Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack
How English Witch-Hunting Manuals Guided New England’s Witch Trials, 1647-1697
Witchcraft belief in colonial New England was primarily imported from England by the colonists and refreshed through transatlantic trade and communication networks. Ministers and judges in New England consulted English legal and theological works for advice on the practical matters of operating a witchcraft prosecution, as well as for spiritual revelations on how witches operated. Drawing on the texts themselves, we trace how early continental demonologies influenced English theories of witchcraft and how English books and pamphlets in turn influenced the methods used in New England’s witch hunts. Then we present some of the many ways we can know the New England witch trials featured beliefs and methods popularized by English writing, reviewing techniques for identifying and convicting witches. In this talk, we’ll cover the Malleus Maleficarum, King James’s Demonology, and works by William Perkins, Richard Bernard, and other English authors, comparing them to themes prevalent in New England books of the colonial period.
Josh Hutchinson descends from people accused of witchcraft and people who accused others of witchcraft. He is the co-host of three history podcasts with Sarah Jack: The Thing About Witch Hunts, The Thing About the Salem Witch Trials, and Salem Witch Trials Daily. He is also a co-founder of the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project, the team lead of the Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project, and a co-founder of End Witch Hunts, America’s only nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the continuation of violence related to witchcraft accusations.
Sarah Jack (endwitchhunts.org) is a documented descendant of victims of witch trials held in Salem, Boston, and Hartford, including Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty, Mary Hale, and Winifred Benham. She co-hosts three history podcasts with Josh Hutchinson: The Thing About Witch Hunts, The Thing About Salem, and Salem Witch Trials Daily. She co-founded the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project, and is the Founding Executive Director of End Witch Hunts, a nonprofit bridging witchcraft accusation history and its living consequences.
