Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II

Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and
II

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Title: Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II With an Account of Salem
Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects
Author: Charles Upham
Release Date: February 24, 2006 [EBook #17845]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AMERICAN CLASSICS
SALEM WITCHCRAFT

_With an Account of Salem Village and A History of Opinions on
Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects_
CHARLES W. UPHAM
[Illustration: [autograph] Charles W. Upham.]
Volume I
FREDERICK UNGAR PUBLISHING CO.
New York
[Transcriber's Note: Originally published 1867]
Fourth Printing, 1969
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 59-10887
[Illustration: THE TOWNSEND BISHOP HOUSE.--VOL. I., 70, 96;
VOL. II., 294, 467.]

DEDICATED
TO
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES,
PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY IN
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

CONTENTS.

VOLUME I.
PAGE
PREFACE vii to xiv
MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS xv to xvii
INDEX TO THE MAP xix to xxvii
GENERAL INDEX xxix to xl
INTRODUCTION 1 to 12
PART FIRST.--SALEM VILLAGE 12 to 322
PART SECOND.--WITCHCRAFT 325 to 469
VOLUME II.
PAGE
PART THIRD.--WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE 1 to 444
SUPPLEMENT 447 to 522
APPENDIX 525 to 553

PREFACE.
This work was originally constructed, and in previous editions
appeared, in the form of Lectures. The only vestiges of that form, in its
present shape, are certain modes of expression. The language retains
the character of an address by a speaker to his hearers; being more
familiar, direct, and personal than is ordinarily employed in the
relations of an author to a reader.
The former work was prepared under circumstances which prevented a

thorough investigation of the subject. Leisure and freedom from
professional duties have now enabled me to prosecute the researches
necessary to do justice to it.
The "Lectures on Witchcraft," published in 1831, have long been out of
print. Although frequently importuned to prepare a new edition, I was
unwilling to issue again what I had discovered to be an insufficient
presentation of the subject. In the mean time, it constantly became
more and more apparent, that much injury was resulting from the want
of a complete and correct view of a transaction so often referred to, and
universally misunderstood.
The first volume of this work contains what seems to me necessary to
prepare the reader for the second, in which the incidents and
circumstances connected with the witchcraft prosecutions in 1692, at
the village and in the town of Salem, are reduced to chronological order,
and exhibited in detail.
As showing how far the beliefs of the understanding, the perceptions of
the senses, and the delusions of the imagination, may be confounded,
the subject belongs not only to theology and moral and political science,
but to physiology, in its original and proper use, as embracing our
whole nature; and the facts presented may help to conclusions relating
to what is justly regarded as the great mystery of our being,--the
connection between the body and the mind.
It is unnecessary to mention the various well-known works of authority
and illustration, as they are referred to in the text. But I cannot refrain
from bearing my grateful testimony to the value of the "Collections of
the Massachusetts Historical Society" and the "New-England Historical
and Genealogical Register." The "Historical Collections" and the
"Proceedings" of the Essex Institute have afforded me inestimable
assistance. Such works as these are providing the materials that will
secure to our country a history such as no other nation can have. Our
first age will not be shrouded in darkness and consigned to fable, but,
in all its details, brought within the realm of knowledge. Every person
who desires to preserve the memory of his ancestors, and appreciate the
elements of our institutions and civilization, ought to place these works,

and others like them, on the shelves of his library, in an unbroken and
continuing series. A debt of gratitude is due to the earnest, laborious,
and disinterested students who are contributing the results of their
explorations to the treasures of antiquarian and genealogical learning
which accumulate in these publications.
A source of investigation, especially indispensable in the preparation of
the present work, deserves to be particularly noticed. In 1647, the
General Court of Massachusetts provided by law for the taking of
testimony, in all cases, under certain regulations, in the form of
depositions,