Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
Europe, North America, early modern, gender, violence
Abstract
This paper focuses on the role of domestic violence in witchcraft/demonic possession cases in early modern England and colonial New England. It represents one part of a larger project that reconsiders the place of gender for men in witchcraft-possession cases: as demoniacs, as witches accused by demoniacs, and as possession propagandists. Violence pervaded witchcraft-possession phenomena, and questions of innocence and instigation cycled uncomfortably across subjects’ sex, status, and reputation. There was no simple correlation between domestic violence and witchcraft accusations, but for some men accused as witches, violence toward female family members—or the common report of it—could serve as partial proof of their failure to properly moderate manly authority.
In the roundtable, I will refer to two influential witchcraft-possession cases that fit this pattern: John Samuels in England (executed 1593) and George Burroughs in New England (executed 1692). Samuels’ violence against his wife, who along with their daughter was the primary witch target, was described dispassionately by observers; he beat her “with a cudgel” until they were forced to intervene (ironically, as they were pursuing her conviction and execution). Witnesses against Burroughs reported seeing the spectral apparitions of his two deceased wives, who reported that he had murdered them. These reports came alongside accusations of Burroughs’ cruel treatment of his current wife. Alongside the troubling question of gauging the “truth” of family violence amidst such chaotic circumstances, these instances raise questions about how historians should interpret multidirectional incidences of violence within the formulaic script of witchcraft-possession.
Keywords
violence witchcraft
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Domestic Violence and Witchcraft in Old and New England
This paper focuses on the role of domestic violence in witchcraft/demonic possession cases in early modern England and colonial New England. It represents one part of a larger project that reconsiders the place of gender for men in witchcraft-possession cases: as demoniacs, as witches accused by demoniacs, and as possession propagandists. Violence pervaded witchcraft-possession phenomena, and questions of innocence and instigation cycled uncomfortably across subjects’ sex, status, and reputation. There was no simple correlation between domestic violence and witchcraft accusations, but for some men accused as witches, violence toward female family members—or the common report of it—could serve as partial proof of their failure to properly moderate manly authority.
In the roundtable, I will refer to two influential witchcraft-possession cases that fit this pattern: John Samuels in England (executed 1593) and George Burroughs in New England (executed 1692). Samuels’ violence against his wife, who along with their daughter was the primary witch target, was described dispassionately by observers; he beat her “with a cudgel” until they were forced to intervene (ironically, as they were pursuing her conviction and execution). Witnesses against Burroughs reported seeing the spectral apparitions of his two deceased wives, who reported that he had murdered them. These reports came alongside accusations of Burroughs’ cruel treatment of his current wife. Alongside the troubling question of gauging the “truth” of family violence amidst such chaotic circumstances, these instances raise questions about how historians should interpret multidirectional incidences of violence within the formulaic script of witchcraft-possession.