Satan and Salem: The Witch-Hunt Crisis of 1692

by Benjamin C. Ray

The result of a perfect storm of factors that culminated in a great moral catastrophe, the Salem witch trials of 1692 took a breathtaking toll on the young English colony of Massachusetts. Over 150 people were imprisoned, and nineteen men and women, including a minister, were executed by hanging. The colonial government, which was responsible for initiating the trials, eventually repudiated the entire affair as a great "delusion of the Devil."

In Satan and Salem, Benjamin Ray looks beyond single-factor interpretations to offer a far more nuanced view of why the Salem witch-hunt spiraled out of control. Rather than assigning blame to a single perpetrator, Ray assembles portraits of several major characters, each of whom had complex motives for accusing his or her neighbors. In this way, he reveals how religious, social, political, and legal factors all played a role in the drama. Ray’s historical database of court records, documents, and maps yields a unique analysis of the geographic spread of accusations and trials, ultimately showing how the witch-hunt resulted in the execution of so many people—far more than any comparable episode on this side of the Atlantic.

In addition to the print volume, Satan and Salem will also be available as a linked e-book offering the reader the opportunity to investigate firsthand the primary sources and maps on which Ray’s groundbreaking argument rests.

Learn more at satanandsalem.org.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Anthropology

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2015

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

easily the most comprehensive account of the witch-hunt at Salem and Essex county that we read in our class on witchcraft in the early modern Atlantic world. he read the heck out of those archives, which are free and online by the way.

two strongest places of blame for Ray, i think, are the magistrates and Parris/local clergy. he doesn’t essentialize the episode in any way, though. also important is his insistence (see the title) on the centrality of actual belief in the presence of Satan in colonial New England. that makes causation and responsibility more complicated, but it’s a more accurate point to stand on than immediately looking to other explanations (i.e., secularizing the account, which often happens implicitly)

[Patricia Roberts-Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of essays on the "witch-hunt" crisis, with useful summaries of the historians' consensus. It might be a little more scholarly than many readers want (hence the four stars), but it was perfect for me.

[Lacey Hylton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book, just breaks your heart on reading on the truth on what happend in Salem and a lot of the stuff could have been prevented if people just weren't so scared and ignorant!

[Katherine Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another write-up of what happened at Salem (of which I must have four or five). What makes Ray particularly useful is that he makes a little bit of extra effort to get into the viewpoint of the afflicted girls and not only acknowledges that there must have been some amount of fraud, but talks about why that might be so. How terrified they must have been and how important it must have seemed to them that the people they believed were witches be convicted. So not fraud for fraud's sake, but fraud in the service of what they believed was a higher purpose.

[Jessica DeWitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Link to my Twitter moment with quotes, etc.: https://twitter.com/i/moments/1075188...