Vexed with devils : manhood and witchcraft in Old and New England / Erika Gasser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gasser, Erika, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Early American places

Early American Places

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Demoniac possession--England--History.

Demoniac possession.

Witchcraft--England--History.

Witchcraft.

Demoniac possession--New England--History.

Witchcraft--New England--History.

History.

England.

New England.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 223 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern England through the last official trials in colonial New England. Those possessed by the devil in early modern England usually exhibited a common set of symptoms: fits, vomiting, visions, contortions, speaking in tongues, and an antipathy to prayer. However, it was a matter of interpretation, and sometimes public opinion, if these symptoms were visited upon the victim, or if they came from within. Both early modern England and colonial New England had cases that blurred the line between witchcraft and demonic possession, most famously, the Salem witch trials. While historians acknowledge some similarities in witch trials between the two regions, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of witches were women, the histories of these cases primarily focus on local contexts and specifics. In so doing, they overlook the ways in which manhood factored into possession and witchcraft cases. This is a cultural history of witchcraft-possession phenomena that centers on the role of men and patriarchal power.Erika Gasser reveals that witchcraft trials had as much to do with who had power in the community, to impose judgement or to subvert order, as they did with religious belief. She argues that the gendered dynamics of possession and witchcraft demonstrated that contested meanings of manhood played a critical role in the struggle to maintain authority.

Contents:

Possession, gender, and power

Discerning demonic and witchcraft-possession in early modern England

Engendering English witchcraft-possession: the Samuel Family in Warboys

Disputing possession in England: Samuel Harsnett versus John Darrell

Engendering New England witchcraft-possession: George Burroughs in Salem

Disputing possession in New England: Robert Calef versus Cotton Mather

Continuity and patriarchy at the turn of the eighteenth century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781479831791

1479831794

OCLC:

961160721