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The cover of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

Paul Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum

What can the quarrels over church, land and family inside Salem Village tell us about why the witchcraft outbreak of sixteen ninety two happened?

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At a glance

Author
Paul Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum

Why read it

  • You will learn to look for local rivalries and social strain behind a sudden panic
  • You will see how everyday records such as tax lists and petitions can reveal who stood on which side of a dispute
  • You will learn to look again at a story so familiar that few people ask how it really began

Who it is for

  • A reader who knows Salem only from school stories and films
  • Someone who has watched a community turn on its own members
  • A student learning to use local records to explain big events

Contents

  1. Title
  2. Preface
  3. Salem Village in the Seventeenth Century: A Chronology
  4. Abbreviations Used in the Notes
  5. Prologue: What Happened in 1692
  6. 1 1692: Some New Perspectives
  7. 2 In Quest of Community, 1639–1687
  8. 3 Afflicted Village, 1688–1697
  9. 4 Salem Town and Salem Village: The Dynamics of Factional Conflict
  10. 5 Two Families: The Porters and the Putnams
  11. 6 Joseph and His Brothers: A Story of the Putnam Family
  12. 7 Samuel Parris: A Pilgrim in Bethlehem
  13. 8 Witchcraft and Social Identity
  14. Epilogue: To the Eighteenth Century

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