Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692
(New Narratives in American History)

by Richard Godbeer, Professor of History at the University of Miami

The Stamford Historical Society recently received a copy of
Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692
(New Narratives in American History, Oxford University Press) by Richard Godbeer.

The book discusses the events around the witch hunt of Elizabeth Clawson in 1692.

The Society was able to provide Professor Godbeer with information from our archives and publications:

• Petition on behalf of Elizabeth Clawson, signed by seventy-six Stamford residents : 4 June 1692
• Pamphlet “Elizabeth Clawson ... Thou Deservest to Dye” by Ronald Marcus
• The Early Settlement of Stamford Ct 1641-1700 by Jeanne Majdalany, Edith M. Wicks
• History of Stamford Connecticut 1641-1868 : Including Darien Until 1820 by Elijah B. Huntington
• "Stamford from Puritan to Patriot: The shaping of a Connecticut Community, 1641-1774" by Estelle Feinstein
  (published by grant from Xerox Corporation)
• a photo of the Hoyt-Barnum House for the book jacket.

The Darien Historical Society provided “The Sellecks of Stamford” (Annual 1 no.7, March 1961: 3-9)

Here is a Book Description from Amazon.com:

Few events in American history are as well remembered as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. But there was another witch hunt that year, in Stamford, Connecticut, that has never been examined in depth. Now Richard Godbeer describes this “other witch hunt” in a concise, fascinating narrative that illuminates the colonial world and shatters the stereotype of early New Englanders as quick to accuse and condemn. That stereotype originates with Salem, which was in many ways unlike other outbreaks of witch-hunting in the region. Drawing on eye-witness testimony, Godbeer tells the story of Kate Branch, a seventeen-year-old afflicted by strange visions and given to blood-chilling wails of pain and fright. Branch accused several women of bewitching her, two of whom were put on trial for witchcraft. The book takes us inside the courtroom – and inside the minds of the surprisingly skeptical Stamford townfolk. Was the pain and screaming due to natural causes, or to supernatural causes? Was Branch simply faking the symptoms? And if she was telling the truth, why believe the demonic sources of the information, who might well be lying? For the judges, Godbeer shows, the trial was a legal thicket. All agreed that witches posed a real and serious threat, but proving witchcraft (an invisible crime) in court was another matter. The court in Salem had become mired in controversy over its use of dubious evidence. In an intriguing passage, Godbeer examines Magistrate Jonathan Selleck's notes on how to determine the guilt of someone accused of witchcraft – an illuminating look at what constituted proof of witchcraft at the time. The stakes were high – if found guilty, the two accused women would be hanged. In the afterword, Godbeer explains how he used the trial evidence to build his narrative, an inside look at the historian's craft that enhances this wonderful account of life in colonial New England.

Table of Content

Other books by Richard Godbeer:

The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England Cambridge University Press 1992

Sexual Revolution in Early America Johns Hopkins University 2002

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