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During the bleak winter of 1692 in the rigid Puritan community of Salem Village, Massachusetts, a group of young girls began experiencing violent fits, allegedly tormented by Satan and the witches who worshipped him. From the girls' initial denouncing of an Indian slave, the accusations soon multiplied. In less than two years, nineteen men and women were hanged, one was pressed to death, and over a hundred others were imprisoned and impoverished. This evenhanded and now-classic history illuminates the horrifying episode with visceral clarity, from the opportunistic Putnam clan, who fanned the crisis to satisfy personal vendettas and greed, to four-year-old 'witch' Dorcas Good, who was chained to a dank prison wall in darkness till she went mad. By placing the distant period of the Salem witch trials in the larger context of more contemporary eruptions of mass hysteria and intolerance, the author has created a work as thought-provoking as it is emotionally powerful.… (more)
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This was really good.
Finally, an author that puts the blame on those in charge (Salem's ministers), rather than the girls or the accused or the wars with Native Americans. From the beginning, the "afflicted" girls are manipulated at home for personal gain.
Also,I had no idea how deep Salem factions went. In the beginning, Rev. Parris had an unsteady position in Salem, not liked by many. When his daughter Betty and his niece Abigail start having fits and accuse their slave Tituba, it's a bad look for him. So, he invites over his most powerful ally, Thomas Putnam, to have a look. To create a witness and a deflection. Conveniently, Ann Putnam is the next to be bewitched. She is Thomas' daughter and she accuses Sarah Osborne. Osborne's sons were Thomas' nephews. When Sarah contested her son's inheritance, she was basically taking away Putnam family power.
And that' s just one example! Hill shows their skills as a researcher by sharing all dirt laundry in Salem. Land disputes, unpaid debt, marital discord, all of it. A common statement from the "afflicted" was "I saw the apparition of___I did not know her/his name then" until that poor individual is dragged to the courtroom. None of the judges are trained in law, they're church leaders or merchants with personal beefs with the accused. It was a guilty until proven innocent. This book had all the opportunities to be hard to follow, but it wasn't at all. Hills does an excellent job here.