History 231 Reading Guide
Discussion: Witchcraft in a Contentious Society: The late seventeenth century
- Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1987; revised 1998).
Questions:
- Previously, what did you understand about the causes of witchcraft accusations in general and the witchcraft hysteria in Salem in particular? How does Karlsen's interpretation fit into or revise that understanding?
- From what theoretical perspectives is she writing? What questions do those perspectives raise? What evidence does she offer to support her argument and how does she analyze it?
- To what extent were witchcraft accusations and trials a community phenomenon? What role did the accusations play in the social, economic, and religious life of the community? How did witchcraft accusations (and possessions) reflect those changes?
- Why was witchcraft such a gendered phenomenon?
- What does the witchcraft hysteria in Salem suggest about changes in late seventeenth-century society? Why Salem? Why 1692?
- How was the witchcraft phenomenon in Salem (and New England) resolved after 1692-1693? Why?
