Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England [Paperback]

There are lots of books about the infamous Salem witch trial, but Demos has instead chosen to give us a brilliant and readable study of the more typical smaller-scale cases that cropped up throughout the 17th century in New England.

His ability to extract info from dry old records -- marriages, deeds, court cases, etc. -- and make us care about these people is astonishing. The tragic case of Rachel Clinton might actually put a lump in your throat: her voyage to America at age 6; her bitter mother who was eventually certified insane; her brother-in-law's successful hijacking of her father's substantial estate, leaving Rachel with virtually nothing; Rachel's miserable marriage to a sleazy opportunist; and her embittered old age on public assistance. At least she was reprieved, and did not hang after her witchcraft conviction, but it was just about the only break she ever got. If that case doesn't get to you, the description of Margaret Jones (one of the earliest to hang, in 1648), just indicted, and going to her best friend's house where the two women sat together "both of them crying" just might.

The book is rich with case histories, interspersed with intelligent analysis of Puritan psychology, sociology, and historical events. Not one to settle for simpleminded explanations, Demos shows how all these factors interacted to impact a community and increase, or decrease, the likelihood of witchcraft accusations.

Its description of colonial life is VERY detailled. If you like to read about the material goods and activities of earlier times (maybe if you enjoyed "Worldly Goods"), or if you like history brought to life through real human beings (as in "A Distant Mirror") you might enjoy this greatly. And it's a demonstration of the historical method at its best.

Why did the village of Salem Village (modern Danvers) rise up against some of its most prosperous and respected inhabitants? Why did ordinarily sensible farmers allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy that spread throughout eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and what would become Maine? Why were the claims of some hysterical teenagers accepted as "real" evidence against various men and women, leading some to death, others to long incarceration, and others to loss of their property? There are no simple answers, as the scores of books on the subject testify. If you are going to read only one book on the subject of witchcraft in 17th. c. New England, then _Entertaining Satan_ would be a good choice. If you are going to read many, start with this one and use the excellent bibliography to lead you in additional reading. With his close examination of the various factors and his in-depth understanding of 17th c. New England social life, John Demos gathers the evidence into a coherent, compelling, and highly readable account of a tragic time. My only quibbles are that I think Demos understimates the role of long-standing squabbles among neighbors and the long-term effects of the trials on the families of the accused. More consultation of the genealogical research available for the accused and their families or tracking their movements might have led Demos to different conclusions. However, these criticisms do not prevent my heartily endorsing this book.

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England is an example of cultural and psychological history done within the realm of the witchraft phenomenon in early New England. In his book, the author effectively ties in all the data possible pertaining to witchraft during the 17th Century and analyzes it from different perspectives including cultural, psychological, sociological, and combining all of these creates a lucid and well-documented history. In part one, John Putnam Demos carefully examines all aspects of the biographical nature of witches in the 17th century that are available to him. He first and foremost states that the witch trials of Salem were not (as popular belief has it) the only witch trials in America during the period. He then is extremely careful in presenting evidence in formulating a biographical sketch of the typical witch. In the first part, John Putnam Demos leads me to recall Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale in that, through murky and tenuous records and evidence, he manages to draw out and breathe life into what would otherwise be simple court records and disjointed data. He is also very self-critical and, before each interpretation of Rachel Clinton and John Godfrey's biographical sketches as well as the findings of family life in 17th Century New England, the author presents a host of caveats relating to the evidence. Sentences like "This material cannot meaningfully be quantified" (74) and "the extant records do not yield fully adequate information," (76) are common phrases Demos uses before drawing conclusions from the information available to him. In Part Two of Entertaining Satan, John Putnam Demos gives us a convincing psychological argument as to the character and nature of not only the suspected witches themselves, but the psychodynamic structures of the 17th century community. He offers a myriad of psychoanalytic tools, most notably projection, in attempting to understand what propelled the fear of witchcraft. By placing psychology in the context of his understanding of history of witchcraft in 17th Century New England, it's apparent that Demos effectively carries out what I think Peter Loewenberg was trying to do in Decoding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach. Instead of relying on one psychological method (Freud), Demos recognizes the dangers of overly relying on one model of interpretation, which is why his evidence and argument are much more convincing than were Loewenberg's. John Putnam Demos executes effectively what Peter Loewenberg ignores entirely (with the exception of the Nazi Youth Cohort article), namely, a psychology of the group with respect to 17th century community and witchcraft. Part Three is aptly titled "Sociology" because it is here where Demos examines the power of local gossip through records and his own interpretation of them. For instance, a record might reveal nothing substantial but once he studies it, Demos can argue that certain families were predisposed to witchcraft condemnation exactly because of societal reasons. This sociological approach to history also makes me recollect The New Cultural History in that, in much the same ways, Demos is learning about a society through their collective conscience and unconscious and thus can explain what contributed further to the witchcraft phenomenon. In Part Four, Demos again makes the argument that not only were the Salem witch trials not an isolated even, but that witch trials were continuous through history. He studies the witchcraft phenomenon through other towns such as Hampton as well as records pertaining to its inhabitants. In these last chapters, Demos also stresses how, although the majority of them were, not all towns with inhabitants accused of witchcraft were "Puritan." Though studying Hampton and the town of Wethersfield, Demos sketches a convincing history of communities in New England and what diseases/maladies/afflictions they may have had that would supplant evidence of "witchcraft." This last part draws together well-argued biographical sketches as well as the psychology and sociology of a given community to provide a general history of the communities and the impact witchcraft had on them. Entertaining Satan by John Putnam Demos is a coherent, extremely well-rounded history of witchcraft on 17th Century New England. But while it is a solid history book, it is also an excellent example of psychological history done well. Because it is such an excellent psychological history, it is excellent cultural history in that it supplies, analyzes, and interprets the community as a force and a power that is capable of shaping and creating its own historical destiny. I liked Entertaining Satan because for me, it recalled all the other books I have read for this class up to this point and gave them all a new meaning in as to how to approach history. Had I read Entertaining Satan before reading The New Cultural History, A Midwife's Tale, or Decoding the Past I may have been much more critical of the book. But knowing now how difficult it is to write a firm, convincing cultural history of a subject using data, psychology, and interpretation, I have a large amount of respect for how well-rounded a history Entertaining Satan is.