The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England

Karlsen, Carol F.

ISBN 10: 0393317595 / ISBN 13: 9780393317596

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

About this Item

Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. May not include CD DVD, access code or any other supplemental materials.

Seller Inventory # VLM.13AV

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393317595
• ISBN 13: 9780393317596
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

"A pioneer work in…the sexual structuring of society. This is not just another book about witchcraft." ―Edmund S. Morgan, Yale University

Confessing 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.

About the Author

Carol F. Karlsen is professor emerita of history at the University of Michigan.