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Readings in the History of the American Nation
Readings in the History of the American Nation Author:Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VI WITCHCRAFT The Puritans of Massachusetts were by no means alone in this dread of the malign and mischievous influences of unfortunate people who had had d... more »ealings with Satan; the belief in witchcraft was commonly held in Europe and America. The selection which is here given suggests the elements on which the witchcraft delusion in Salem rested; there was no knowledge then of hysteria or hypnotic suggestion — to use words which we often hear now; the people not only believed, but intensely believed, in the activities of a personal evil spirit, who sought with unending diligence to bring the unwary under his control. Life in one of these small New England towns, between the forest and the hungry sea, was likely to be monotonous and narrow and unrelieved by natural wholesome distractions; it gave the best opportunity for the development of hysterical conditions and for the cherishing of delusions, to which a whole community might fall a ready victim. The notion of house-haunting demons — a superstition the most nearly a survival from the days of the elves and brownies — crossed the sea with the early emigrants. One such spirit in Newbury in New Hampshire, in 1679, threw sticks and stones on the roof of the house, lifted up the bedstead from the floor, threw the bedstaff out the window, threw a cat at the mistress of the house and beat the good- man over the head with a broom, made the pole on which the kettles were hung to dance up and down in the chimney, tossed a potlid into the fire, set a chair in the middle of the table when dinner was served, seasoned the victuals with ashes, filled a pair of shoes with hot ashes, ran away with an inkhorn, threw a ladder against a door, and put an awl into the bed. ... In Hartford, in 1683, there was a gentle devil with a taste for fli...« less