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Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 (New Narratives in American History) | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Godbeer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 403226
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.7 x 0.4
ISBN: 0195161300
Dewey Decimal Number: 133.43097469
EAN: 9780195161304
ASIN: 0195161300
Publication Date: January 6, 2005
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Product Description
The Salem witch hunt of 1692 is among the most infamous events in early American history; however, it was not the only such episode to occur in New England that year. Escaping Salem reconstructs the "other witch hunt" of 1692 that took place in Stamford, Connecticut. Concise and accessible, the book takes students on a revealing journey into the mental world of early America, shattering the stereotype of early New Englanders as quick to accuse and condemn.
Drawing on eyewitness testimony, Richard Godbeer tells the story of Kate Branch, a seventeen-year-old afflicted by strange visions and given to blood-chilling wails of pain and fright. Branch accused several women of bewitching her, two of whom were put on trial for witchcraft. Escaping Salem takes us inside the Connecticut courtroom and into the minds of the surprisingly skeptical Stamford townspeople. Were the pain and screaming due to natural or supernatural causes? Was Branch simply faking the symptoms? And if she was indeed bewitched, why believe her specific accusations, since her information came from demons who might well be lying? For the judges, Godbeer shows, the trial was a legal thicket. All agreed that witches posed a real and serious threat, but proving witchcraft (an invisible crime) in court was another matter. The court in Salem had become mired in controversy over its use of dubious evidence. In an intriguing chapter, Godbeer examines Magistrate Jonathan Selleck's notes on how to determine the guilt of someone accused of witchcraft, providing an illuminating look at what constituted proof of witchcraft at the time. The stakes were high--if found guilty, the two accused women would be hanged.
In the afterword, Godbeer explains how he used the trial evidence to build his narrative, offering an inside perspective on the historian's craft. Featuring maps, photos, and a selected bibliography, Escaping Salem is ideal for use in undergraduate U.S. survey courses. It can also be used for courses in colonial American history, culture, and religion; witchcraft in the early modern world; and crime and society in early America.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great book!! November 9, 2008
This was a great book. I bought it as a gift for one person and ended up giving it to another. The book was to the point and very factual.
 Solid with some holes... May 21, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I would probably rate this in at 3.5 stars...but I rounded up to 4 stars.
'Escaping Salem' tells the story of the 'witch hunt' in Stamford, CT. We have all grown up hearing about the witch hunts in Salem. There have been movies and there have been discussions of the blood thirsty people in that community going after the witches to rid their villages of their evil practices.
This book begins to examine the people behind some of the stories in the relatively quiet community of Stamford. The book looks at one particular case of a girl named Kate Branch of her fits or rage, her delusions and her overall strange behavior. It discusses the people that many believed were witches and why they considered them witches. Though the arguments were often weak, the arguments gained traction and led to the trials of a couple of women accused of being witches.
The book takes you in to the courtroom as you see some of the problems of the prosecution and the difficulty of 'proving' witchcraft. I had always believed that trials were thrown together to just convict but you can see that there was definitely more effort needed to convict someone.
The biggest problem with the book is that it often reads like a textbook until the last chapter when the author interjects more of his thoughts and conclusions. The book is using public documents so there are some holes in the story which Godbeer tries to fill. Overall, an interesting peak into the late 1600s court system and witches problem.
a tale of two witches May 9, 2005
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Few people know that while the infamous Salem witch hunt was taking place in 1692, southwestern Connecticut was undergoing a scare of its own. Godbeer has meticulously researched this event and presents a remarkably detailed story based upon the participants own words. He follows the accusers, the victims, the "witches", the ministers, and the magistrates, from the beginning of the outbreak to its much-more-sensible-than Salem conclusion. Seems one could be a witch and avoid execution in Olde New England. Puritans all - how did Connecticut avoid hysteria and wanton killing? This brief book tells the tale in an interesting, historically accurate fashion.
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