, City Guide. http://www. salemweb.com/guide/witches.shtml (accessed on August 24, 2004).
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