



Produced by eagkw, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)







  THE

  SALEM WITCHCRAFT,

  The Planchette Mystery,

  AND

  MODERN SPIRITUALISM,

  WITH

  DR. DODDRIDGE'S DREAM.




  HISTORY
  OF
  SALEM WITCHCRAFT:

  A REVIEW
  OF
  CHARLES W. UPHAM'S GREAT WORK.

  FROM THE "EDINBURGH REVIEW."

  With Notes,

  BY THE EDITOR OF "THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL."

  NEW YORK:
  FOWLER & WELLS CO., PUBLISHERS,
  753 BROADWAY.
  1886.




BIGOTRY. Obstinate or blind attachment to a particular creed;
unreasonable zeal or warmth in favor of a party, sect, or opinion;
excessive prejudice. The practice or tenet of a bigot.


PREJUDICE. An opinion or decision of mind, formed without due
examination of the facts or arguments which are necessary to a just and
impartial determination. A previous bent or inclination of mind for or
against any person or thing. Injury or wrong of any kind; as to act to
the _prejudice_ of another.


SUPERSTITION. Excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or
practice; excess or extravagance in religion; the doing of things not
required by God, or abstaining from things not forbidden; or the
belief of what is absurd, or belief without evidence. False religion;
false worship. Rite or practice proceeding from excess of scruples in
religion. Excessive nicety; scrupulous exactness. Belief in the direct
agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events,
or in omens and prognostics.--_Webster._




INTRODUCTION.


The object in reprinting this most interesting review is simply to show
the progress made in moral, intellectual, and physical science. The
reader will go back with us to a time--not very remote--when nothing was
known of Phrenology and Psychology; when men and women were persecuted,
and even put to death, through the baldest ignorance and the most
pitiable superstition. If we were to go back still farther, to the Holy
Wars, we should find cities and nations drenched in human blood through
religious bigotry and intolerance. Let us thank God that our lot is
cast in a more fortunate age, when the light of revelation, rightly
interpreted by the aid of SCIENCE, points to the Source of all
knowledge, all truth, all light.

When we know more of Anatomy, Physiology, Physiognomy, and the Natural
Sciences generally, there will be a spirit of broader liberality,
religious tolerance, and individual freedom. Then all men will hold
themselves accountable to God, rather than to popes, priests, or
parsons. Our progenitors lived in a time that tried men's souls, as
the following lucid review most painfully shows.

  S. R. W.




CONTENTS.


                                                PAGE
  The Place                                        7
  The Salemite of Forty Years Ago                  8
  How the Subject was opened                       9
  Careful Historiography                          10
  The Actors in the Tragedy                       12
  Philosophy of the Delusion                      12
  Character of the Early Settlement               13
  First Causes                                    15
  Death of the Patriarch                          16
  Growth of Witchcraft                            17
  Trouble in the Church                           18
  Rev. Mr. Burroughs                              19
  Deodat Lawson                                   20
  Parris--a Malignant                             20
  A Protean Devil                                 21
  State of Physiology                             22
  William Penn as a Precedent                     22
  Phenomena of Witchcraft                         23
  Parris and his Circle                           25
  The Inquisitions--Sarah Good                    26
  A Child Witch                                   27
  The Towne Sisters                               28
  Depositions of Parris and his Tools             31
  Goody Nurse's Excommunication                   35
  Mary Easty                                      36
  Mrs. Cloyse                                     38
  The Proctor Family                              40
  The Jacobs Family                               41
  Giles and Martha Corey                          42
  Decline of the Delusion                         44
  The Physio-Psychological Causes of the Trouble  45
  The Last of Parris                              47
  "One of the Afflicted"--Her Confession          