Witchcraft in Early North America
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $35.99
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- $35.99
Publisher Description
Witchcraft in Early North America investigates European, African, and Indian witchcraft beliefs and their expression in colonial America. Alison Games's engaging book takes us beyond the infamous outbreak at Salem, Massachusetts, to look at how witchcraft was a central feature of colonial societies in North America. Her substantial and lively introduction orients readers to the subject and to the rich selection of documents that follows. The documents begin with first encounters between European missionaries and Native Americans in New France and New Mexico, and they conclude with witch hunts among Native Americans in the years of the early American republic. The documents—some of which have never been published previously—include excerpts from trials in Virginia, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; accounts of outbreaks in Salem, Abiquiu (New Mexico), and among the Delaware Indians; descriptions of possession; legal codes; and allegations of poisoning by slaves. The documents raise issues central to legal, cultural, social, religious, and gender history. This fascinating topic and the book’s broad geographic and chronological coverage make this book ideally suited for readers interested in new approaches to colonial history and the history of witchcraft.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The slenderness of this volume belies its author's ambition: an introduction to European, African, and Native American witchcraft before and after European contact. In cogent prose, Games has done a remarkable work of synthesis, bringing together dozens of sources and a hundred pages of primary text to create a compelling and entertaining overview of witchcraft history. She puts witch hunts into political and religious context, noting how colonial life laid fertile ground for sorcery and rebellion. While her editorial skills are admirable (included are transcripts of famous witch "confessions," the poisoning of one of Thomas Jefferson's slaves by a conjurer, and more), her own work may be of more interest. Games actively interprets, framing each document with a background sketch and leading questions ("What or who might have saved Mary Lee from murder?"), but ambition can come at a cost; overviews of belief systems are generalized, conclusions can come from questionable sources, and the writing at times recalls a textbook. But for students and history buffs who seek a larger context for the Salem outbreak, this is an admirable volume.
