Salem Witchcraft

by Charles W. Upham

Painstakingly researched history of Salem village and the notorious witchcraft trials held there in the late 17th century. Upham not only supplies valuable information on Salem's legislative and economic problems, but also recounts details of local hostilities that sowed the seeds of suspicion and fear among villagers, and helped fuel the witch hunt.

Genres: History, Witches, Nonfiction, Witchcraft, United States

800 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1867

About the author

Charles Wentworth Upham was a U.S. politician, having served twice each as a member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives and Senate, plus a term as President of the latter; the 7th Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts, and finally as Representative from the 6th district of Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress.

A classmate and former friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Upham was an opponent of the burgeoning Transcendentalism movement. He wrote and spoke widely on Protestant religion and on Massachusetts history, with a particular focus on Salem and the late 17th century witch trials of that area.

Reviews

[Lily P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Kindle)

Originally published in 1930, this book represents the scholarly research through records of the Salem Witch trials. Complete documents are reprinted and framed within knowledge of the area and period. An attempt to explain and put into context what happened is thoroughly done--to the point where the reader may feel they are on an endurance march.

Reading on the Kindle was helpful because you can word search and therefore bounce to the segments for the names and trials you're most interested in learning about, or revisiting.

Great detail.
Great resource.
Lots of contemporary documented information.

RECOMMEND for those seriously curious about this period of American history.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just in time for Halloween!

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was truly an interesting, unique book. It's old as hell, yet a monster and more thorough than most things I've read. Which is where it comes close to failing. As fascinating as this book is, when you're dealing with a topic like this in a book of over 800 pages, when books of similar value could conceivably be written at half that size or much less, while I love thoroughness more than most, it borders on tedium far too often. That's probably good more than bad, because something this old and this important to this country's history needs to be well documented, but most people I know would probably have slit their wrists less than halfway through, because honestly, after awhile, it just seemed to become massively redundant. That being said, I like works such as that while most people I know don't. So while I usually try to recommend or not recommend a book, but this one is hard, because I definitely would recommend it to historians and academics and people who can handle a myriad of details without falling asleep, but if you're not that type, I don't think it's for you, so I wouldn't recommend it in that case. For me though, a quality experience!

[J.D. Steens · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book was a history of Salem, Massachusetts, and the surrounding area, in the 17th century. This lays the foundation for what transpired in 1692, the accusation of the practice of witchcraft by 200 individuals, their trials, torture (to induce confessions) and deaths by hanging.* Ostensibly, the motive force behind the trials was that the condemned were doing the work of the Devil, but other motivations - prejudices, ambition, jealousies; petty grievances, long-standing grudges and private feuds - fed into that.

Upham states that the Puritans had inherited two heathen doctrines - the world being ruled by the twin principles or beings of "the perfectly good and the perfectly bad." For Christians, and the Puritans, these became "the Deity and the Devil." Regarding the Devil, Upham writes that "demonology" had a long history in Europe with the Inquisition and that, in the 16th century, immediately prior to the Salem trials, "works of the highest pretension, elaborate, learned voluminous and exhausting, were published by the authority of governments and universities to expand it." Demonology "was regarded as occupying the most eminent department of jurisprudence, as well as of science and theology." Witches were those who had made formal compacts "with Satan to aid in rebellion against God." For the Puritans, Upham writes, the final battleground between God and the Devil was Salem.

The book reveals a lot about the human capacity for evil, but not in the typical way we understand evil. In Salem, at that time, average-enough people were willing to engage in such atrocious practices against their neighbors out of their fear of the Devil and their wanting to do "right" by God, against the background of mass hysteria and conformity ("the credulity and superstitions of mankind"), cheered on by magistrates and preachers and "the love of God."

Literally, the people of Salem lost their minds. Fortunately, in the mid- to late-1690s, the people came to their senses and later - too late - recognized the sins that had been conducted in the name of God.

There's a lot of detail about Salem and the trial making the book somewhat a slog if one were looking just for the overview. For that, the Wikipedia entry worked just fine.

*The AI summary: The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, and 20 were executed, mostly by hanging. The trials were fueled by fear, religious extremism, and social tensions in the Puritan community of Salem.

[Gregory Freeman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not even a book

This isn't even a book. After one scrolls through the section of books of similar subjects one gets to what one expects to begin of the book proper but only to find that you're done and not a single word of text (apart from the table of contents). Thankfully this was a freebie and I didn't waste a penny on it. Now I can delete it from my library. Too bad, I am fascinated by the subject and any accounts have their value, regardless of what perspective they take. Buyer beware.

[Matthew Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book covering the Salem Witch Trials in an extensive amount of detail. This book is not one that you can just pick up and read easily, you need to take time to thoroughly digest the content.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

just ads

No prose just ads complete waste—-
I was really looking deep historical perspective on the tragedy in Salem and I am severely disappointed by this download

[Sara J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads exactly like you'd expect an author from the mid-1800s would write. Found this book rather dense and difficult to get through simply because I would get bored mid-sentence. He spent almost 200 pages discussing family lineage (that likely meant something to people in the 1800s but was lost on me) and lended toward a boring story. The information about the witch trials and the background of inter-family conflicts was interesting, but overall would not recommend this to others.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very complete, sometimes to the point of tedium, but still enthralling. Everyone should read this book or another like it. A very sad chapter in our nation's history.