Product Description
Confessing to "Familiarity with the Devils," Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens, was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. In 1662, Ann Cole was "taken with very strange Fits" and fueled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events in Salem took place. More than three hundred years later the question still haunts us: Why were these and other women likely witches? Why were they vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft? In this work Carol Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 16 reviews)

Devil in the Shape of a Woman

I purchased this book to review for a college course project. I found it to be an accurate and factual perception of how women were persecuted in Colonial America because of their gender under the male dominance of Puritan society and the cultural idealogies that immigrated to the New World from Europe which resulted in the witchcraft trials during the 16th and 17th centuries.
March 10, 2008

Great book!!

I absolutely loved this book. Carol F. Karlsen is a great writer and this book was easy to read and informative. She focuses on the fact that many women were accused and also doing the accusing.
July 07, 2007

The Devil in the Shape of a Woman- GREAT timing & service!

This book arrived on the projected date and is brand new. No problems to report! GREAT service!!!
January 11, 2007

so far so good....

I am reading this book for a comparative essay I have to write for school. So far it is pretty interesting.
October 08, 2005

my thoughts

this book is an historic unforgettable learning experience on witchcraft.
August 14, 2003

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