Description
01. Introduction (in The Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches )
INTRODUCTION.
The two very rare works reprinted in the present volume, written by two
of the most celebrated of the early American divines, relate to one of
the most extraordinary cases of popular delusion that modern times have
witnessed. It was a delusion, moreover, to which men of learning and
piety lent themselves, and thus became the means of increasing it. The
scene of this affair was the puritanical colony of New England, since
better known as Massachusetts, the colonists of which appear to have
carried with them, in an exaggerated form, the superstitious feelings
with regard to witchcraft which then prevailed in the mother country. In
the spring of 1692 an alarm of witchcraft was raised in the family of
the minister of Salem, and some black servants were charged with the
supposed crime. Once started, the alarm spread rapidly, and in a very
short time a great number of people fell under suspicion, and many were
thrown into prison on very frivolous grounds, supported, as such charges
usually were, by very unworthy witnesses. The new governor of the
colony, Sir William Phipps, arrived from England in the middle of May,
and he seems to have been carried away by the excitement, and authorized
judicial prosecutions. The trials began at the commencement of June; and
the first victim, a woman named Bridget Bishop, was hanged. Governor
Phipps, embarrassed by this extraordinary state of things, called in the
assistance of the clergy of Boston.