In the Devil's Snare by Mary Beth Norton

To studies in psychology have been added studies in pediatrics and child-rearing, adolescent development and the 'recovered memories' of abused juveniles. Time and again, when it would seem that all that could be said had been said about Salem witchcraft, these new approaches have yielded fresh information and insight. Over the past century and a half historians and scholars of other disciplines have taken new approaches to the episode. But this is only one of many interpretations put forward since the trials and executions. 'Hysteria' has become integrally associated with Salem: thus the term 'Salem witchcraft hysteria,' which bespeaks the widespread interpretation of the events as originating in a mass delusion, a psychological aberration on a large scale. Nineteen people were hanged and one pressed to death, with several more adults, children and infants dying in prison, in what has become a wrenching cautionary tale of complicity, pettiness and mass hysteria. Beginning in January 1692 with the 'affliction' of young girls-the daughter and niece of Salem Village's minister, Samuel Parris-the number of the bewitched grew, the search for witches and wizards spread, over 100 people were jailed, and a series of sensational and controversial trials ensued.

Knopf.The early years of each decade seem to bring a new spate of books on the Salem witchcraft episode, as if to commemorate anew the tragic events that occurred in 1692-93. Norton talked about her book, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, published by Alfred A. Norton answered questions after her presentation.

The Puritans believed that the defeats were God’s way of punishing the colonists for their sins. Norton argues that the situation had less to do with sorcery than with the atmosphere of paranoia and fear in the colonies caused by the losses from the first and second Indian wars. Using newly available materials from trial records, letters, and diaries, Ms.

The book is a re-examination of the 17th-century events that resulted in 144 people, including 38 men, being accused of witchcraft.

In the Devil's Snare by Mary Beth Norton