The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History

In late-seventeenth-century New England, the eternal battle between God and Satan moved into the courtroom. Between January 1692 and May 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, neighbors turned against neighbors and children against parents with accusations of witchcraft, and nineteen people were hanged for having made pacts with the devil. Peter Charles Hoffer tells the real story of how religious beliefs, superstitions, clan disputes, and Anglo-American law and custom created an epidemic of accusations that resulted in the investigation of nearly two hundred colonists and, for many, the ordeal of trial and incarceration. Along the way, he shows how many rights we take for granted today - such as rules of evidence and a defendant's right to legal counsel - did not apply in colonial times. A concise history written expressly for students and general readers, The Salem Witchcraft Trials sheds important light on early American law and tempers our horror of these infamous proceedings with sympathy for a people who gave in to panic in the face of a harsh and desolate existence.