Description
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.
Author: Emerson W. Baker
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 04/15/2010
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780230623873
ISBN10: 0230623875
BISAC Categories:
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Witchcraft (See Also Religion | Wicca)
- History | United States | Colonial Period (1600-1775)
- History | United States | State & Local | New England (CT, MA, ME, NH,
About the Author
Emerson W. Baker teaches history at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. He lives in York, Maine.