false 438289 0385035098 9780385035095 72 10 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174772961m/438289.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/438289.The_Devil_in_Massachusetts_A_Modern_Enquiry_into_the_Salem_Witch_Trials 246843 Marion L. Starkey 72 10 3 0 false Sun Apr 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 17:12:51 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 17:43:20 -0700 2009
Starkey's book is a pretty quick overview of the events though he doesn't limit himself to pure history and tries to "get inside the people's heads." He also claims he doesn't want to judge the actions of the people but that doesn't seem to stop him from judging the people themselves. Many of his adjectives are laden with judgement. In my opinion, that's the books biggest fault, but leaving that aside, he provides the most detailed descriptions of the events I've read before.

A part of me can't believe that such a thing could happen but it did and, even today, events not all that different continue to happen today. The "witches" may be different but the persecution for imagined sins and actions isn't. The book is worth reading just for that.

I had expected to find that Salem Village was an isolated, superstitious place where actions like this could happen. But, it involved a large chunk of the Massachusetts colony and some of the colony's most prestigious scholars. Many theories have been advanced to explain the "afflictions," but I don't think any physical explanation, like wheat mold, can really explain a phenomenon that lasted for months and covered and such a large area.

Dozens of people were arrested and tried without a shred of physical evidence and many of them were hanged. One spent the remainder of her life in prison because she could not pay her prison debt though she was found not guilty once "spectral evidence" was ruled inadmissible. While some were arguable not particularly nice or good people, their crimes, if any, did not warrant the charges or punishments. Most were wholly innocent and many were pillars of the community.

We've repeated some form of this again and again, whether it was the Japanese interment camps of World War II or the jailing of people with no trials after 9/11. Mass hysteria, particularly for those with power, is a remarkably dangerous thing for those who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


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