Witch hunts and enlightenment: Harriet Martineau's critical reflections on Salem

Abstract

Harriet Martineau's first and last articles on American society concerned the Salem Massachusetts witch hunts, trials and executions of 1692. She shared the Victorian fascination with psychological phenomena, especially perception and the power of suggestion, and the sociological aspects of community reactions to ‘fitful’ and erratic behavior. Martineau insisted that accusations of witchcraft and the responses to them required objective scientific study. Her accounts of events in Salem are used to examine the role of the clergy and organized religion in the community, citizens’ vulnerability to accusation, anxiety about colonial life in early America, and panic and mob action. Martineau explores the universal implications of the case.

Citation

Hoecker-Drysdale, S. (2008), "Witch hunts and enlightenment: Harriet Martineau's critical reflections on Salem", Texler Segal, M. and Demos, V. (Ed.) Advancing Gender Research from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 7-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2126(08)12002-1