Detestable and Wicked Arts: New England and Witchcraft in the Early Modern Atlantic World
Paul B. Moyer
Abstract
This book places early New England's battle against black magic in a transatlantic perspective. The book provides an accessible and comprehensive examination of witch prosecutions in the Puritan colonies that discusses how their English inhabitants understood the crime of witchcraft, why some people ran a greater risk of being accused of occult misdeeds, and how gender intersected with witch-hunting. Focusing on witchcraft cases in New England between roughly 1640 and 1670, the book highlights ties between witch-hunting in the New and Old Worlds. Informed by studies on witchcraft in early mode ... More
This book places early New England's battle against black magic in a transatlantic perspective. The book provides an accessible and comprehensive examination of witch prosecutions in the Puritan colonies that discusses how their English inhabitants understood the crime of witchcraft, why some people ran a greater risk of being accused of occult misdeeds, and how gender intersected with witch-hunting. Focusing on witchcraft cases in New England between roughly 1640 and 1670, the book highlights ties between witch-hunting in the New and Old Worlds. Informed by studies on witchcraft in early modern Europe, it presents a useful synthesis of scholarship on occult crime in New England and makes new and valuable contributions to the field.
Keywords:
New England,
black magic,
witch prosecutions,
Puritan colonies,
witchcraft,
occult,
witch-hunting
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781501751059 |
Published to Cornell Scholarship Online: May 2021 |
DOI:10.7591/cornell/9781501751059.001.0001 |