Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692

I would probably rate this in at 3.5 stars...but I rounded up to 4 stars. 'Escaping Salem' tells the story of the 'witch hunt' in Stamford, CT. We have all grown up hearing about the witch hunts in Salem. There have been movies and there have been discussions of the blood thirsty people in that community going after the witches to rid their villages of their evil practices. This book begins to examine the people behind some of the stories in the relatively quiet community of Stamford. The book looks at one particular case of a girl named Kate Branch of her fits or rage, her delusions and her overall strange behavior. It discusses the people that many believed were witches and why they considered them witches. Though the arguments were often weak, the arguments gained traction and led to the trials of a couple of women accused of being witches. The book takes you in to the courtroom as you see some of the problems of the prosecution and the difficulty of 'proving' witchcraft. I had always believed that trials were thrown together to just convict but you can see that there was definitely more effort needed to convict someone. The biggest problem with the book is that it often reads like a textbook until the last chapter when the author interjects more of his thoughts and conclusions. The book is using public documents so there are some holes in the story which Godbeer tries to fill. Overall, an interesting peak into the late 1600s court system and witches problem.

Few people know that while the infamous Salem witch hunt was taking place in 1692, southwestern Connecticut was undergoing a scare of its own. Godbeer has meticulously researched this event and presents a remarkably detailed story based upon the participants own words. He follows the accusers, the victims, the "witches", the ministers, and the magistrates, from the beginning of the outbreak to its much-more-sensible-than Salem conclusion. Seems one could be a witch and avoid execution in Olde New England. Puritans all - how did Connecticut avoid hysteria and wanton killing? This brief book tells the tale in an interesting, historically accurate fashion.