The American Witch

American Witches: A Broomstick Tour Through Four Centuries by Susan Fair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

American witches were both the same and different from their counterparts is Europe. Like in Europe witches were blamed for catastrophes especially after a feud with a neighbor. Usually the witch craze swallowed up old women who where considered cantankerous and had no one to protect them. Witches also rode people and their their neighbors animals to their gatherings. Absent from the American witch is the rides out to the sabbath and the solstice celebration.

Quakers were prone to be accused of witchcraft, after all they were dissident Christians . It was not safe for old women to travel from Europe to the new world. If the sea turned stormy everyone looked for a scapegoat. An old woman with no one to look after her became the perfect target. Often times the woman would be thrown over board or hung.

The Salem Witch trials were the epicenter of witch hunting history. Lead by the famous witch finder General Cotton Mathers. Cotton was the son of Increase Mathers. Both were hot on the tail for witches. The first episode involved a washer woman staring at her mistress daughter and exchanging harsh words. Later the daughter started having fits. The washer woman would be punished. Another incident involved a preacher who was accused. On the flimsiest of testimony he has hung. Then there is Tituba and the girls.

The usual method for punishing witches. Was hanging . History would judge harshly those who put innocent women to death. Many would have heavy guilty trips over the stuff. The last chapter ends with a note about the Blair Witcu trials and how a fictitious witch changed life in the small town.

View all my reviews