SOURCE: "Visions of Evil: Popular Culture, Puritanism, and the Massachusetts Witchcraft Crisis of 1692," in Journal of American Culture, Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter, 1985, pp. 17–34.

In the following excerpt, Gildrie outlines three distinct phases in the witchcraft investigations: the first, centering on Salem Village; the second, on suspicious characters; and the last, on the town of Andover.

… In 1692 the nightmares of magistrates, the clerical campaign for "reformation," and popular witchlore collided in a crisis complicated by local social tensions. Given this complexity, interpreting the event, then or now, has not been simple. The timing is the easiest thing to understand. King Williams' War, the first serious contest with the French and their Indian allies, was in its third year and was going poorly in northern New England. The Maine and New Hampshire frontier had virtually collapsed. There were rumors of impending attacks on the exposed Essex County towns. The fishing and...