Showing The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England by Carol F. Karlsen

Paperback Pub Date: 1998 08 Pages: 386 Publisher: WW Norton & Co. Confessing to familiarity with the devils. Mary Johnson. a servant. Was executed in Connecticut in 1648. A wealthy widow Boston. The Ann Hibbens was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbours. In 1662. Ann Cole was taken with very strange Fits and fuelled an outeak of withcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events at Salem. Today. questions such as why these and other women were likely witches still remains. The author reveals the social construction of witchcraft in 17th-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.