![]() They increase the length of the work as a whole, and sometimes teeter on the edge of being extraneous. For better or for worse, these accounts make the fantastic events of Salem relatable to our own lives. They startle you into realizing the colonists of Massachusetts Bay lived with the same kind of subtle social politics we do now. Schiff includes stories about family feuds, adulterous relationships with servants, jealous spouses and the transparent machinations of petulant teenagers. Ministers and other leaders of the town hung on their every word, tracked the quick, darting movements of their eyes in the courtroom and shrugged helplessly as the girls screamed and contorted their bodies in pews, crying out that they were being pricked by the specters of witches they had named. The “afflicted” girls, as they were known, rapidly became Salem’s darlings. ![]() Accused witches either denied the charges - effectively signing their own death warrants - or confessed and named other witches in turn. It began with a group of young girls having fits and accusing neighbors of witchcraft. It chronicles the beginning of the Salem hysteria, follows the escalation of the trials to fever pitch and addresses the eerie silence that followed the 19 executions of the “witches.” Reading these stories feels like watching a play - a serious, sometimes unwittingly and darkly humorous play. Though it’s a bit long for those not already acquainted with Salem scholarship, “The Witches” is still accessible. ![]() Stacy Schiff’s “The Witches: Salem, 1692” is the kind of book you forget isn’t fiction. ![]()
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