Detestable and Wicked Arts: New England and Witchcraft in the Early Modern Atlantic World

In “Detestable and Wicked Arts: New England and Witchcraft in the Early Modern Atlantic World,” Dr. Paul B. Moyer argues, “The timing, tempo, and texture of witch prosecutions in New England can only be fully understood when placed in context with witch-hunting across England’s Atlantic empire. Like New England, Britain and Bermuda witnessed a surge in witch trials during the mid-seventeenth century” (pg. 5). Dr. Moyer builds upon the foundation of work like that belonging to John Demos, Richard Weisman, and Carol Karlsen in his analysis while bringing in a new reading of source material that focuses on similarities between England and its colonies across the Atlantic, Bermuda and New England.Such an Atlantic approach makes sense given the networks of communication linking the mother country with its colonies in the seventeenth century. As Dr. Moyer writes, “In addition to personal correspondence, books and pamphlets coursed through the empire after censorship laws fell into disuse during the [English] Civil War. This stream of printed materials included a number of treatises on witchcraft, including Matthew Hopkins’s ‘The Discovery of Witches’ (1647) and John Stearne’s ‘A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft’ (1648), both of which provided information on the East Anglian witch hunt” (pg. 22). Dr. Moyer grounds his analysis in these witch-finding manuals that crossed the Atlantic as well as English legal guides that appeared in both Britain and its Atlantic colonies. As he writes, “The one thing all the colonists agreed on was that it was a crime, a view rooted in English law and culture” (pg. 36). While maleficium and diabolism played key roles in both English and colonial understandings of witchcraft, the fear of witches destroying crops or causing droughts did not cross the Atlantic (pg. 43). Further, while English law included references to diabolism, Puritan colonists gave it greater focus (pg. 175). Punishments similarly varied between mother country and colonies, with England providing various punishments for occult crime where New England prescribed death (pg. 176).Examining New England witches, Dr. Moyer concludes, “Those suspected of witchcraft tended to be people with unsavory reputations. Moreover, they were women more often than men, from the lower ranks of society rather than its upper echelons, and older married folk rather than young and single. They were also periodically associated with the healing arts or occult practices such as fortune telling” (pg. 66). In all cases, deviance from societal expectations played a key role in raising suspicions. Women who did not fit the Puritans’ roles for women in society were subject to accusations as were men who failed to uphold the sober strength of character their religious and civic leaders expected of them (pgs. 102-105). Dr. Moyer spends a great deal of time uncovering the social context of accusations, examining the physical proximity between accused and their accusers as well as the nature of complaints and what that reveals about breaches in the social contract. He points out that witchcraft accusations helped those who refused to help their neighbors allay their feelings of guilt for failing to provide charity (pg. 132).Dr. Moyer concludes, “Besides being tied together by a common set of beliefs and doctrines concerning witchcraft, England and its colonies paralleled each other in terms of the ebb and flow of witch-hunting. In particular, a wave of prosecutions that swept over the British Isles in the mid-seventeenth century rippled across the English Atlantic. Bermuda experienced a peak in witch-hunting in the 1650s, when about two-thirds of its witchcraft cases occurred. The New England colonies also saw a significant increase in witch trials and executions at this time” (pg. 201). This work will appeal to anyone interested in colonial North America as well as those studying the connection between England and its colonial interests. Furthermore, Dr. Moyer’s study of witchcraft builds upon over a decade of scholarship and brings an analytical framework that both scholars and historical enthusiasts will appreciate. The work will become essential reading for those studying early American history.

Well written account of the goings on of mid17th century Old and New England. Terrifying and facinating as every day was a fight against malignant evil on the savage frontier of the New World