A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft
$12.95
This balanced account of the Salem Village witchcraft trials, including the events leading up to them, was first printed in 1702. Written by Reverend John Hale, the pastor of the church in Beverly, Massachusetts, and whose wife was accused in 1692, the book challenged the legal proceedings and religious principles of witch hunts in general. He concludes with the theory that it was Satan, not the witches, who used the manipulation of objects to afflict others. Rev. Hale had been the preacher in Salem since 1664, and was a participant in the trials, attending them and praying with the accused. This eyewitness account is one of the rarest, having been reprinted in 1771, again in 1973, and now in 2019 thanks to our very own Derby Square Press, the Wicked Good Books publishing house.
