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The devil of Great Island : witchcraft and conflict in early New England / Emerson W. Baker.
Table of contents only Available online
View online- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Baker, Emerson W.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Witchcraft--New Hampshire--New Castle--History--17th century.
- Witchcraft.
- History.
- New Hampshire--New Castle.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 244 pages : illustrations, maps, genealogical tables ; 22 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
- Summary:
- In 1682, ten years before the infamous Salem witch trials, the town of Great Island, New Hampshire, was plagued by mysterious events: strange, demonic noises; unexplainable movement of objects; and hundreds of stones that rained upon a local tavern and appeared at random inside its walls. Town residents blamed what they called "Lithobolia" or "the stone-throwing devil." In this lively account, Emerson Baker shows how witchcraft hysteria overtook one town and spawned copycat incidents elsewhere in New England, prefiguring the horrors of Salem. In the process, he illuminates a cross-section of colonial society and overturns many popular assumptions about witchcraft in the seventeenth century.
- Contents:
- The first stone is cast
- Evil things
- The Waltons
- The neighbors from hell
- Fences and neighbors
- Neighbors and witches
- Great Island's great matter
- The Mason family stakes its claim
- The spread of Lithobolia
- To Salem.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-230) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9781403972071
- 1403972079
- OCLC:
- 83977438
- Online:
- Contributor biographical information
- Publisher description
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