Cover: Witch Accusations in Seventeenth Century New England -U.S, 1st Edition by Richard Godbeer
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Witch Accusations in Seventeenth Century New England -U.S

First Edition ©2019 Richard Godbeer

This document collection explores why people living in the seventeenth century thought it reasonable to believe in witches and to accuse people of using witchcraft against their enemies. This requires students to set aside their own assumptions and reconstruct the premodern world that New England se...
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ISBN:9781319233389

Cover: Witch Accusations in Seventeenth Century New England -U.S, 1st Edition by Richard Godbeer

This document collection explores why people living in the seventeenth century thought it reasonable to believe in witches and to accuse people of using witchcraft against their enemies. This requires students to set aside their own assumptions and reconstruct the premodern world that New England settlers inhabited through the analysis of primary sources. Students are guided through their analysis of the primary sources with an author-provided learning objective, central question, and historical context.

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Table of Contents

Central Question
Learning Objective
Historical Background 
Primary Sources  
Cotton Mather, Diary Entry, April 1693: A Minister Interprets the Death of his Infant Son
Testimony against Hugh Parsons, 1649 and 1650: Neighborly Quarrels and Supernatural Vengeance
The Trial of Sarah Good, 1692: An Assertive, Embittered Woman Becomes an Accused Witch
The Trial of Hugh Parsons, 1651–-52: An Abusive, Negligent Husband and Father Bbecomes an Accused Witch
Testimony against Mercy Disborough, 1692: The Use of Countermagic as Revenge against Witchcraft
John Hale’s Testimony against Dorcas Hoar, 1692: Supernatural Expertise as Grounds for Suspicion
The Acquittal of Hugh Parsons, 1652, on Grounds of Insufficient Evidence
Project Questions
Additional Assignments
Additional Resources for Research
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Richard Godbeer

Richard Godbeer (Ph.D., Brandeis University) is Professor of History and Director of the Humanities Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of The Devils Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England (Cambridge University Press, 1992); Sexual Revolution in Early America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 (Oxford University Press, 2005); The Overflowing of Friendship: Love Between Men and the Creation of the American Republic (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009); and The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011). Godbeer is currently working on a joint biography of Elizabeth and Henry Drinker, a Quaker couple who lived in late eighteenth-century Philadelphia.