Introduction -- The crime of witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay : historical background and patterns of prosecution -- Social meaning of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay. Witchcraft and Puritan beliefs ; Witchcraft and magic ; The interrelationship between popular and theological meanings of witchcraft -- Witchcraft and community. The identification of the malefic witch ; The official response to popular demands -- Witchcraft and the state. The Salem witchcraft prosecutions : the framework for official initiative ; The Salem witchcraft prosecutions : the discovery of persecutions ; The Salem witchcraft persecutions : the invisible world at the vanishing point ; Witchcraft in historical and sociological perspective. -- Appendices; A. List of legal actions against witchcraft prior to the Salem prosecutions ; B. List of defamation suits involving witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay ; C. List of persons against whom legal actions were initiated during Salem prosecutions ; D. List of confessors during Salem prosecutions ; E. List of Allegations of Ordinary Witchcraft by Case ; F. List of Persons Diagnosed as Afflicted in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts Bay
Summary
Explains the social processes underlying support and resistance to collective action against witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts; providing theological interpretations of witchcraft, focusing on the relationship between witchcraft and magic, and considering the interrelationships between the two
Analysis
Massachusetts History Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Trials (Witchcraft) Massachusetts
Witchcraft History 17th century Massachusetts
Notes
Includes indexes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-262)
Notes
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