I just finished reading a book by Chadwick Hansen, called Witchcraft at Salem. It’s a small text, written in 1969. I found a copy of it for $1 in a little bookstore in Hemet, California, during some traveling. The premise of the book, based on the summary on the back, is simple: “There actually was witchcraft in Salem.” I think when I purchased it, I thought it would go into detail about the type of witchcraft utilized by the women in the 1600’s. It does touch on a few methods: divination using eggs, sympathetic magic using pins and rag dolls, as well as some other folk magic. However, once I actually started reading it, the book was more about how maybe 3 or 4 of the people who were put to death were actually witches. Mostly, the book touched a lot on spectral evidence, hysteria, and the involvement of Cotton and Increase Mather, as well as the writings of some other well-known people who attempted to summarize the events.
The book’s writing style was quite dry. Also, it tended to jump about its own timeline so that in the same chapter the same accused witch may be on trial but also already executed. It would have helped for me, personally, to have had a brief overview of what the timeline was like before reading this book. Similarly, when the author introduces Increase Mather it was just in reference to him with no indication of what his job or role was, or whether he was important or why, he was just given a quote and then after that the reader had figure out on their own that he was more than just some random person.
This book, I’ll be honest, was difficult to get through. Because much of the book is quotes pulled directly from the trials which were obviously held in the 1600’s, a lot of sections had to be re-read for me to get what exactly was going on. Now, Hansen does summarize some of the more difficult sections or give explanation when necessary. But it was still difficult.
One review on Amazon states: ‘Overall, this is not a book I would recommend to someone who is looking for their first book on Salem or to the general reader. This is a book that should be read by those studying the historiography of Salem or for those who know enough of the basics to be able to glean what useful information.’ and I’m keen to agree with them.
However, the subject matter is fascinating and I can foresee myself choosing a few more resources to follow up my studies on Salem. Do you ever see those shirts that say “We are the granddaughters of the witches you couldn’t burn?” I think that was part of why I wanted to look into it. Another reason was, as a witch, I guess I wanted to see the difference in freedoms we have today versus in the past. And also, because our current administration tends to use the phrase “Witch Hunt” a lot, I wanted to compare the kind of legal murdering that went on back then to the kind of legal murdering that goes on today. History is always interesting.
Witch of the West 