Witchcraft in Early North America

by Alison Games

Witchcraft in Early North America investigates European, African, and Indian witchcraft beliefs and their expression in colonial America. Alison Games's engaging book takes us beyond the infamous outbreak at Salem, Massachusetts, to look at how witchcraft was a central feature of colonial societies in North America. Her substantial and lively introduction orients readers to the subject and to the rich selection of documents that follows. The documents begin with first encounters between European missionaries and Native Americans in New France and New Mexico, and they conclude with witch hunts among Native Americans in the years of the early American republic. The documents—some of which have never been published previously—include excerpts from trials in Virginia, New Mexico, and Massachusetts; accounts of outbreaks in Salem, Abiquiu (New Mexico), and among the Delaware Indians; descriptions of possession; legal codes; and allegations of poisoning by slaves. The documents raise issues central to legal, cultural, social, religious, and gender history. This fascinating topic and the book’s broad geographic and chronological coverage make this book ideally suited for readers interested in new approaches to colonial history and the history of witchcraft.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Witchcraft, American History, Religion, Witches, Class

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 16, 2010

About the author

Alison Games is the Dorothy M. Brown Distinguished Professor of History at Georgetown University.

Reviews

[Wraith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book examines the history of early North America from the beginning of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Unlike most historical approaches it does so through the lense of what people believed about witchcraft, which is in my opinion the right (and perhaps most important) way of approaching an understanding of the society, since everything about human life issues from systems of human thought and praxis. This book focuses on the cultural encounters between the Native Americans, European settlers/colonisers, and enslaved Africans, which created a toxic psychic melting pot that continues to this day and which can be seen manifest in the volatility of American society. The first half of the book is an analysis of witch beliefs of these three people groups, and the second half of the book is eyewitness accounts of witchcraft and witchcraft trials so that thw reader can come to their own conclusions. Obviously, the 1692 Salem witch trials features strongly in this book. The thing about the eyewitness accounts, as the author herself notes, is that they are only coming from the European perspective, so that has to be taken into consideration. This book is mostly a resource for history students but I also think its relevant to Religous Studies students.

[Christopher G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Alison Games gained her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and is a distinguished professor of History at Georgetown University. She has written several books including Major Problems in Atlantic History and Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World. Dr. Games is qualified to write on subjects related to Atlantic History.

Witchcraft in Early North America covers the period from 1616 through the first decade of the nineteenth century with a geographic focus on North America. Games informs the reader on the preconceived notion of witchcraft amongst the cacophony of cultures that merged in the New World and how they came together to shape North America’s version of witches. The second part of Game’s book is a large collection of primary documents that reveal how the Europeans and Native Americans viewed each other through the lens of witchcraft.

Dr. Games begins by defining what constituted a witch; Huron shamans, Pueblo healers, enslaved conjurers, and Jesuit priests alike. These witches were people who performed harmful acts and threatened community order according to all that believed in them. For the cultures of the Atlantic that were brought together in North America, witches were an explanation for the unexplainable like natural disasters and epidemics.

The European beliefs in witches are the most documented and understood of the cultures in early North America. They believed that witches were guilty of crimes like casting spells for misfortune or impotence. Witches were thought to be accompanied by a familiar, or unpleasant and offensive animal. Witches were recruiters for Satan and were friendly with evil spirits. Sorcerers, on the other hand, used magic but did not associate with evil spirits. The distinction between witches and sorcerers faded over time for those in North America. The Native American practices became synonymous with witchcraft for the European Americans.

European anti-witch propaganda became popular in the fifteenth century and solidified the syncretism of witches as employees of the Devil. In the new folklore, witches could fly for thousands of miles, had orgies, danced naked, and consumed unbaptized babies. Even educated men prosecuted witchcraft in court, at times using torture to procure a confession. The gender ratio of those accused of being witches varied by country in Europe but the majority were older, less attractive women. Women were perceived as weak and impressionable, more likely to resort to occult arts and be given over to sexual deviance. The accused were rarely given fair trials because exceptions like torture that weren’t normally allowed in a court of law were used to prosecute them in many countries. Not surprisingly, the European countries that prohibited torture had far fewer confessions and executions. These beliefs served the purpose of explanation for what the Europeans encountered in Africa and America.

For the African peoples, witchcraft functioned as a common explanation for sicknesses and misfortunes much like the Europeans. Unlike in Europe, witches weren’t inherently evil and witchcraft and magic could be used for good and healing as well. Africans adorned fetishes or charms and amulets as agents of important symbolic power used in conjuring and divination. Some Europeans equated this African magic with the work of the Devil while some Catholic priests attempted to appropriate it for themselves. To some Europeans, African Obea communion with spirits was seen as bigoted as the “saint worship” of the Italians and Spanish. While Europeans associated witchcraft with the meek and marginal, Africans believed anyone could be a witch. Games points out that the limited knowledge of the African view of witchcraft comes from the prejudice perspective of the Europeans that documented it.

Due to the European standard of passing what they didn’t understand off as witchcraft, we will never have a perfect picture of the religions of the Native Americans. Puritans and Spanish missionaries labeled indiegenous religious practices as guided by demons, still others called it devil worship. Like the Europeans and Africans, the Native Americans blamed misfortune and poor health on bad spirits and witchcraft. Ironically, the disease the Europeans brought with them that wiped out a large portion of Native Americans was viewed as a blessing to the Europeans that attributed their destruction to God. Many Europeans viewed North America as hell on Earth, the home of the Devil himself. Not all Europeans held this view at first. Many English, French, and Dutch colonizers marveled at the generosity and simplicity of the Native Americans upon encountering them.

North America became a contest for religious dominion for the Europeans; a literal good versus evil. Christian conversion was largely unsuccessful and all resistance was equated with diabolism. The Spanish were quick to link resistance to witchcraft and word spread of its pervasiveness in the New World. Witches appeared regularly in colonial courts in Spanish America. New Mexico in the early seventeenth century saw Europeans and Indians living in very close proximity and oftentimes with each other. This proximity led to many accusations of witchcraft against Native American and mestiza women.

France, a hotbed for witch accusations at the time of colonization, saw much less witchcraft in New France. In fact, not one document survives of a witch trial in New France. On the contrary, it was more likely that the Native Americans identified French priests as witches. The church was weak in New France and the priests were all well educated, intent to dispel the nonsense of magic. A major reason that witch trials may not have occurred in New France is the disbursement of the families and lack of villages.

Most witchcraft trials took place in New England where those accused were punished even more harshly than in England. Witch trials were much less prevalent in the other English colonies. Some historians claim that witch accusations sprang up in New England due to familiarity and proximity but Games suggests that records of shipboard executions prove this theory wrong. The misfortune of bad storms on the voyages may have been reason enough for the executions. New Englanders were so keen on witch hunting that Puritans and Anglicans linked Quaker women with witchcraft. However, in colonies like Pennsylvania, what was perceived as witchcraft in New England was seen as simple, ritual, folkloric practice.

Witch hunts never became as popular in North America as they were in Europe. There were intermittent outbreaks like in New Mexico in 1675 when 47 Indians witches were hanged. The famous Salem witch trials in 1692 led to 19 executions and 162 accused. These trials paled in comparison to major witch hunts in Europe where in Scotland 664 people were executed and in the Holy Roman Empire between 1616 and 1630, 2,100 people were executed as witches. Even so, witch hunts continued to be an important part of North American life well into the nineteenth century. Today in North America, the tourist dollar shapes and exaggerates the history of the accused and executed. The witch served an important purpose in the lives of the people brought together in the New World and Games succeeds in detailing how they became the scapegoat for many of their problems.

Games used a lot of primary sources from first hand accounts and interactions with witches, court records, newspaper articles. She also employs a lot of works by other historians on the topic including Ramón Gutiérrez’ fantastic book “Corn Mothers.” Games' book is a scholarly work and is somewhat of a book / textbook hybrid. I believe that it is easy enough for the general public to enjoy but could also be used by students or historians. I enjoyed reading the book and I recommend it to anyone interested in Atlantic religions at the time of colonization.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for a witch's library.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is by my college roomamte...woo-hoo!

Definitely a textbook but an erudite and witty one...also good for vocabulary building...would love to have details illuminated for me by class discussion

Am amazed by Alison's skill in bringing this book together

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid overview of the history of witchcraft in North America. I would love to take a class with Alison Games teaching based on this book alone. Reading the documents alone was worth it.

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an academic textbook so it's well-researched with some good primary resources, but it works best when read alongside other books about witchcraft or American history.