The ruin of all witches : life and death in the New World
Gaskill, Malcolm2022
Book
Total copies: 1
In the frontier town of Springfield in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails and property vanishes. People suffer fits, and are plagued by strange visions and dreams. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics, and the community becomes tangled in a web of spite, distrust and denunciation. The finger of suspicion falls on a young couple struggling to make a home and feed their children: Hugh Parsons the prickly brickmaker and his troubled wife, Mary. It will be their downfall. 'The Ruin of All Witches' tells the dark, real-life folktale of witch-hunting in a remote Massachusetts plantation. These were the turbulent beginnings of colonial America, when English settlers' dreams of love and liberty, of founding a 'city on a hill', gave way to paranoia and terror, enmity and rage.
Main title:
The ruin of all witches : life and death in the New World / Malcolm Gaskill.
Author:
Gaskill, Malcolm, author
Imprint:
UK : Penguin Books, 2022.
Collation:
xxiv, 308 pages : maps (black and white) ; 20 cm
Notes:
Originally published: UK: Allen Lane, 2021.Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780141991481 (pbk)
Dewey class:
133.430974426133.4309
Language:
English
Subject:
Witch hunting -- Massachusetts -- Springfield -- History -- 17th centuryWitchcraft -- Massachusetts -- Springfield -- History -- 17th centurySpringfield (Mass.) -- Social life and customs -- 17th centuryParanormalMassachusetts17th century, c 1600 to c 1699History of the AmericasHistorySocial & cultural history
BRN:
513656