In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 - Hardcover

Norton, Mary Beth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 037540709X ISBN 13: 9780375407093

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002

Synopsis

In January 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, two young girls began to suffer from inexplicable fits. Seventeen months later, after legal action had been taken against 144 people—20 of them put to death—the ignominious Salem witchcraft trials finally came to an end.

Now, Mary Beth Norton—one of our most ad-mired historians—gives us a unique account of the events at Salem, helping us to understand them as they were understood by those who lived through the frenzy. Describing the situation from a seventeenth-century perspective, Norton examines the crucial turning points, the accusers, the confessors, the judges, and the accused, among whom were thirty-eight men. She shows how the situation spiraled out of control following a cascade of accusations beginning in mid-April. She explores the role of gossip and delves into the question of why women and girls under the age of twenty-five, who were the most active accusers and who would normally be ignored by male magistrates, were suddenly given absolute credence.

Most important of all, Norton moves beyond the immediate vicinity of Salem to demonstrate how the Indian wars on the Maine frontier in the last quarter of that century stunned the collective mindset of northeastern New England and convinced virtually everyone that they were in the devil’s snare. And she makes clear that ultimate responsibility for allowing the crisis to reach the heights it did must fall on the colony’s governor, council, and judges.

A vivid, authoritative historical evocation and exploration that will alter forever the way we think about one of the most perennially fascinating and horrifying events in our history.

About this title

Review:

The story of the Salem witchcraft trials is well known, from both historical accounts and dramatic retellings, such as Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Cornell historian Mary Beth Norton now offers a significant reinterpretation of the events that (by her count) led to legal action against at least 144 people, 54 confessions of witchcraft, 19 hangings, and one "pressing to death ... by heavy stones." Norton's contribution is to contextualize what happened. She studies not just Salem itself, but all of Essex County and northern New England, because so many of the people involved in the witchcraft crisis didn't live in Salem proper. She also says these grim events must be understood in relation to King William's War, which the early Americans called the Second Indian War. This frontier conflict and the religious interpretations thrust upon it created the conditions for what happened in Salem and the surrounding region, which, says Norton, would not have occurred in the war's absence. As might be expected, her narrative does not proceed along traditional lines. It is driven more by the academic imperative to break scholarly ground than by the urge to tell a harrowing story. For readers interested in knowing what really happened at Salem, though, In the Devil's Snare may be the best source. --John J. Miller

From the Back Cover:

"Mary Beth Norton is a brilliant historian with a great gift for clear-eyed, imaginative scholarship, and her new book, In the Devil's Snare, is a fresh and very different unfolding of witchcraft at Salem. The setting is far larger than customary. The cast of characters is more numerous. The gossip network operates at higher speed. But it is the presence of the Indian wars on the Maine frontier that puts everything in a different light. I found the book utterly fascinating. Certainly it is ample proof of the old idea that in recovering the truth of the past, things have to be seen in context."
--David McCullough, Author of John Adams

"Mary Beth Norton's In the Devil's Snare accomplishes the almost unbelievable--casting new light on the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692, early America's most terrifying event. Never has the Indian presence in Salem's deadly descent to executions loomed so large or seemed so logical, at least from the perspective of frightened Puritans. Salem's bizarre, otherwise inexplicable events unfold in compelling detail through the hands of one of our most elegant, powerful historians. "
--Jon Butler, Author of Becoming America

"This is great history! Mary Beth Norton's broad-ranging research in archives from New York to Maine links the events in Salem to the Indian wars in ways that shed sympathetic new light on accused and accusers alike. In the Devil's Snare is a remarkable study in human nature."
--Gloria Main, Author of Peoples of a Spacious Land

"The best approach to the Salem witchcraft episode in thirty-five years, this fresh work gives remarkable insight into every aspect of the tragic event. Eye witness reports of devastating Indian attacks on Massachusetts' northern frontier are woven together with shocking, day-by-day revelations in Salem's witchcraft trials. Here, we discover a terror struck community, groping its way through a maelstrom of attacks from the visible and invisible worlds. Stories of unspeakable acts -- real and imagined -- all stemming from the Devil's work against God's people. Here, we encounter the words of personal grudges, family disputes, political maneuvering, and youthful vengeance that contributed to a widening social, political, and religious storm that threatened to engulf the whole of the Bay Colony. A masterful piece of historical writing, it lays bare the Puritans' greatest fears about themselves facing God's unyielding judgment -- and slowly becoming aware they were suffering under a great self-inflicted delusion."
-- Benjamin C.In the Devil's Snare provides the most insightful and satisfying explanation of the behavior and motives of all the participants-- judges, magistrates, accusors and the accused. This may well be the final word on an episode that has bewitched and bewildered generations of historians."
--Carol Berkin, Author of First Generations: Women in Colonial America

"Norton, with dazzling insight and astonishing meticulousness and detective work takes us well past the surface explorations of Salem Village quarrels into the deeply complex story of what happened and why. Numerous people in the past have evoked the Indian wars as somehow being implicated in the events of 1692, but before this book nobody has done the research that has uncovered the way the witchcraft trials and the Indian wars were inextricably bound. This is a brilliant book, wonderfully conceived and executed, and it gives reality to the expression, 'a landmark achievement'."
--Bernard Rosenthal, Author of Salem Story

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 037540709X
• ISBN 13: 9780375407093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 436