1692
A01=Daniel A. Gagnon
Andover Massachusetts
Ann Putnam
Arthur Miller
Author_Daniel A. Gagnon
Boston
Category=DNB
Category=JBSF1
Category=NHK
Category=QRYX5
Category=VXWT
Category=WQH
Church and state
city on a hill
colonial
Colonial legal system
Colonial Massachusetts
Colonial women
Cotton Mather
Danvers Massachusetts
England
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_mind-body-spirit
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
executions
falsely accused
Francis Nurse
Gallows Hill
Gender history
Great Yarmouth
hanged
John Endicott
John Hathorne
John Procter
John Winthrop
Jonathan Corwin
Mary Esty
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Puritans
Rebecca Nurse
Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum
Rebecca Nurse Memorial
Rev. Deodat Lawson
Rev. John Hale
Rev. Samuel Parris
Salem
Salem Village
Salem witch
Salem Witch Hunt
Salem witch trials
Samuel Parris
Samuel Sewall
Sarah Cloyce
specters
Spectral evidence
The Crucible
Thomas Putnam
Three Sovereigns for Sarah
Tituba
Topsfield
Towne Family
Trial by jury
Vanessa Redgrave
witch
witch-hunt
Witchcraft
Witchcraft in colonial America
Witchcraft trials
Product details
- ISBN 9781594164149
- Weight: 540g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 25 Aug 2023
- Publisher: Westholme Publishing, U.S.
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In the winter of 1692 something terrible and frightening began in Salem Village. It started with several villagers having strange fits, screaming, and unnaturally contorting themselves, and ended with almost two hundred people in jail, and at least twenty-five dead. Witchcraft accusations—claims that some inhabitants had forsaken God to become servants of the Devil—spread from Salem Village across Massachusetts, ensnaring innocent people from all strata of society under a burden of assumed guilt. One of the most significant accusations, and most unlikely, was against a seventy-one-year-old grandmother, Rebecca Nurse.
The accusations against Nurse, a well-respected member in the community, seemed unbelievable. Unflinchingly, this ailing elderly woman insisted on her innocence and refused to falsely confess. Supported by many in Salem, Nurse’s family and neighbors challenged her accusers in court and prepared a thorough defense for her, yet nothing could surmount the fear of witchcraft, and she was sentenced to death. Nurse, seen as a martyr for the truth, later became the first person accused of witchcraft to be memorialized in North America.
In A Salem Witch: The Trial, Execution, and Exoneration of Rebecca Nurse, the first full account of Nurse’s life, Daniel A. Gagnon vividly recreates seventeenth-century Salem, and in the process challenges previous interpretations of Nurse’s life and the 1692 witch hunt in general. Through primary source research, he reveals how the Nurse family’s role in several disputes prior to the witch hunt was different than previously thought, as well as how Nurse’s case helps answer the important question of whether the accusations of witchcraft were caused by mental illness or malicious intent. A Salem Witch reveals a remarkable woman whose legacy has transformed how the witch hunt has been remembered and memorialized.
The accusations against Nurse, a well-respected member in the community, seemed unbelievable. Unflinchingly, this ailing elderly woman insisted on her innocence and refused to falsely confess. Supported by many in Salem, Nurse’s family and neighbors challenged her accusers in court and prepared a thorough defense for her, yet nothing could surmount the fear of witchcraft, and she was sentenced to death. Nurse, seen as a martyr for the truth, later became the first person accused of witchcraft to be memorialized in North America.
In A Salem Witch: The Trial, Execution, and Exoneration of Rebecca Nurse, the first full account of Nurse’s life, Daniel A. Gagnon vividly recreates seventeenth-century Salem, and in the process challenges previous interpretations of Nurse’s life and the 1692 witch hunt in general. Through primary source research, he reveals how the Nurse family’s role in several disputes prior to the witch hunt was different than previously thought, as well as how Nurse’s case helps answer the important question of whether the accusations of witchcraft were caused by mental illness or malicious intent. A Salem Witch reveals a remarkable woman whose legacy has transformed how the witch hunt has been remembered and memorialized.
DANIEL A. GAGNON serves on the board of directors of the Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum in Danvers, Massachusetts (formerly known as Salem Village). A high school history teacher on the North Shore, he received a BA in history from Providence College and an MA in history from Boston College.
