Offical Book Thread :D

[Caspin]

It is quite fascinating. I can't stop reading. I need three bookmarks so I can find my way quickly between the text, the notes, the appendices and back again. I've made a note of some other books on English and Scottish witch trials, as recommended in this book, and will order them at the bookshop.

All those bloomin' Thomases and Sarahs and Elizabeths. I wish people had slightly more diverse names!

It is fascinating reading about the war going on in the background. You would thing that people being scalped/shot/house burned down would be sufficient drama without introducing the devil.

The Salem trials were different from those that had gone before because of the sheer numbers accused and executed, but also because there were more men accused than was normal, while young, poor women such as servants were given more attention than was usual. It would seem that previously it would be men who would accuse women, whereas here you have women (or in fact just girls) as the accusers. Also it says that judges tended to be very sceptical and reluctant to condemn and execute those accused of witchcraft, with even the main textbooks on spotting a witch urging caution and instructing the ruling out of disease or other mundane causes, whereas in Salem they were only too happy to go nuts and hang everyone. Plus the law got involved early on, rather than the clergy dealing with the possessed.

Also it was an unusual incident in terms of the level of remorse and regret expressed by judges and jurors afterwards, with survivors and descendants of the executed being offered compensation and some jurors making apologies. The author mentions that she looked at the papers of the judges and other key officials, which, since they were such prominent men, are held by museums or historical societies. In many cases there are gaps covering the years of the trials, suggesting shame at their involvement resulted in those men, or their embarrassed families, removing those papers before donating them.

I am totally hooked.

Goody Caspin over and out.