audiobook George Washington: A Life in Books by Kevin J. Hayes in History

Description

Beginning in January 1692; Salem Village in colonial Massachusetts witnessed the largest and most lethal outbreak of witchcraft in early America. Villagers--mainly young women--suffered from unseen torments that caused them to writhe; shriek; and contort their bodies; complaining of pins stuck into their flesh and of being haunted by specters. Believing that they suffered from assaults by an invisible spirit; the community began a hunt to track down those responsible for the demonic work. The resulting Salem Witch Trials; culminating in the execution of 19 villagers; persists as one of the most mysterious and fascinating events in American history. Historians have speculated on a web of possible causes for the witchcraft that stated in Salem and spread across the region-religious crisis; ergot poisoning; an encephalitis outbreak; frontier war hysteria--but most agree that there was no single factor. Rather; as Emerson Baker illustrates in this seminal new work; Salem was "a perfect storm": a unique convergence of conditions and events that produced something extraordinary throughout New England in 1692 and the following years; and which has haunted us ever since.Baker shows how a range of factors in the Bay colony in the 1690s; including a new charter and government; a lethal frontier war; and religious and political conflicts; set the stage for the dramatic events in Salem. Engaging a range of perspectives; he looks at the key players in the outbreak--the accused witches and the people they allegedly bewitched; as well as the judges and government officials who prosecuted them--and wrestles with questions about why the Salem tragedy unfolded as it did; and why it has become an enduring legacy.Salem in 1692 was a critical moment for the fading Puritan government of Massachusetts Bay; whose attempts to suppress the story of the trials and erase them from memory only fueled the popular imagination. Baker argues that the trials marked a turning point in colonial history from Puritan communalism to Yankee independence; from faith in collective conscience to skepticism toward moral governance. A brilliantly told tale; A Storm of Witchcraft also puts Salem's storm into its broader context as a part of the ongoing narrative of American history and the history of the Atlantic World.