Full Description
As the descendent of Martha Carrier, an accused woman executed at Salem, Alice Markham-Cantor presents a riveting story that spans centuries and brings the historical significance of the witch trials into modern times. Extensively researched and told through alternating fiction and non-fiction chapters, this book illuminates a shocking truth: contrary to popular opinion, the witch hunts never ended. Alice shares research that suggests tens of thousands of witch hunt related deaths have happened all over the world in the last thirty years. The Once & Future Witch Hunt also features tantalizing glimpses into Alice's ancestors' lives and reimagines the trials through fact-based fiction. At the intersection of witchcraft, feminism, anthropology, and history, this book gives us as authentic a retelling as may ever be possible while trying to answer that single, irrepressible question: how could this have happened?
Contents
Contents
Foreword xiii
Cast of Historical Figures xvii
Introduction: Truth and Fiction 1
1. The Red Book 5
2. Traps and Rabbits 11
3. The Witch Question 17
4. The King's Guard 25
5. The Surveillance Age 39
6. The Plague 45
7. The Murder Wall 49
8. Putnam and Parris 59
9. Follow the Money 69
10. Winter 77
11. Under an Evil Hand 87
12. The First Confession 93
13. Prophets and Puppeteers 101
14. The Witches' Sabbath 109
15. All Maps Useless 121
16. The Examination of Martha Carrier 123
17. Naming Names 131
18. In the Jail 141
19. No Return 153
20. Neck and Heel 161
21. The Grave 171
22. The Trumpets and the Drums 181
23. The Gauntlet 187
24. The Trial 199
25. Thirty Thousand 207
26. The Sheriff and the Minister 213
27. The Devil in the Ground 221
28. Forever and Ever and Amen 227
29. The Witch Finder 233
30. The Hill 239
31. Burial 247
An Incomplete List 255
Epilogue 263
Afterword 269
Acknowledgments 271
Notes 273
Bibliography 293
