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Routledge Routledge
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International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97977‑1 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97978‑8 (Hardcover)
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used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Gibson, Marion, 1970‑
Witchcraft myths in American culture / Marion Gibson.
p. cm.
ISBN 0‑415‑97977‑3 (hardback : alk. paper) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97978‑1 (pbk. : alk. 
paper)
1.  Witchcraft‑‑United States.  I. Title. 
BF1573.G53 2007
133.4’30973‑‑dc22 2006037153
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
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C o n t e n t s
Introduction	 1
1.	 	 E pluribus unum? Mythic	and	Missing	Histories	and	the	
Politics	of	American	Witchcraft	 11
2.	 	 “Our	Witch”:	Local	Histories	of	America’s	Witches	 57
3.	 	 “There’s	a	Little	Witch	in	Every	Woman”:	Psychology	
and	the	Social	History	of	Witches	 103
4.	 	 “We	Will	Not	Fly	Silently	Into	the	Night”:	Wicca	and	
American	Witchcraft	 141
5.	 	 Witches	in	the	Family:	Comedy,	Drama,	and	the	
Acceptance	of	American	Witches	 183
Notes	 	 225
Bibliography	 263
Index	 285
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I n t r o d u C t I o n
This	is	a	book	about	the	writing	of	the	history	and	literature	of	witchcraft	
in	the	United	States	of	America,	from	the	first	prosecution	for	the	crime	
in	the	1620s	to	the	present	day.	In	some	ways	the	history	of	witchcraft	in	
the	English	colonies	in	the	“New	World”	is	a	well-worn	theme.	In	1970	the	
great	American	historian	John	Demos	apologized	to	his	audience	for	call-
ing	them	together	yet	again	for	a	paper	on	a	favorite	topic:
it	is	faintly	embarrassing	for	a	historian	to	summon	his	colleagues	to	
still	another	consideration	of	early	New	England	witchcraft.	Here,	surely,	
is	a	topic	that	previous	generations	of	writers	have	sufficiently	worked,	
indeed	overworked.1
Yet	Demos	went	on	not	only	to	deliver	a	thoughtful	paper,	but	to	write	
the	five-hundred-page	study	Entertaining Satan,	the	best	book	of	its	gen-
eration	on	just	this	topic.	And	scholars,	journalists,	genealogists,	and	stu-
dents	have	continued	to	write	and	read	about	the	witchcraft	events	of	early	
New	England	with	undimmed	enthusiasm	ever	since.	Yet	there	are	very	
few	books	and	articles	written	about writing	about	witchcraft	in	America.	
Bernard	Rosenthal’s	illuminating	Salem Story	(1993)	is	the	only	major	
example,	and	it	deals	—	as	its	title	suggests	—	solely	with	the	most	famous	
of	American	witch	prosecutions.
Was	Demos	right,	then,	in	his	self-deprecating	remarks	in	1970?	Have	
scholars	scraped	the	barrel	clean?	If	so,	why	does	witchcraft	continue	to	
occupy	the	American	mind?	Demos	was	certainly	right	to	suggest	that	
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 Witchcraf t	Myths	in	American	Culture
there	was	limited	scope	for	new	discoveries	of	fact	to	be	made	about	the	
participants	in	the	better-known	witchcraft	trials	—	but	what	about	those	
less	well	known?	And,	as	his	own	new	readings	of	his	material	showed,	
it	was	also	a	different	matter	when	it	came	to	interpretation.	Here	there	
was	ample	room	for	new	thought	and	research.	Records	of	witchcraft	have	
been	read	as	demonstrating	both	the	probity	and	the	viciousness	of	Puri-
tanism;	the	superstition	and	the	enlightenment	of	the	clergy;	the	frailty	
and	the	strength	of	American	women;	the	merits	of	theocracy,	democ-
racy,	and	aristocracy;	the	dangers	of	governmental	power;	the	dangers	of	
devolved	power;	the	triumph	of	the	human	spirit;	and	the	corruption	of	
humanity	in	general.	It	is,	then,	the	interpretation	of	texts	about	American	
witchcraft	that	is	the	subject	of	this	book.	It	is	a	literary	historiography	
rather	than	another	retelling	of	the	story	of	Salem	or	any	other	American	
community	afflicted	by	accusations	of	witchcraft.	And	by	“literature,”	I	
mean	everything	written	about	witchcraft,	from	the	tiniest	scraps	of	sev-
enteenth-century	notation	in	the	Essex	Institute	at	Salem	through	the	
fat	histories	of	the	nineteenth	century	to	the	poems	of	modern	Wiccans	
and	the	recent	filmic	adventures	of	Nicole	Kidman	as	Isabel	Bigelow	and	
Samantha	Stevens	in	Bewitched	(2005).
The	basic	question	that	motivated	the	writing	of	the	book	was,	“What	
does	witchcraft	mean	to	Americans?”	But	this	is,	of	course,	a	hopelessly	
ill-defined	question,	and	the	book	comes	out	of	the	realization	that	it	is	
also	the	wrong	question	to	be	asking.	Witchcraft	may	mean	something	
very	different,	and	an	interest	in	it	may	be	sustained	for	completely	dif-
ferent	reasons,	depending	on	one’s	cultural	heritage,	politics,	age,	ethnic-
ity,	sexual	orientation,	and	gender,	or	simply	on	whether	—	like	L.	Frank	
Baum’s	witches	in	The Wizard of Oz	—	one	is	from	North,	South,	East,	or	
West.	America’s	diversity	means	that	it	might	be	hard	even	to	agree	on	a	
working	definition	of	“witchcraft”	with	a	Bostonian	descendant	of	Lowells	
and	Mathers,	a	Pennsylvanian	Wiccan	influenced	by	“Dutch”	hexenmeis-
ters,	a	parent	challenging	the	inclusion	of	a	Harry	Potter	book	on	a	school	
syllabus,	a	practitioner	of	African-American	“hoodoo”	in	Alabama,	a	Har-
vard	historian,	a	lesbian	Dianic	Witch	from	San	Francisco,	a	Jewish	New	
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Introduction	 
Yorker	playwright,	and	a	teenage	Floridian	goth.	So	I	have	limited	myself,	
initially,	to	a	consideration	of	the	English	colonies	of	the	northeastern	
and	central	eastern	United	States,	where	witchcraft	was	defined	by	legal	
codes	based	on	English	law	and	biblical	quotation	and	was	prosecuted	
as	a	crime	in	the	seventeenth	and	early	eighteenth	centuries.	Even	here,	
there	are	many	problems	of	definition	and	differences	of	emphasis,	and	
one	of	the	aims	of	the	book	is	to	tease	these	out.		The	first	two	chapters,	
therefore,	examine	the	records	of	witchcraft	from	Virginia	in	the	south	
to	Maine	in	the	north,	in	the	period	of	circa	1620	to	1730,	and	discuss	the	
interpretation	of	them	by	historians,	politicians,	and	interested	communi-
ties	internationally,	nationally,	and	at	local	levels,	from	state	down	to	town	
or	village.2
Just	as	definitions	of	witchcraft	differ	greatly	among	modern	Ameri-
cans,	so	they	have	greatly	altered	over	time.	As	a	war	of	liberation	was	
fought	and	won,	and	expansion	westward	drew	in	new	Americans	of	all	
kinds,	what	“witchcraft”	meant	changed	and	was	contested.	Decriminal-
ization	in	English	law	in	1736	and	the	widely	held	opinion	that	witchcraft	
prosecution	had	simply	been	persecution	gave	it	a	new	life	in	romance.	
Witchcraft	was	psychologized,	pathologized,	and	sociologized,	often	with	
a	focus	on	gender	and	race	—	categories	of	American	experience	largely	
ignored	by	the	political	theoreticians	and	historians	of	Chapter	1	and	2.	
Chapter	3	examines	this	process	of	reimagining.	While	a	focus	on	the	east	
is	maintained	—	as	is	to	some	extent	inevitable	because	of	the	dispropor-
tionate	and	iconic	prominence	afforded	by	historians	to	the	witch	trials	at	
Salem,	Massachusetts,	in	1692	—	attention	is	also	given	to	interventions	
from	across	America	and	from	the	wider	world.	Witchcraft	is	not,	how-
ever,	conflated	with	the	African-	and	Caribbean-American	religions	that	
came	to	America	with	slavery	in	the	eighteenth	and	nineteenth	centuries.	
While	white	colonists	and	planters	often	thought	they	recognized	their	
own	demonic	paradigms	in	what	Native	Americans,	slaves,	and	freed	black	
Americans	were	doing	when	they	performed	rituals	or	chanted	songs,	this	
was	always	a	misreading,	and	usually	a	racially	discriminatory	one.	The	
misreadings	of	scholars	and	politicians	will	therefore	be	examined,	but	
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Description:Much can be learned about trends in American politics, religion, social movements, and even science by examining how we have viewed witchcraft in this country. Dr. Gibson is a British literature professor and researcher. She took up the task of examining various aspects of witchcraft in America. Nat