The Enemy Within (43 page)

CHAPTER THREE

Since its publication in 1486, the
Malleus Maleficarum
, by Heinrich Kramer (or Institoris, his Latin name) and Jacob Sprenger has undergone numerous reprintings in many languages. Until recently, the most accessible English version—and the one used for the present chapter—was Montague Summers, ed. and trans. (London, 1928; repr. New York, 1948 and 1971). A new and definitive edition has just appeared: Christopher Mackay,
Malleus Maleficarum
(2 volumes, New York, 2007). Useful comment on the
Malleus
can be found in Sydney Anglo, ed.,
The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft
(London, 1977), and the papers from a 1987 conference (Bayreuth, Germany) published in Peter Segl, ed.,
Der Hexenhammer: Enstehung und umfeld des malleus maleficarum von 1487
(Cologne/Berlin, 1988). On the career of Summers, see Joseph Jerome,
Montague Summers
(London, 1965), and Summers's own
The Galanty Show: An Autobiography
(London, 1980). The paragraphs with which this chapter concludes present entries taken from the online bookseller
Amazon.com
.

 
CHAPTER FOUR

The Windsor, Connecticut, witchcraft case of 1654 has been pieced together from legal evidence published in
Records of the Particular Court of Connecticut, 1639-1663
(Connecticut Historical Society,
Collections
, vol. 22), passim, and personal documents included in Homer Worthington Brainerd et al.,
The Gilbert Family
(New Haven, Conn., 1953). Details in the chapter's opening section—on the training-field accident that claimed Henry Stiles's life—are transposed from what is known generally about early New England militia activities. The final section, imagining the way the town's minister might have preached on this event, is based on actual sermons given in response to similar situations: for example, Deodat Lawson, “Christ's Fidelity the Only Shield Against Satan's Malignity” (2nd ed., London, 1704) and Samuel Willard, “Useful Instructions for a Professing People in Times of Great Security and Degeneracy” (Cambridge, Mass., 1673). On the settlement and early history of Windsor, see Henry R. Stiles,
History of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut
(New York, 1859) and Linda A. Bissell, “Family, Friends, and Neighbors: Social Interaction in Seventeenth-Century Windsor, Connecticut,” Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University (1973).

CHAPTER FIVE

The bulk of this chapter is rooted in the author's own archival research, much of it carried out in the 1970s and published in
Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England
(New York, 1982). But newer work has also been incorporated where appropriate. For a useful overview of magic and popular religion in colonial America as a whole, see Jon Butler, “Magic, Astrology, and the Early American Religious Heritage 1600-1760,”
American Historical Review
, 84:317-46 (1979); and see also scattered references to the same matters in Butler,
Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People
(Cambridge, Mass., 1990), passim. For recent discussions specific to early New England, see Richard Godbeer,
The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England
(New York, 1992); Richard Godbeer,
Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692
(New York, 2005); David D. Hall,
Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
(New York, 1989); Carol Karlsen,
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England
(New York, 1987); Elizabeth Reis,
Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1997); and Richard Weisman,
Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts
(Amherst, Mass., 1984). Scholarly work on witchcraft among the various colonial populations outside New England is quite thin. On Virginia, see Philip Alexander Bruce,
The Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century
, vol. 2 (New York, 1893), ch. 25. Materials from the last witch trial in Virginia (or anywhere in the colonies) are published in George Lincoln Burr, ed.,
Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706
(New York, 1914), 435-42. For cases of witch prosecution in New York and Pennsylvania, see ibid., 39-52, 79-88; see also Amandus Johnson,
The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, 1638-1664
, vol. 2 (New York, 1911), 454-60. For Maryland cases, see Hester Dorsey Richard-son,
Side-Lights on Maryland History
(Baltimore, Md., 1908), ch. 31. On colonists' perceptions of Native American witchcraft and “devil worship,” see Alfred Cave, “Indian Shamans and English Witches,”
Essex Institute Historical Collections
, 128:241-54 (1992); David S. Lovejoy, “Satanizing the American Indian,”
New England Quarterly
, 67:603-21 (1994); and William S. Simmons, “Cultural Bias in the New England Puritan Perception of Indians,”
William and Mary Quarterly
, 3rd ser., 38:56-72 (1981). On witchcraft, sorcery, and “poison” among African American slaves, and the response of their owners, see Philip D. Morgan,
Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1998), 610-25 and passim.

 
CHAPTER SIX

A somewhat different rendering of the story of Mary Parsons, accused witch, appears in John Demos,
Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England
(New York, 1982), ch. 8. A lengthy file of manuscript depositions from the several Parsons trials is in the Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Court Papers: Original Depositions and Other Materials (Middlesex County Courthouse, Cambridge, Mass.), folder 16, papers 626, 646-74; other testimonies are published in Samuel G. Drake,
Annals of Witchcraft in New England
(New York, 1869), 219-56; and in Joseph H. Smith, ed.,
Colonial Justice in Western Massachusetts
(Cambridge, Mass., 1961), passim. Genealogical material for the Blisses, Mary Parsons's natal family, can be found in
The American Genealogist
, 52:193-97 (1976); and in John Homer Bliss,
The Genealogy of the Bliss Family in America
(Boston, 1881); for the Lymans, in Mary Lovering Holman,
Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens
(Concord. N.H., 1948), 383-87; and in Coleman Lyman,
Genealogy of the Lyman Family in Great Britain and America
(Albany, N.Y., 1872); and for the Bridgmans, in Joseph Clark Bridgman,
Genealogy of the Bridgman Family
(Hyde Park, Mass., 1894). See also Henry M. Burt,
Cornet Joseph Parsons
(Garden City, N.Y., 1898). Other evidence bearing on the intertwined lives of these families appears in
Records of the Particular Court of Connecticut, 1639-1663
(Connecticut Historical Society,
Collections
, vol. 22) and Colonial Records of Connecticut (ms. Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Conn.), passim. Several local histories include pertinent information; for example, Joseph Russell Trumbull,
The History of Northampton, Mass.
(Northampton, Mass., 1898); Mason A. Green,
Spring field, 1636-86
(Springfield, Mass., 1888); and Stephen Innes,
Labor in a New Land: Economy and Society in Seventeenth-Century Springfield
(Princeton, N.J., 1983). The vignette with which the chapter begins—presenting a conversation among three local women—is imagined.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Materials from, and about, the trial of Rebecca Nurse are plentiful. A full transcript of her examination and indictment, together with witness testimonies for and against her and petitions on her behalf, can be found in Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds.,
The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692
(New York, 1977), vol. 2, 583-608. Accounts by contemporaries include Deodat Lawson,
A Brief and True Narrative of Some Remarkable Passages Relating to . . . Witchcraft
(Boston, 1692), and Robert Calef,
More Wonders of the Invisible World
(London, 1700). Both are reprinted in George Lincoln Burr,
Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706
(New York, 1914); see especially 157-60, 357- 60. A sympathetic description of her case, with some useful family history, appears in Charles S. Tapley,
Rebecca Nurse: Saint But Witch Victim
(Boston, 1930). Of course, she also figures prominently in all the recent histories of the Salem witch-hunt. (See references for chapter 8.) A Nurse family genealogy is included in Sidney Perley,
The History of Salem, Mass.
vol. 2 (Salem, 1924- 28), 143. For material on the long-standing dispute between members of the Towne, Nurse, and Putnam families, see Persis McMillen,
Currents of Malice: Mary Towne Esty and Her Family in Salem Witchcraft
(Portsmouth, N.H., 1990); pertinent legal evidence on the same matters is presented in Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds.,
Salem Village Witchcraft: A Documentary History of Local Conflict in Colonial New England
(New York, 1972), 148-54, 235-37. A lengthy discussion of the vicissitudes of the Putnam family (principal accusers of Rebecca Nurse in the witch trials) can be found in Boyer and Nissenbaum,
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft
(Cambridge, Mass., 1974), ch. 5. A Putnam genealogy is in Perley,
History of Salem
, vol. 2, 109-11; see also Eben Putnam,
A History of the Putnam Family
(Salem, Mass., 1891). The chapter's concluding section recounts a visit to pertinent sites by the author and Penelope (Demos) Lawrence.

 
CHAPTER EIGHT

The literature on the Salem witch-hunt is enormous: only a fraction can be noted here. The single most comprehensive treatment—a virtual encyclopedia of the entire affair, referencing hundreds of individual participants—is Marilynne K. Roach,
The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege
(New York, 2002). Most (not all) of the manuscript trial records are in the Essex County Court Archives, Salem Witchcraft Papers, currently on deposit in the James Duncan Phelps Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. Most of these, in turn, are published in Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds.,
The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692
(New York, 1977); a new and fuller edition is forthcoming. A sampling of sermons and other contemporaneous writings on the trials can be found in George Lincoln Burr,
Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706
(New York, 1914). The rest of these notes will cite the various works discussed in the chapter's concluding section. In order of appearance they are: John Hale,
A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft
(Boston, 1702); Thomas Hutchinson,
The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay
, 2 vols. (Boston, 1764; repr. Cambridge, Mass., 1936); George Bancroft,
History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent
, 11 vols. (Boston, 1834-75); Charles W. Upham,
Salem Witchcraft
(Boston, 1867); George M. Beard,
The Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft Excitement of 1692
(New York, 1882); James Truslow Adams,
The Founding of New England
(Boston, 1921); Vernon L. Parrington,
Main Currents of American Thought: The Colonial Mind, 1620-1800
(New York, 1927); Samuel Eliot Morison,
The Puritan Pronaos: Studies in the Intellectual Life of New England in the Seventeenth Century
(Cambridge, Mass., 1936); Perry Miller,
The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century
(Boston, 1939); Ernest Caulfield, “Pediatric Aspects of the Salem Witchcraft Tragedy,”
American Journal of Diseases of Children
, 65:788-802 (1943); Marion L. Starkey,
The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials
(New York, 1949); Arthur Miller,
The Crucible
(New York, 1952); Kai T. Erikson,
Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance
(New York, 1966); Chadwick Hansen,
Witchcraft at Salem
(New York, 1969); Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum,
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft
(Cambridge, Mass., 1974); Linda Caporeal, “Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem,”
Science
, 194:1390-94 (1976); Nicholas P. Spanos and Jack Gottlieb, “Ergotism and the Salem Witch Trials,”
Science,
194:1390-94 (1976); Mary K. Matossian, “Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair,”
American Scientist
( July-Aug. 1982), 185-92; Matossian,
Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History
(New Haven, Conn., 1989); Carol Karlsen,
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England
(New York, 1987); Larry Gragg,
The Salem Witch Crisis
(Westport, Conn., 1992); Bernard Rosenthal,
Salem Story: Reading the Salem Witch Trials of 1692
(New York, 1993); Peter Hoffer,
The Devil's Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witch Trials
(Baltimore, Md., 1996); Frances Hill,
A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials
(New York, 1995); Laurie Carlson,
A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials
(Chicago, 1999); and Mary Beth Norton,
In The Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
(New York, 2002). For a general view of the early history of Salem, see Sidney Perley,
The History of Salem, Massachusetts
, 3 vols. (Boston, 1928), and James Duncan Phillips,
Salem in the Seventeenth Century
(Boston, 1933).

 
CHAPTER NINE

This account of Cotton Mather's career, emphasizing his involvement in witchcraft cases, is based heavily on two excellent biographies: Kenneth Silverman,
The Life and Times of Cotton Mather
(New York, 1984), and David Levin,
Cotton Mather: The Young Life of the Lord's Remembrancer
(Cambridge, Mass., 1978). See also the judicious appraisal by Richard H. Werking, “ ‘Reformation Is Our Only Preservation': Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft,” in
William and Mary Quarterly
, third ser., 29:281-90 (1972). Earlier discussions of the same question include: Charles W. Upham, “Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather,”
Historical Magazine
, second ser., 6:129-219 (Sept. 1869), and W. F. Poole, “Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft,”
North American Review
, 108:337-97 (April 1869). For an overview of the long debate about Mather's role in the Salem trials, see Chadwick Hansen,
Witchcraft at Salem
(New York, 1969), xi-xiv. Hansen offers his own view of the matter in ibid., 95-102, 171-72, 194-95. Mather's original writings on witchcraft, too numerous to be listed here, are referenced in the aforementioned works.