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U.S. Landmark Books #69
The Witchcraft of Salem Village
Stories of magic, superstition, and witchcraft were strictly forbidden in the little town of Salem Village. But a group of young girls ignored those rules, spellbound by the tales told by a woman named Tituba. When questioned about their activities, the terrified girls set off a whirlwind of controversy as they accused townsperson after townsperson of being witches. Author Shirley Jackson examines in careful detail this horrifying true story of accusations, trials, and executions that shook a community to its foundations.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1956
124 people are currently reading
6187 people want to read
About the author
Shirley Jackson
341 books11.3k followersShirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.
She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."
Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".
In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.
She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."
Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".
In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.
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October 1, 2015
Update We have more folk descended from these witchy times in Salem. Read Sheila's review. Salem was a small place, people wouldn't travel far, they married their neighbours. I wonder if Tom and Sheila are related?
Tom, a friend, has left a fascinating comment (the first one, below), "I recently discovered that my 8x great-grandmother was Rebecca Nurse. I am also related to Ann Putnam Jr, whose testimony sent Rebecca and her sister, Mary Esty, to the gallows.". If you are interested in the Salem witches, it is so worth reading it.
_____
I read this one straight through. I t was fascinating in the eager suspension of disbelief by what hitherto must have been believed to be the sensible adults of Salem village.
I am astounded at the willing stupidity of Mather and the judges to believe the silly, vindictive teenagers and little girls. Those scenes in court where the witches had such influence on them that the girls all fell into the same postures as the witches and cried out for release. All they had to do was blindfold them and see if they could then be psychically, satanically, manipulated by the witches into copying their contortions. But they never even questioned them.
The'witches', mostly old women, but also a child as young as 5 who was able to pinch and strangle her accusers according to them, were interrogated endlessly and the girls' stories just accepted. Were teenagers and preteens any different then from now. As Judge Judy says, how can you tell when a teenager is lying? When they open their mouths. I can't believe that teenage girls back then in that particular time and place in history didn't have the same attention-seeking, drama queen ways that they appear to in every other.
Twenty people were executed, on these judges' willingness to believe the lying girls and not question them singly or jointly in a court setting. That some of the girls, and the judges, repented in later life did not bring back those they had joyously, self-righteously, in a spirit of entertainment and sometimes vindictiveness had murdered and said it was, that old excuse, in the name of religion.
It all ended when spectral evidence was no longer accepted. In Europe, in other parts of the US witches were still put to death for centuries more. But Massachussetts had shocked itself out of such wanton barbarism.
In Europe the The Malleus Maleficarum written by a Catholic clergyman was the witch hunter's manual. It is still in print but hopefully now only thought of by all as an interesting relic of superstitious times. However, there are still seven countries that execute 'witches;
Saudi Arabia, Tanzania - which executed 600 elderly women two years ago, Gambia, Nepal, India, Papua New Guinea and Uganda. How people can be that dedicated to their primitive superstitious cultures and religions that they can not only murder these 'witches' but also film it on their cell phones is a dichotomy that is hard to understand.
Tom, a friend, has left a fascinating comment (the first one, below), "I recently discovered that my 8x great-grandmother was Rebecca Nurse. I am also related to Ann Putnam Jr, whose testimony sent Rebecca and her sister, Mary Esty, to the gallows.". If you are interested in the Salem witches, it is so worth reading it.
_____
I read this one straight through. I t was fascinating in the eager suspension of disbelief by what hitherto must have been believed to be the sensible adults of Salem village.
I am astounded at the willing stupidity of Mather and the judges to believe the silly, vindictive teenagers and little girls. Those scenes in court where the witches had such influence on them that the girls all fell into the same postures as the witches and cried out for release. All they had to do was blindfold them and see if they could then be psychically, satanically, manipulated by the witches into copying their contortions. But they never even questioned them.
The'witches', mostly old women, but also a child as young as 5 who was able to pinch and strangle her accusers according to them, were interrogated endlessly and the girls' stories just accepted. Were teenagers and preteens any different then from now. As Judge Judy says, how can you tell when a teenager is lying? When they open their mouths. I can't believe that teenage girls back then in that particular time and place in history didn't have the same attention-seeking, drama queen ways that they appear to in every other.
Twenty people were executed, on these judges' willingness to believe the lying girls and not question them singly or jointly in a court setting. That some of the girls, and the judges, repented in later life did not bring back those they had joyously, self-righteously, in a spirit of entertainment and sometimes vindictiveness had murdered and said it was, that old excuse, in the name of religion.
It all ended when spectral evidence was no longer accepted. In Europe, in other parts of the US witches were still put to death for centuries more. But Massachussetts had shocked itself out of such wanton barbarism.
In Europe the The Malleus Maleficarum written by a Catholic clergyman was the witch hunter's manual. It is still in print but hopefully now only thought of by all as an interesting relic of superstitious times. However, there are still seven countries that execute 'witches;
Saudi Arabia, Tanzania - which executed 600 elderly women two years ago, Gambia, Nepal, India, Papua New Guinea and Uganda. How people can be that dedicated to their primitive superstitious cultures and religions that they can not only murder these 'witches' but also film it on their cell phones is a dichotomy that is hard to understand.
April 11, 2022
The moral of this story is that children are evil.
And also that witches, while cool, are probably not real. Or if they are are probably better at hiding it so that some like 6 year old daughter of the local authority figure with an attitude problem won't expose their asses.
Also, while this is marketed as being for children, it is not childish at all and in fact would have to be accompanied by a dictionary for any young reader, imo. And not even the junior dictionary - the real one, methinks.
It just has a big font size. So kind of a dream.
Not really Shirley Jackson-y, but the most interesting topic, so it balances.
Bottom line: Probably not the best source if you like this subject, or the greatest book if you like Shirley Jackson, but still fun!
3.5ish stars
----------------
tbr review
hard to imagine a book i could love more than a history of the salem witch trials written by shirley jackson
And also that witches, while cool, are probably not real. Or if they are are probably better at hiding it so that some like 6 year old daughter of the local authority figure with an attitude problem won't expose their asses.
Also, while this is marketed as being for children, it is not childish at all and in fact would have to be accompanied by a dictionary for any young reader, imo. And not even the junior dictionary - the real one, methinks.
It just has a big font size. So kind of a dream.
Not really Shirley Jackson-y, but the most interesting topic, so it balances.
Bottom line: Probably not the best source if you like this subject, or the greatest book if you like Shirley Jackson, but still fun!
3.5ish stars
----------------
tbr review
hard to imagine a book i could love more than a history of the salem witch trials written by shirley jackson
December 19, 2018
3.5 Stars
What an interesting and educational read where Shirley Jackson examines in detail the horrifying true story of accusations, trials and executions that shook the community of Salem Village to its foundations. The famous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692 after a group of young girls in Salem village, Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraf resulting in the trials of hundreds of people and the dealths of nineteen who were found guilty and executed.
I was familiar with the Salem Witch trials but had only read fictionalised accounts and was delighted when I came across this book by Shirley Jackson on audible. Wonderfully narrated, concise and to the point this was a short read but the author sticks to the facts and we get as much information as possible. While I am sure there are more in depth explanations and analysis of the Witch trials this short book satisfied my curiousity and was a great audio find.
Written I believe as a children's book but very readable and educational for adults too.
What an interesting and educational read where Shirley Jackson examines in detail the horrifying true story of accusations, trials and executions that shook the community of Salem Village to its foundations. The famous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692 after a group of young girls in Salem village, Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraf resulting in the trials of hundreds of people and the dealths of nineteen who were found guilty and executed.
I was familiar with the Salem Witch trials but had only read fictionalised accounts and was delighted when I came across this book by Shirley Jackson on audible. Wonderfully narrated, concise and to the point this was a short read but the author sticks to the facts and we get as much information as possible. While I am sure there are more in depth explanations and analysis of the Witch trials this short book satisfied my curiousity and was a great audio find.
Written I believe as a children's book but very readable and educational for adults too.
September 4, 2016
"By September 22, 1692, Giles Corey and nineteen other persons had been executed publicly. There is no way of knowing the numbers who died in prison.
[...]
Not one person who confessed to practicing witchcraft was executed. The persons executed were those who insisted upon their innocence. Giles Corey was ordered pressed to death by heavy stones for refusing to speak at all. His execution may have marked a turning point in the witchcraft epidemic."
My first encounter with the Salem Witch Trials was in high school, when we discussed Arthur Miller's The Crucible. The play has remained one of favourites since, not because of the topic of witchcraft but because of Miller's skill in taking a horrific event of history and turning it into a parable. (The writing was pretty good, too.)
Ever since that encounter, the story of the Salem Witch Trials and its participants has had me gripped. How could a village turn against itself, neighbour against neighbour, into such madness? Surely, this is the stuff that horror stories are made of. Made of. Invented. Not real. For it to be real, there would have to be an explanation, a reason, a cause.
It wasn't a case of people not knowing what they were doing, or outright hating each other, or worse - be unaffected by each other. This was a small community, where people depended on the communal efforts, that is, neighbours working together.
It is sometimes said, that human conflicts are based on the ignorance (or denial) by the parties' of their common ground, their similarity. Since everyone in Salem knew each other, this can't have factored. So what drove these people to accuse each other, and more, not come to the defence of the people they shared their lives with?
The situation is kafkaesque, except it is not fiction.
Jackson's account of the Salem Witch Trials was not fiction, either. It was fictionalised to the extent that she gave the historical facts a narrative, and characters a voice, but it was not fiction.
I wrote in an earlier post (The Yellow Wallpaper) that sometimes fiction and fact are inseparable, and that we now describe real events as "classic horror" because the possibility of it happening is so unreal, so unfathomable, that it is simply beyond recognition. As far as horror stories go, those are the most hard hitting ones - there is very little that is as horrifying as finding out that fictional horrors were fact, even more so when it was not a single incident.
When I picked up this book, I had no idea what Shirley Jackson, queen of the modern horror story, would do with the original story, whether she would add her own take on the story. As it turns out (to my surprise), Jackson wrote this as book for middle school, which is why she kept this book factual and did not add any atmospheric devices or other embellishments. Jackson meant to write this as a work of non-fiction, but even if she hadn't that there was no need to add much to the official records to make this chilling.
In writing this, Jackson created a great retelling of the story of the Salem Witch Trial and their aftermath.
"On September 22, 1692, the day of the last execution, the witchcraft delusion began to disappear. No one realized it at first. The afflicted girls continued crying out upon anyone within reach, the preliminary examinations continued, and the prisons stayed crowded. The special court in Salem adjourned, to meet again in two or three weeks and resume the trials. A change had taken place, however, in the feelings of the people. Perhaps it was due to the courage of Giles Corey. Perhaps everyone was growing weary of supernatural terrors. Perhaps the change was due to the deplorable condition of the colony in general. Perhaps it was a combination of all these things. In any case, a slow change of opinion took place. People simply stopped believing that their friends and neighbors were witches."
I had not read any other book which had investigated what became of the community - and the individual actors after the trials were over. For me this is probably the most intriguing part of Jackson's book (because I was familiar with the story of the trials).
How did the persecutors live the survivors and themselves after the events?
How did the community heal after this madness? Did it heal?
Jackson dedicates the latter part of the book to these questions and some of her analysis and research, even though aimed at a younger reader, is noting less than compelling.
"John Hathorne never conceded that he had been mistaken, and persisted all his life in maintaining that the witches were guilty, and that the part he had acted was honorable. One hundred and fifty years later a descendant of John Hathorne’s wrote The House of the Seven Gables—the story, in part, of a cruel man who had helped to bring witches to execution, and who died with the memory heavy on his conscience. In this story Nathaniel Hawthorne (the w had been added somewhere along the way) adapted the dying words of Sarah Goode, who stood on the scaffold and shouted at the clergyman who begged her to confess, “I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink!” Unlike his ancestor, Nathaniel Hawthorne thought the witchcraft fever was “a terrible delusion.”
[...]
Not one person who confessed to practicing witchcraft was executed. The persons executed were those who insisted upon their innocence. Giles Corey was ordered pressed to death by heavy stones for refusing to speak at all. His execution may have marked a turning point in the witchcraft epidemic."
My first encounter with the Salem Witch Trials was in high school, when we discussed Arthur Miller's The Crucible. The play has remained one of favourites since, not because of the topic of witchcraft but because of Miller's skill in taking a horrific event of history and turning it into a parable. (The writing was pretty good, too.)
Ever since that encounter, the story of the Salem Witch Trials and its participants has had me gripped. How could a village turn against itself, neighbour against neighbour, into such madness? Surely, this is the stuff that horror stories are made of. Made of. Invented. Not real. For it to be real, there would have to be an explanation, a reason, a cause.
It wasn't a case of people not knowing what they were doing, or outright hating each other, or worse - be unaffected by each other. This was a small community, where people depended on the communal efforts, that is, neighbours working together.
It is sometimes said, that human conflicts are based on the ignorance (or denial) by the parties' of their common ground, their similarity. Since everyone in Salem knew each other, this can't have factored. So what drove these people to accuse each other, and more, not come to the defence of the people they shared their lives with?
The situation is kafkaesque, except it is not fiction.
Jackson's account of the Salem Witch Trials was not fiction, either. It was fictionalised to the extent that she gave the historical facts a narrative, and characters a voice, but it was not fiction.
I wrote in an earlier post (The Yellow Wallpaper) that sometimes fiction and fact are inseparable, and that we now describe real events as "classic horror" because the possibility of it happening is so unreal, so unfathomable, that it is simply beyond recognition. As far as horror stories go, those are the most hard hitting ones - there is very little that is as horrifying as finding out that fictional horrors were fact, even more so when it was not a single incident.
When I picked up this book, I had no idea what Shirley Jackson, queen of the modern horror story, would do with the original story, whether she would add her own take on the story. As it turns out (to my surprise), Jackson wrote this as book for middle school, which is why she kept this book factual and did not add any atmospheric devices or other embellishments. Jackson meant to write this as a work of non-fiction, but even if she hadn't that there was no need to add much to the official records to make this chilling.
In writing this, Jackson created a great retelling of the story of the Salem Witch Trial and their aftermath.
"On September 22, 1692, the day of the last execution, the witchcraft delusion began to disappear. No one realized it at first. The afflicted girls continued crying out upon anyone within reach, the preliminary examinations continued, and the prisons stayed crowded. The special court in Salem adjourned, to meet again in two or three weeks and resume the trials. A change had taken place, however, in the feelings of the people. Perhaps it was due to the courage of Giles Corey. Perhaps everyone was growing weary of supernatural terrors. Perhaps the change was due to the deplorable condition of the colony in general. Perhaps it was a combination of all these things. In any case, a slow change of opinion took place. People simply stopped believing that their friends and neighbors were witches."
I had not read any other book which had investigated what became of the community - and the individual actors after the trials were over. For me this is probably the most intriguing part of Jackson's book (because I was familiar with the story of the trials).
How did the persecutors live the survivors and themselves after the events?
How did the community heal after this madness? Did it heal?
Jackson dedicates the latter part of the book to these questions and some of her analysis and research, even though aimed at a younger reader, is noting less than compelling.
"John Hathorne never conceded that he had been mistaken, and persisted all his life in maintaining that the witches were guilty, and that the part he had acted was honorable. One hundred and fifty years later a descendant of John Hathorne’s wrote The House of the Seven Gables—the story, in part, of a cruel man who had helped to bring witches to execution, and who died with the memory heavy on his conscience. In this story Nathaniel Hawthorne (the w had been added somewhere along the way) adapted the dying words of Sarah Goode, who stood on the scaffold and shouted at the clergyman who begged her to confess, “I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink!” Unlike his ancestor, Nathaniel Hawthorne thought the witchcraft fever was “a terrible delusion.”
November 3, 2016
This is a true horror story. The sleepy town of Salem Village is being overrun with witches. Nah, just a bunch of bratty kids telling lies. The town was very religious and did not want to hear about the devil, or witchcraft or any stories like this. But a group of children, enchanted by the maid Tituba from the islands, gather round her and she tells the children (a bunch of girls) stories. The girls love it. But they are quite afraid of what will happen to them if they are found out to be even listening to stories on magic and witchcraft and the occult. So, following their Queen-B, the girls make up a story about witches in the town afflicting pain upon them.
It is quite the spectacle. They name a few townspeople at first who are brought before a 'judge/s'. During the questioning of each of these women, the girls, following their Queen-B, begin thrashing about the floor, screaming in pain. Yelling that a black man stands behind the woman telling her what to do, and telling the woman to bite the girls. Magically, in their rage, the children jump up with bite marks to their arms. If the woman being accused raises her arm, all the girls immediately raise their arms, crying the witch is making them do this. Empowered, the girls begin to name more and more in the town. Then, it turns into a witch-hunt with the town minister encouraging folks to tell on their friends and neighbors. A simple charge of a wife and husband in an argument leads one to the gallows being accused of being a witch. Even a 5 year old child was brandished a witch, because the child's mother was already accused and in prison for witchcraft.
I was utterly shocked that the townsfolk fell for this and sent so many people to jail and eventually their deaths. But Salem Village is not the only place this happened during these early times. There were other places in the world where people were accused of being witches and were hanged. Even today I see bratty children accuse an adult of something (child abuse) and the adult is hauled away, then finding out the child was mad as he/she couldn't watch tv and made up the entire story.
I was shocked to see a non-fiction book by Shirley Jackson. I enjoyed reading this and must say, of her work, this is the scariest one of all. A shocking read and perfect for Halloween.
It is quite the spectacle. They name a few townspeople at first who are brought before a 'judge/s'. During the questioning of each of these women, the girls, following their Queen-B, begin thrashing about the floor, screaming in pain. Yelling that a black man stands behind the woman telling her what to do, and telling the woman to bite the girls. Magically, in their rage, the children jump up with bite marks to their arms. If the woman being accused raises her arm, all the girls immediately raise their arms, crying the witch is making them do this. Empowered, the girls begin to name more and more in the town. Then, it turns into a witch-hunt with the town minister encouraging folks to tell on their friends and neighbors. A simple charge of a wife and husband in an argument leads one to the gallows being accused of being a witch. Even a 5 year old child was brandished a witch, because the child's mother was already accused and in prison for witchcraft.
I was utterly shocked that the townsfolk fell for this and sent so many people to jail and eventually their deaths. But Salem Village is not the only place this happened during these early times. There were other places in the world where people were accused of being witches and were hanged. Even today I see bratty children accuse an adult of something (child abuse) and the adult is hauled away, then finding out the child was mad as he/she couldn't watch tv and made up the entire story.
I was shocked to see a non-fiction book by Shirley Jackson. I enjoyed reading this and must say, of her work, this is the scariest one of all. A shocking read and perfect for Halloween.
May 19, 2019
Audiobook narrated by Gabrielle de Cuir 3h 9m
A nonfiction book that explores the hysteria of the Salem Witch trials of 1692. Shirley Jackson transports readers back to this time period so well that it made me form a particular conclusion. Shirley Jackson was there. I chose this selection on a whim and my goodness did it ever pay off. Highly recommend!
Goodreads Review published 17/05/19
A nonfiction book that explores the hysteria of the Salem Witch trials of 1692. Shirley Jackson transports readers back to this time period so well that it made me form a particular conclusion. Shirley Jackson was there. I chose this selection on a whim and my goodness did it ever pay off. Highly recommend!
Goodreads Review published 17/05/19
February 18, 2024
2024/11
It was a dreadful night. The fever was unstoppable, as if it were an animal whose only purpose was to kill its victim right away. The boy was rather sick, lying in bed, barely conscious of his surroundings. The doctor had said the medicine would be effective within a couple of hours, but nothing seemed to be helping him. The mother was in despair, she cried in her room for a moment, then she put the best smile she could on her face while saying to her little boy everything will be alright. 'The fever is not going down, dear, let's go and call the doctor again. He doesn't look right,' said the father, while looking at his child, almost asleep, partly because of lots of medicine, partly because of his weakness. 'There must be something we can do in the meantime, your mother is here, she says she might help,' said the mother, trying to keep herself calm. Grandma was indeed there, a tall, thin, 60-year-old woman who usually didn't say much. However, that night she was more quiet than usual; she had made up her mind and had come up with a possible solution. 'I think, and please don't say anything until I'm finished, but I think someone could have done witchcraft against the boy' said grandma, speaking frankly and without hesitation, as if she had had this in mind for a while.
Grandma had believed in witchcraft ever since she was young. One day, when being a young girl living in a very small town with barely one hundred inhabitants, she remembered having seen a woman cutting her hair and burning it afterwards. She (grandma) had asked her mother why that woman was burning her own hair in that way. 'Witchcraft,' said her mother, without even looking at her, 'she needs to do it, otherwise she will be cursed; witchcraft is responsible for this, the evil one. They call it "black magic."' Grandma had learned something that day: whenever a person was suffering and there was no apparent reason to explain that suffering, someone, an evil being, must be doing witchcraft against this innocent person, who eventually might end up dying or living, depending on the person's faith and the ultimate solution to heal: reversing witchcraft with the help of a curandera.
'Doña Lupe is coming, I called her. She must be here at any moment,' said grandma, with some hope in her eyes. Doña Lupe—or as the mother used to call her, Lupita—had been a curandera for around twenty years, following her mother's footsteps, who had paved the way for a few curanderos in her town by the end of the nineties. She was a strong, vigorous woman, probably in her forties, who almost never smiled, but very talkative and easygoing. Grandma had said to her, perhaps that same day in the morning, that she believed her grandson had been a victim of black magic, witchcraft, or whatever she wanted to call it. 'He is dying, Lupe, and I need you to see him. I need you to help him.'
Doña Lupe arrived, almost at midnight, and brought a little box with her, among other objects and plants. She saw the boy in his bed, and no sooner had she tried to touch him than she couldn't help but avert her eyes. 'God, his soul,' she said to grandma, almost whispering so that the mother and the father couldn't hear her, 'I don't feel his soul. It's not with him anymore. There is also some evil energy in this place. We need to do something, let me do something.' Lupe had asked grandma if they could take the boy to another room, because the room where they were "was not adequate." They had already put chaca leaves around the boy's feet—the leaves previously boiled—to reduce the fever, and even though it had worked at the beginning, along with the medical treatment, at that point they were running out of alternatives.
'Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo...' doña Lupe started to pray, actually, she had to pray during the entire healing. She had mentioned that the boy was suffering, his body was suffering, but also his spirit was suffering. She needed to heal both. She took a brown egg out of her box, and started to rub it on the boy's body from head to toe in order to cure evil, while still praying. 'Mal de ojo seems to be the problem, you know, but look, he is trembling, the evil is causing this, the fever, the illness, everything. We have to get rid of it, quickly.' A thorough limpia—a cleanse, let's call it—was needed, so Lupe started to perform it by taking a few basil stems and immersing them in holy water for a few seconds. Then, instead of rubbing a bunch of basil on the body, she started to brush it on the boy's arms and legs, and mainly on his head. Some alcohol was also needed afterwards, as if the healing was about to end with the kid anointed with it, pure alcohol that would help him feel better. A crucifix with the image of Jesus in the cross was put around his neck, the curandera had brought it with her. 'Look at the egg, look how the yolk stays in the middle of the glass, and these little spots. I can tell, by what I have seen today, it is witchcraft, dear. But he will get better, by the morning he will be much better. I will stay and keep praying for him, for all of you. We need to keep the faith.'
Faith
Fait
Fai
Fa
F
.
.
.
'And that's how you were healed, my boy. Your father thought it was the medicine all the same, he told me so a few months later, when you were fully recovered. But, that day, darling, that day I saw in his eyes, I saw faith in those eyes of your father's. It was the only thing we had left, to believe that she would help her. Witchcraft is a real thing, darling, and we need to learn how to deal with it. I might be an old woman, but I'm not a fool. I have seen things to believe it is real, things that I hope you don't have to see ever in your life,' my grandmother said—may she rest in peace—while smiling at me. I was a 4-year-old kid when, that dreadful night in November 1999, I might have died. Apparently acute bronchitis had been misdiagnosed as a simple cold at the beginning, but then everything started to go wrong. The fever was completely unexpected, nay, it was impossible to be experiencing high fever according to the diagnosis. Miraculously—yes, those were my grandmother's words when telling me that part of the story—the fever started to go down less than a couple of hours after the cleanse, and little by little, I started to feel better.
The Witchcraft of Salem Village brought to mind this episode of my life, especially listening to my grandma telling me the nightmare they lived that night and how they started to lose hope. 'You are a young man now, you are 18—right?—so you must know that it was faith that made us stick together till the end, because the situation was more than complicated. No doctors that day—it was Sunday, bad day to get sick in this town—and nothing to do but hoping you'll keep on being the spirited kid you always were. I had to go and see if Lupe could come, I said "my grandson needs you, I can feel it in here (I touch my heart, I remember) that you can cure him" and she did come, son, she stayed until the morning and never stopped praying, making the curse disappear. It's up to you to believe it or not, but I was there, and I never lost my faith. Never.' I barely remember that day to be honest. There are just two scenes that I recollect vividly though: my godmother staying by the door and my mother saying 'look who came to see you, Os,' and the words of my mother, while being near me saying, almost whispering, 'we have done everything we could, God, what else I can do?'
The Witchcraft of Salem Village is worth giving it a read for many reasons: as a nonfiction book, it reads easily and it explains the case clearly from beginning to end; it shows the ignorance and power of a small group of people when they are talked into believing that someone is an evil being, a witch to be more specific. A mistake that can never be made again. Of course, everything started as a joke, but it ended up being one of the most heartbreaking and terrifying episodes in history: the execution of a group of innocent women whose crime was to be 'witches' and practicing witchcraft. You already know my possible experience with witchcraft, needless to say I have always been skeptical about it. The truth is that, witchcraft or not, what that experience taught me is that when we have nothing else to rely on, the only thing that is actually left is faith. These women never lost faith, even though their fate was sealed from the very beginning; as far as I can see, their faith carried them, they kept holding on, and claimed their innocence. I believe that's everything we need to know, that they never stopped fighting.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 5:
Quality of writing [4/5]
Pace [4/5]
Plot development [4/5]
Characters [3.5/5]
Enjoyability [4.5/5]
Insightfulness [4.5/5]
Easy of reading [5/5]
Photos/Illustrations [N/A]
Total [29.5/7] = 4.21
It was a dreadful night. The fever was unstoppable, as if it were an animal whose only purpose was to kill its victim right away. The boy was rather sick, lying in bed, barely conscious of his surroundings. The doctor had said the medicine would be effective within a couple of hours, but nothing seemed to be helping him. The mother was in despair, she cried in her room for a moment, then she put the best smile she could on her face while saying to her little boy everything will be alright. 'The fever is not going down, dear, let's go and call the doctor again. He doesn't look right,' said the father, while looking at his child, almost asleep, partly because of lots of medicine, partly because of his weakness. 'There must be something we can do in the meantime, your mother is here, she says she might help,' said the mother, trying to keep herself calm. Grandma was indeed there, a tall, thin, 60-year-old woman who usually didn't say much. However, that night she was more quiet than usual; she had made up her mind and had come up with a possible solution. 'I think, and please don't say anything until I'm finished, but I think someone could have done witchcraft against the boy' said grandma, speaking frankly and without hesitation, as if she had had this in mind for a while.
Grandma had believed in witchcraft ever since she was young. One day, when being a young girl living in a very small town with barely one hundred inhabitants, she remembered having seen a woman cutting her hair and burning it afterwards. She (grandma) had asked her mother why that woman was burning her own hair in that way. 'Witchcraft,' said her mother, without even looking at her, 'she needs to do it, otherwise she will be cursed; witchcraft is responsible for this, the evil one. They call it "black magic."' Grandma had learned something that day: whenever a person was suffering and there was no apparent reason to explain that suffering, someone, an evil being, must be doing witchcraft against this innocent person, who eventually might end up dying or living, depending on the person's faith and the ultimate solution to heal: reversing witchcraft with the help of a curandera.
'Doña Lupe is coming, I called her. She must be here at any moment,' said grandma, with some hope in her eyes. Doña Lupe—or as the mother used to call her, Lupita—had been a curandera for around twenty years, following her mother's footsteps, who had paved the way for a few curanderos in her town by the end of the nineties. She was a strong, vigorous woman, probably in her forties, who almost never smiled, but very talkative and easygoing. Grandma had said to her, perhaps that same day in the morning, that she believed her grandson had been a victim of black magic, witchcraft, or whatever she wanted to call it. 'He is dying, Lupe, and I need you to see him. I need you to help him.'
Doña Lupe arrived, almost at midnight, and brought a little box with her, among other objects and plants. She saw the boy in his bed, and no sooner had she tried to touch him than she couldn't help but avert her eyes. 'God, his soul,' she said to grandma, almost whispering so that the mother and the father couldn't hear her, 'I don't feel his soul. It's not with him anymore. There is also some evil energy in this place. We need to do something, let me do something.' Lupe had asked grandma if they could take the boy to another room, because the room where they were "was not adequate." They had already put chaca leaves around the boy's feet—the leaves previously boiled—to reduce the fever, and even though it had worked at the beginning, along with the medical treatment, at that point they were running out of alternatives.
'Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo...' doña Lupe started to pray, actually, she had to pray during the entire healing. She had mentioned that the boy was suffering, his body was suffering, but also his spirit was suffering. She needed to heal both. She took a brown egg out of her box, and started to rub it on the boy's body from head to toe in order to cure evil, while still praying. 'Mal de ojo seems to be the problem, you know, but look, he is trembling, the evil is causing this, the fever, the illness, everything. We have to get rid of it, quickly.' A thorough limpia—a cleanse, let's call it—was needed, so Lupe started to perform it by taking a few basil stems and immersing them in holy water for a few seconds. Then, instead of rubbing a bunch of basil on the body, she started to brush it on the boy's arms and legs, and mainly on his head. Some alcohol was also needed afterwards, as if the healing was about to end with the kid anointed with it, pure alcohol that would help him feel better. A crucifix with the image of Jesus in the cross was put around his neck, the curandera had brought it with her. 'Look at the egg, look how the yolk stays in the middle of the glass, and these little spots. I can tell, by what I have seen today, it is witchcraft, dear. But he will get better, by the morning he will be much better. I will stay and keep praying for him, for all of you. We need to keep the faith.'
Faith
Fait
Fai
Fa
F
.
.
.
'And that's how you were healed, my boy. Your father thought it was the medicine all the same, he told me so a few months later, when you were fully recovered. But, that day, darling, that day I saw in his eyes, I saw faith in those eyes of your father's. It was the only thing we had left, to believe that she would help her. Witchcraft is a real thing, darling, and we need to learn how to deal with it. I might be an old woman, but I'm not a fool. I have seen things to believe it is real, things that I hope you don't have to see ever in your life,' my grandmother said—may she rest in peace—while smiling at me. I was a 4-year-old kid when, that dreadful night in November 1999, I might have died. Apparently acute bronchitis had been misdiagnosed as a simple cold at the beginning, but then everything started to go wrong. The fever was completely unexpected, nay, it was impossible to be experiencing high fever according to the diagnosis. Miraculously—yes, those were my grandmother's words when telling me that part of the story—the fever started to go down less than a couple of hours after the cleanse, and little by little, I started to feel better.
The Witchcraft of Salem Village brought to mind this episode of my life, especially listening to my grandma telling me the nightmare they lived that night and how they started to lose hope. 'You are a young man now, you are 18—right?—so you must know that it was faith that made us stick together till the end, because the situation was more than complicated. No doctors that day—it was Sunday, bad day to get sick in this town—and nothing to do but hoping you'll keep on being the spirited kid you always were. I had to go and see if Lupe could come, I said "my grandson needs you, I can feel it in here (I touch my heart, I remember) that you can cure him" and she did come, son, she stayed until the morning and never stopped praying, making the curse disappear. It's up to you to believe it or not, but I was there, and I never lost my faith. Never.' I barely remember that day to be honest. There are just two scenes that I recollect vividly though: my godmother staying by the door and my mother saying 'look who came to see you, Os,' and the words of my mother, while being near me saying, almost whispering, 'we have done everything we could, God, what else I can do?'
The Witchcraft of Salem Village is worth giving it a read for many reasons: as a nonfiction book, it reads easily and it explains the case clearly from beginning to end; it shows the ignorance and power of a small group of people when they are talked into believing that someone is an evil being, a witch to be more specific. A mistake that can never be made again. Of course, everything started as a joke, but it ended up being one of the most heartbreaking and terrifying episodes in history: the execution of a group of innocent women whose crime was to be 'witches' and practicing witchcraft. You already know my possible experience with witchcraft, needless to say I have always been skeptical about it. The truth is that, witchcraft or not, what that experience taught me is that when we have nothing else to rely on, the only thing that is actually left is faith. These women never lost faith, even though their fate was sealed from the very beginning; as far as I can see, their faith carried them, they kept holding on, and claimed their innocence. I believe that's everything we need to know, that they never stopped fighting.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 5:
Quality of writing [4/5]
Pace [4/5]
Plot development [4/5]
Characters [3.5/5]
Enjoyability [4.5/5]
Insightfulness [4.5/5]
Easy of reading [5/5]
Photos/Illustrations [N/A]
Total [29.5/7] = 4.21
October 11, 2021
Reading Shirley Jackson’s accounting of the witch trials of 1692, I am stuck by the realization that we Americans have evolved very little over the last 330 years. Bigotry and hatred disguised as pious righteousness and religious expression are still abundantly present. As recently as January 2021, hangman’s nooses could be seen dotting the crowds of right wing (christian fundamentalist) rallies. The targets of opportunity have shifted from witches to journalists and political dissenters, but the message is still the same: Rid the world of heretics - fall in line or pay the price.
January 9, 2021
I didn't know Shirley Jackson had written a non-fiction work about the witches of Salem and their trials.I had heard about the infamous witch hunt at Salem as there had been many references to it in other books and movies. Yet I hadn't read about it until now.
It was so shocking to learn that the entire "witches in the village hurting little kids" concept was created by a bunch of school girls. For the most part of the book, the author has tried to write with an emotionless narration but there is an underlying tone of bewilderment at how easily these people were manipulated into killing members of their own village.
This is a short book which gives us an overview about the village of Salem in the 1690s and the people who were involved in the trials. My first book of 2021.
It was so shocking to learn that the entire "witches in the village hurting little kids" concept was created by a bunch of school girls. For the most part of the book, the author has tried to write with an emotionless narration but there is an underlying tone of bewilderment at how easily these people were manipulated into killing members of their own village.
This is a short book which gives us an overview about the village of Salem in the 1690s and the people who were involved in the trials. My first book of 2021.
October 5, 2025
Shirley Jackson was an awesome author who really had a way with words.
In this, she tells of the (in-)famous Salem witch trials. So we get the familiar mass hysteria brought on by what can definitely not just be described as a simple prank pulled by some children. We get the actual trial, how some confessions came about and slowly but surely, we are embroiled in this huge mess where neighbor spies on neighbor with more than a few capitalizing on the situation until several people pay for this lunacy with their lives.
Like I said, what happens isn't new, but how the author managed to bring this tale to (new) life was really great. So while this was technically non-fiction, Shirley Jackson told it in the style of her best novels.
Very cool and atmospheric - just what the doctor ordered for Spooktober.
In this, she tells of the (in-)famous Salem witch trials. So we get the familiar mass hysteria brought on by what can definitely not just be described as a simple prank pulled by some children. We get the actual trial, how some confessions came about and slowly but surely, we are embroiled in this huge mess where neighbor spies on neighbor with more than a few capitalizing on the situation until several people pay for this lunacy with their lives.
Like I said, what happens isn't new, but how the author managed to bring this tale to (new) life was really great. So while this was technically non-fiction, Shirley Jackson told it in the style of her best novels.
Very cool and atmospheric - just what the doctor ordered for Spooktober.
October 2, 2019
Written for middle-school readers, this is a compelling and clear account of the witch hunts and trials of the infamous Salem Village, with some background on what was going on in England to lead to this New England tragedy and travesty. If you know Jackson, the below quotes might mean more to you than they would to another reader:
At Jackson’s description of the villagers assembling in front of one of their public buildings on the first day of March 1692, leaving their daily work undone, as two magistrates approached, all I could picture was the gathering of the villagers in Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.”
It was felt that no one would help a witch without a good reason, and the reason could only be that the suspect’s defender was also in league with the devil. It is this attitude that makes it so difficult for intelligent and thoughtful people to stop a great popular hatred like the hatred toward the witches.
Although the Puritans insisted that they had left England because of the oppressive nature of the English church, they did not want liberty of religion, but only conformity.
At Jackson’s description of the villagers assembling in front of one of their public buildings on the first day of March 1692, leaving their daily work undone, as two magistrates approached, all I could picture was the gathering of the villagers in Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.”
September 18, 2018
I took my time with this one since I found the whole thing so fascinating and also Jackson did a great job of including new information that I have not heard about before. She ends the book with a theory about the girls who started it all being afflicted by a fungus on a bread, but she doesn't seem to put much weight behind it and neither do I.
I think most Americans are familiar with the Puritans and also the witchcraft hysteria that gripped Salem Village in 1692. Jackson begins at the beginning with how the Puritans were fleeing religious persecution in England, but really were about conformity and insisting that there fellow brethren were not as religious as they were. She also touches upon the poverty in the village and how there was very few things for young girls and boys to do besides attend church meetings. Any schooling they received was only about religious texts. So Jackson sets a very nice stage for what happens next.
A group of young girls starts accusing the women around them of witchcraft after one of them starts to have fits. Is it irony that the one girl and cousin who started accusing women were the daughter and niece of the local reverend?
Betty Parris was 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams was 11. Betty's father Reverend Samuel Parris was all too ready to believe that his flock contained witches. Jackson goes on a bit that he was a fan of Cotton Mather. To me that's like being a fan of Stephen Miller.
Eventually these girls were joined by Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard. The girls went around falling into fits when examined, saying that they were being pinched and or burned and would howl when coming across people. The scenes that Jackson describes boggle the mind. I would have been calling bullshit left and right. Then again, I would have totally been burned at the stake.
Eventually the girls accused Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba (Reverend Parris's housekeeper). Jackson touches upon how the first three women accused were seen as outsiders by the villagers. Jackson is slightly damning of Tituba who confessed and went on to accuse other women. Eventually other women were named such as Martha Corey and Sarah Good's young daughter (she was 5) Dorcas Good, and Rebecca Nurse.
I think what got me as a reader is that the girls accusations become more and more unbelievable and no one except a few people tried to push back on it. Some people flat out fled to other colonies than deal with the cries of witchcraft that went on.
It is interesting to note that the afflicted girls in Salem Village cried out upon Robert Calef shortly after Mather’s visit. Calef’s answer, which reached them with all possible speed, was an announcement of a slander suit for a thousand pounds. The accusation against Calef was immediately withdrawn, and his name was not mentioned again in Salem Village.
There is some new information here about how the accusations spread to Andover and how the girls even eventually were brought there to identify witches. They ended up finding mostly everyone there to be witches. You think that would have caused everyone to go these girls are full of it.
In the end, things do not start to wind down until after the execution of 19 people on Gallows Hill and one person being pressed to death. Giles Corey's pressing seemed to be finally the end of the witchcraft accusations. His death shamed the community as a whole and they all finally woke up to the fact that they got played by young girls and some women who were out to cast aspersions onto their more well to do neighbors. The hysteria spread from Salem to Andover and they had jails full of people accused of witchcraft. I think Jackson mentions 150 people were jailed.
Jackson cannot find out that much about what happened to some of the accused. We find out that Parris died in poverty (good riddance) after being chased out of the village. Many blamed him and his relatives for what happened. Jackson mentions that his house no longer stands and it's barren ground now. What started cause ripples through the whole community with Salem sliding more into poverty since many people gave up farming or seeing to their homes due to watching the newest accusation or trial. Many who were accused came out of prison and found their homes and belongings lost to them forever.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts did not formally clear everyone accused of witchcraft until 1957.
I think most Americans are familiar with the Puritans and also the witchcraft hysteria that gripped Salem Village in 1692. Jackson begins at the beginning with how the Puritans were fleeing religious persecution in England, but really were about conformity and insisting that there fellow brethren were not as religious as they were. She also touches upon the poverty in the village and how there was very few things for young girls and boys to do besides attend church meetings. Any schooling they received was only about religious texts. So Jackson sets a very nice stage for what happens next.
A group of young girls starts accusing the women around them of witchcraft after one of them starts to have fits. Is it irony that the one girl and cousin who started accusing women were the daughter and niece of the local reverend?
Betty Parris was 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams was 11. Betty's father Reverend Samuel Parris was all too ready to believe that his flock contained witches. Jackson goes on a bit that he was a fan of Cotton Mather. To me that's like being a fan of Stephen Miller.
Eventually these girls were joined by Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard. The girls went around falling into fits when examined, saying that they were being pinched and or burned and would howl when coming across people. The scenes that Jackson describes boggle the mind. I would have been calling bullshit left and right. Then again, I would have totally been burned at the stake.
Eventually the girls accused Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba (Reverend Parris's housekeeper). Jackson touches upon how the first three women accused were seen as outsiders by the villagers. Jackson is slightly damning of Tituba who confessed and went on to accuse other women. Eventually other women were named such as Martha Corey and Sarah Good's young daughter (she was 5) Dorcas Good, and Rebecca Nurse.
"Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard stood up in their places. One of them swore solemnly that Goodwife Nurse had come to her at night and sat upon her chest to suffocate her. The other pointed out that a black man stood, even now, whispering in Goodwife Nurse’s ear and that yellow birds were flying about her head."
I think what got me as a reader is that the girls accusations become more and more unbelievable and no one except a few people tried to push back on it. Some people flat out fled to other colonies than deal with the cries of witchcraft that went on.
It is interesting to note that the afflicted girls in Salem Village cried out upon Robert Calef shortly after Mather’s visit. Calef’s answer, which reached them with all possible speed, was an announcement of a slander suit for a thousand pounds. The accusation against Calef was immediately withdrawn, and his name was not mentioned again in Salem Village.
There is some new information here about how the accusations spread to Andover and how the girls even eventually were brought there to identify witches. They ended up finding mostly everyone there to be witches. You think that would have caused everyone to go these girls are full of it.
In the end, things do not start to wind down until after the execution of 19 people on Gallows Hill and one person being pressed to death. Giles Corey's pressing seemed to be finally the end of the witchcraft accusations. His death shamed the community as a whole and they all finally woke up to the fact that they got played by young girls and some women who were out to cast aspersions onto their more well to do neighbors. The hysteria spread from Salem to Andover and they had jails full of people accused of witchcraft. I think Jackson mentions 150 people were jailed.
Jackson cannot find out that much about what happened to some of the accused. We find out that Parris died in poverty (good riddance) after being chased out of the village. Many blamed him and his relatives for what happened. Jackson mentions that his house no longer stands and it's barren ground now. What started cause ripples through the whole community with Salem sliding more into poverty since many people gave up farming or seeing to their homes due to watching the newest accusation or trial. Many who were accused came out of prison and found their homes and belongings lost to them forever.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts did not formally clear everyone accused of witchcraft until 1957.
November 30, 2022
This book is about the witchcraft trials in Salem and how and why it all started.
January 5, 2022
A historical account of the Salem witchcraft trial (and story leading up to it) of 1692. Written for YA audience, but that didn’t stop me from reading it.
A terrible travesty of justice.
A quick read...a bit dry to my taste, but given it’s only 146 pages (paperback) was able to get through it in one afternoon.
I can’t believe girls who were acting as if they were possessed (I guess they were good actors) were able to send 19 innocent women (and some men) to their deaths.
Reviews
• http://www.jactionary.com/2020/06/boo...
• https://literatipulp.com/2016/09/27/o...
A terrible travesty of justice.
A quick read...a bit dry to my taste, but given it’s only 146 pages (paperback) was able to get through it in one afternoon.
I can’t believe girls who were acting as if they were possessed (I guess they were good actors) were able to send 19 innocent women (and some men) to their deaths.
Reviews
• http://www.jactionary.com/2020/06/boo...
• https://literatipulp.com/2016/09/27/o...
November 13, 2021
I was drawn to this book by so many powers... it is about witches prosecutions, but it is only at the first sign. Teenage girls bored with their life had found entertainment. Tantrums that girls produced that accused innocent people of death. However, the novel was a true life for people in 1690.
September 30, 2015
I buddy read this with a friend after she mentioned it and I recalled that when I was researching my family's genealogy that my husband's 7th great aunt and uncle were John and Elizabeth Proctor, both arrested in the witch trials, John hung, Elizabeth only spared because she was pregnant and by the time she had her baby the chaos had died out.
This book is written for the Young Adult audience, so it is a quick, easy read. It does give the reader a good idea of the trials, how they started, and how they ended up ending.
For me, I still find it hard to believe that the adults and the judges in Salem would so easily believe the rantings, accusations, and fits of the young girls who "identified" all those who were witches.
This book is written for the Young Adult audience, so it is a quick, easy read. It does give the reader a good idea of the trials, how they started, and how they ended up ending.
For me, I still find it hard to believe that the adults and the judges in Salem would so easily believe the rantings, accusations, and fits of the young girls who "identified" all those who were witches.
October 30, 2017
Good, short, straight forward historical account. I learned quit a bit.
July 16, 2018
Great primer (or refresher, if you're like me) on the Salem witch hunt and subsequent trials.
December 15, 2018
3.5 stars.
I never knew of this book till Srividya,. a close Goodreads friend mentioned about this audio to a group of us as a succinct and short account of the witch Hunt of Salem which occured a few centuries ago.
As it was available on audible and I had a credit to use, I utilised the opportunity, and spent a few hours immersed in Salem and it's doings.
I am shocked at the mass hysteria that could easily be induced by a few adolescent girls , and how everybody tended to believe their histrionics instead of the scores of normal women they accused .
It all starts with the daughter of. a small parish minister and a few of her friends starting to listen to the magical tales of her West Indian slave and housekeeper. This was actually forbidden, and the girls still went on with their pastime . After sometime the young child falls sick and the doctor pronounces her to be possessed by a witch . Her older friends too start getting afflicted , and this begins the great witch Hunt which consumed years and many human lives
It was a chilling account of a gruesome and unforgettable period of history .
My son says that he has visited Salem village and seen the relics of the older witching days, but he wasnt fully aware of the whole lore.
Wish I had accompanied him then, as I would have appreciated the historical site better.
The final chapter is a neat little summing up of witchcraft history, and reasons as to why SaLem village was affected, and what made the handful of girls indulge in the accusatory hysteria. Various theories are propounded , each which is as likely as the other .
Alas, we shall never know.
I never knew of this book till Srividya,. a close Goodreads friend mentioned about this audio to a group of us as a succinct and short account of the witch Hunt of Salem which occured a few centuries ago.
As it was available on audible and I had a credit to use, I utilised the opportunity, and spent a few hours immersed in Salem and it's doings.
I am shocked at the mass hysteria that could easily be induced by a few adolescent girls , and how everybody tended to believe their histrionics instead of the scores of normal women they accused .
It all starts with the daughter of. a small parish minister and a few of her friends starting to listen to the magical tales of her West Indian slave and housekeeper. This was actually forbidden, and the girls still went on with their pastime . After sometime the young child falls sick and the doctor pronounces her to be possessed by a witch . Her older friends too start getting afflicted , and this begins the great witch Hunt which consumed years and many human lives
It was a chilling account of a gruesome and unforgettable period of history .
My son says that he has visited Salem village and seen the relics of the older witching days, but he wasnt fully aware of the whole lore.
Wish I had accompanied him then, as I would have appreciated the historical site better.
The final chapter is a neat little summing up of witchcraft history, and reasons as to why SaLem village was affected, and what made the handful of girls indulge in the accusatory hysteria. Various theories are propounded , each which is as likely as the other .
Alas, we shall never know.
October 5, 2024
Thoughts I had while reading (well, listening to; we had it on tape) this book:
"Congratulations, humankind. Your stupidity has reached a new level ..."
"We've had many little spikes in our idiocy over the years, but this has got to be one of our very best!"
"It just gets worse and worse ..."
"Maybe evolutionists have a point ... we really MIGHT have been apes at this point ..."
I've always kinda wandered about the Salem Witchcraft Trials because I've heard them talked about so much, This year we finally reached them in history ... and I was kinda excited and also worried ... because I had the idea that it'd be sickening.
However, I do like reading about these kind of events in history. I find them so absurd as to be amusing. However, I don't believe it was amusing for the residents of Salem Village (or anywhere else where this epidemic reached).
It was sickening. Mostly because it's hard to believe people could be so blind, so dumb. On the other hand, knowing the times, I suppose it makes sense ... to some extent.
This was a very concise, easy-to-understand account of the witchcraft of Salem Village (as the title suggests). I found it entertaining and informing.
I didn't realize the Salem Witchcraft Trials were so short-lived! Nor that so many people repented of their parts in the trial. I certainly didn't know that the whole shebang was run by a group of girls (originally aged 9-18, but branching off into adults as time wore on and more women wanted attention) who almost definitely were just pretending out of malice, boredom, and guilt (as they'd been listening to a lot of stories about witches which they probably weren't supposed to hear from a servant). They'd point to random people and declare them witches and everyone would believe them! I can scarcely believe this is nonfiction.
The one thing I didn't like about this book was the obvious slant against from Christianity, especially in the afterword. However, false Christianity was a major motivator in the fear, superstition, and general idiocy that took place during these events.
"Congratulations, humankind. Your stupidity has reached a new level ..."
"We've had many little spikes in our idiocy over the years, but this has got to be one of our very best!"
"It just gets worse and worse ..."
"Maybe evolutionists have a point ... we really MIGHT have been apes at this point ..."
I've always kinda wandered about the Salem Witchcraft Trials because I've heard them talked about so much, This year we finally reached them in history ... and I was kinda excited and also worried ... because I had the idea that it'd be sickening.
However, I do like reading about these kind of events in history. I find them so absurd as to be amusing. However, I don't believe it was amusing for the residents of Salem Village (or anywhere else where this epidemic reached).
It was sickening. Mostly because it's hard to believe people could be so blind, so dumb. On the other hand, knowing the times, I suppose it makes sense ... to some extent.
This was a very concise, easy-to-understand account of the witchcraft of Salem Village (as the title suggests). I found it entertaining and informing.
I didn't realize the Salem Witchcraft Trials were so short-lived! Nor that so many people repented of their parts in the trial. I certainly didn't know that the whole shebang was run by a group of girls (originally aged 9-18, but branching off into adults as time wore on and more women wanted attention) who almost definitely were just pretending out of malice, boredom, and guilt (as they'd been listening to a lot of stories about witches which they probably weren't supposed to hear from a servant). They'd point to random people and declare them witches and everyone would believe them! I can scarcely believe this is nonfiction.
The one thing I didn't like about this book was the obvious slant against from Christianity, especially in the afterword. However, false Christianity was a major motivator in the fear, superstition, and general idiocy that took place during these events.
January 5, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Disclaimer: If you were not educated in the US or didn’t read or learn about the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1690’s in Massachusetts, this will have spoilers in it.
If you were a teenage girl, you most likely were interested and intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials.... as was I.
This may have included all things witchery, mystic, and Mary Worth games (in the mirror and in the dark). Then there were Ouiji Boards and seances. As an adult, I look back and completely understand wanting something magical and a bit spooky. Well it looks like so did people in Salem Village.
This is set in 1692 at the beginning of Colonial life in the “new land” of Massachusetts Colony in Salem Village, which is similar to but different than the town of Salem.
Along those themes, and as part of my desire to read lesser-known novels by admired writers, I’ve chosen this short novel by Shirley Jackson.
I found it very interesting and enjoyed Gabrielle de Cuir’s, the narrator’s simple, clean, and easy voice in the audio. Although I detest when narrator’s whine or do children’s crying or whining. There’s a bit of that but she moves past it, or I would’ve DNF’d it.
It’s about the historical facts of innocent women and men (mostly women of course - insert 👁 roll) being charged with and tried as witches.
A good part of the witchery confusion was due to the girls being young, impressionable, and full of wild imagination, but also because so many villagers were ridiculously gullible and ready to cast stones. Others accused of witchery were POC or poor. All of them were unsure what else to do other than to try to testify and confess their own sins and others, but as one accused another and their mother or husband or sister etc etc, the prisons in SV, as well as in Boston and Cambridge, were full…of witches. There were public executions if you remember your history.
This was an interesting book (at this point in my life) and yet an unfortunate history of our country’s beginnings about a witch epidemic, written by the amazing Shirley Jackson. It’s a good reminder of the dangers of cults, religious fanatics, and herd mentality.
If you were a teenage girl, you most likely were interested and intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials.... as was I.
This may have included all things witchery, mystic, and Mary Worth games (in the mirror and in the dark). Then there were Ouiji Boards and seances. As an adult, I look back and completely understand wanting something magical and a bit spooky. Well it looks like so did people in Salem Village.
This is set in 1692 at the beginning of Colonial life in the “new land” of Massachusetts Colony in Salem Village, which is similar to but different than the town of Salem.
Along those themes, and as part of my desire to read lesser-known novels by admired writers, I’ve chosen this short novel by Shirley Jackson.
I found it very interesting and enjoyed Gabrielle de Cuir’s, the narrator’s simple, clean, and easy voice in the audio. Although I detest when narrator’s whine or do children’s crying or whining. There’s a bit of that but she moves past it, or I would’ve DNF’d it.
It’s about the historical facts of innocent women and men (mostly women of course - insert 👁 roll) being charged with and tried as witches.
A good part of the witchery confusion was due to the girls being young, impressionable, and full of wild imagination, but also because so many villagers were ridiculously gullible and ready to cast stones. Others accused of witchery were POC or poor. All of them were unsure what else to do other than to try to testify and confess their own sins and others, but as one accused another and their mother or husband or sister etc etc, the prisons in SV, as well as in Boston and Cambridge, were full…of witches. There were public executions if you remember your history.
This was an interesting book (at this point in my life) and yet an unfortunate history of our country’s beginnings about a witch epidemic, written by the amazing Shirley Jackson. It’s a good reminder of the dangers of cults, religious fanatics, and herd mentality.
October 4, 2024
A really good read in the rarefied genre of children's true crime. The author -- none other than Shirley Jackson! -- gives great insight into the lives of the people involved, the interpersonal dynamics and the underpinnings of the whole ugly mess. She also gave me much more of a sense of the scope of the hysteria than I've seen in other books and articles -- and the only glimpse I've ever had of the aftermath in the lives of the accused. Really worth a look.
February 16, 2011
Excellent account of the Salem Witch Trials. Shirley Jackson manages to tell the entire story while providing insight into the Puritan mentality that drove these events in just 71 pages! Easily read in one sitting.
October 31, 2014
This book is a nice short review of the Salem (Village) Witch Trials. It has been said extensively (in other reviews here as well as in Shirley Jackson biographies) that this historical text was meant for students in the 6th grade and up. That may be so, but for anyone who does not know anything about the trials, this seems to be a great introduction.
It seems interesting that something that (according to the final chapter) had such a huge impact on trials and the general sentiment of the country towards religion is usually underwritten in History Textbooks. I remember hearing none of the causes (growing unease, possible French-Indian War, Puritanical ideology, increase in taxes, etc) and very little of the fallout (dismissal of "spectral evidence" in courts, further need for "innocent until proven guilty" and the beginning of preventing "guilt by association"). In fact, all I can remember from my schooldays (long ago that they were) was that there were trials at some point about witches and some people died. Sure, we got to talk about Puritanical ideology when discussing The Scarlet Letter, but even that didn't take us as far as this book does in the first chapter.
Before going on longer than the book, I'll summarize: Great introduction to the period. For those interested, this can work as a nice primer (if you can ever find it) but shouldn't be the final historical work read on the subject. I think it works great as a way to illustrate to anyone - middle school student or older - the basics of the Salem Witch Hunts as well as why they still matter.
And probably tying this together with The Crucible and the McCarthy Communist Trials would be a good idea also
It seems interesting that something that (according to the final chapter) had such a huge impact on trials and the general sentiment of the country towards religion is usually underwritten in History Textbooks. I remember hearing none of the causes (growing unease, possible French-Indian War, Puritanical ideology, increase in taxes, etc) and very little of the fallout (dismissal of "spectral evidence" in courts, further need for "innocent until proven guilty" and the beginning of preventing "guilt by association"). In fact, all I can remember from my schooldays (long ago that they were) was that there were trials at some point about witches and some people died. Sure, we got to talk about Puritanical ideology when discussing The Scarlet Letter, but even that didn't take us as far as this book does in the first chapter.
Before going on longer than the book, I'll summarize: Great introduction to the period. For those interested, this can work as a nice primer (if you can ever find it) but shouldn't be the final historical work read on the subject. I think it works great as a way to illustrate to anyone - middle school student or older - the basics of the Salem Witch Hunts as well as why they still matter.
And probably tying this together with The Crucible and the McCarthy Communist Trials would be a good idea also
December 28, 2021
Brilliant and engrossing. Watching all those movies and tv series based on the Salem witch trials it was really good to read about what really happened. The author gives clear cut reasoning based on existing evidence.
March 11, 2013
The excellent horror writer Shirley Jackson wrote this short book before her more famous works, "The Haunting of Hill House" (possibly the best haunted house book ever written) and the underrated "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" as well as authoring the unforgettable short story "The Lottery".
In 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, a group of young girls claimed to have been mistreated by witches and wizards and began accusing members of their colony. The village elders, devoutly religious Puritans, were utterly in thrall to these girls because of the strictness of their beliefs and the real fear at the time of actual witches, and began arresting the women based on the girls' testimony, and started executing them. Eventually the arrests stopped as people became sick of the witch-hunt but the shocking madness that gripped this village is still a fascinating glimpse into early American life and the disturbing behaviour extreme religious views breeds.
This book is non-fiction but is written in the fluid narrative style of a novel making for easy understanding and reading of this strange story. Jackson writes beautifully and retells the events as closely to the facts as possible. It's amazing to read the way these girls were believed and that on the loosest of accusations by these children that an entire community of grown-ups chose to believe their nonsense and act upon it in such a heinous way. Jackson speculates that it was a convenient way for these grown-ups to work out their frustration over others, a kind of class warfare, but ultimately it comes down to the Puritan religion and the scaremongering that suited it's cause.
Jackson would go on to include many aspects of the Salem Witch Trials in her fiction, such as the mob mentality and rural superstition in "The Lottery" or the deviousness of little girls in "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" or the way we can lie to ourselves to believe delusions based on our surroundings in "The Haunting of Hill House".
It is a well written and brief book that will make clear to anyone reading the events and issues surrounding this period of time, but it is by no means a scholarly book and anyone looking for more in-depth explanations into the witch-trials would do better seeking out a more academic history book. The book is aimed at younger readers in their early teens and it's perfectly suited for that. I would recommend anyone looking for further reading to seek out Jackson's later novels as they are masterpieces of fiction and well worth reading to see where she pursued the themes present in this book.
In 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, a group of young girls claimed to have been mistreated by witches and wizards and began accusing members of their colony. The village elders, devoutly religious Puritans, were utterly in thrall to these girls because of the strictness of their beliefs and the real fear at the time of actual witches, and began arresting the women based on the girls' testimony, and started executing them. Eventually the arrests stopped as people became sick of the witch-hunt but the shocking madness that gripped this village is still a fascinating glimpse into early American life and the disturbing behaviour extreme religious views breeds.
This book is non-fiction but is written in the fluid narrative style of a novel making for easy understanding and reading of this strange story. Jackson writes beautifully and retells the events as closely to the facts as possible. It's amazing to read the way these girls were believed and that on the loosest of accusations by these children that an entire community of grown-ups chose to believe their nonsense and act upon it in such a heinous way. Jackson speculates that it was a convenient way for these grown-ups to work out their frustration over others, a kind of class warfare, but ultimately it comes down to the Puritan religion and the scaremongering that suited it's cause.
Jackson would go on to include many aspects of the Salem Witch Trials in her fiction, such as the mob mentality and rural superstition in "The Lottery" or the deviousness of little girls in "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" or the way we can lie to ourselves to believe delusions based on our surroundings in "The Haunting of Hill House".
It is a well written and brief book that will make clear to anyone reading the events and issues surrounding this period of time, but it is by no means a scholarly book and anyone looking for more in-depth explanations into the witch-trials would do better seeking out a more academic history book. The book is aimed at younger readers in their early teens and it's perfectly suited for that. I would recommend anyone looking for further reading to seek out Jackson's later novels as they are masterpieces of fiction and well worth reading to see where she pursued the themes present in this book.
September 23, 2019
In the village of Salem, MA, hundreds were accused of witchcraft in an unruly and unfair manner, and nineteen people were unjustly hung. It is truly disturbing that this was ever a problem. However, as Shirley Jackson so aptly points out, there was much that our country learned from this experience and what was allowed as admissible evidence in court was more fairly clarified. It is important to learn of what happened during this time and why. This was well written to explain the situation in its entirety. It is apparent that Jackson does not believe that the devil exists. My Christian theology does not concur. In fairness, she wrote the story without any antagonism towards those who believe in God and a devil. I highly recommend this one. Good for kids as well.
December 15, 2020
Shirley Jackson's psychological horror was informed, I'm not all that surprised to learn, by a love of the actual occult throughout history. Here, she goes deeply into the actual historical record around the Salem witch trials. There's little more terrofying than the complete lack of any separation of Church and State in early Puritan America that allowed specious religious arguments to send those accused via petty jealousies to death based on spectral visions.
August 25, 2019
This was a fascinating and informative read about the witchcraft trials that took place in Salem Village. The writing is pretty to-the-point and it is aimed at a younger audience but I still found it thoroughly absorbing.
June 5, 2020
Shirley Jackson fue una gran escritora: plasmó la incertidumbre sobrenatural e inexplicable en sus novelas «Siempre hemos vivido en el castillo» y «La maldición de Hill House», así como el terror que se esconde en lo cotidiano (por ejemplo, en las fantásticas historias de «La lotería»).
En este libro brevísimo, la autora se aboca a describir, con base en un trabajo concienzudo de archivo, los 16 meses de la cacería de brujas en la villa de Salem y los posteriores juicios en Boston. Con imparcialidad —para acusados y acusadores—, Shirley Jackson logra una de las descripciones más desapasionadas y racionales del fenómeno social que, en 1692, abrió uno de los capítulos más espeluznantes de la historia americana.
En resumidas cuentas estamos frente a un texto maravilloso, digno de un público mucho más amplio, y escrito con una prosa sumamente cuidada. Este relato histórico, bellamente editado por Random House, nos hará reflexionar sobre aquellas fuerzas que impulsan a los hombres a portarse como bestias y a alejarnos de cualesquiera formas de fanatismo.
En este libro brevísimo, la autora se aboca a describir, con base en un trabajo concienzudo de archivo, los 16 meses de la cacería de brujas en la villa de Salem y los posteriores juicios en Boston. Con imparcialidad —para acusados y acusadores—, Shirley Jackson logra una de las descripciones más desapasionadas y racionales del fenómeno social que, en 1692, abrió uno de los capítulos más espeluznantes de la historia americana.
En resumidas cuentas estamos frente a un texto maravilloso, digno de un público mucho más amplio, y escrito con una prosa sumamente cuidada. Este relato histórico, bellamente editado por Random House, nos hará reflexionar sobre aquellas fuerzas que impulsan a los hombres a portarse como bestias y a alejarnos de cualesquiera formas de fanatismo.
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