Agents of the Invisible World explores an underappreciated aspect of early modern witchcraft trials: children. This work analyses the various roles children played in English and New English witchcraft trials between 1589-1692, seeking to understand not only how children became involved in witchcraft trials but why.
Agents of the Invisible World explores an underappreciated aspect of the well-researched early modern witchcraft trials: children. In particular, this work analyses the various roles children played in English and New English witchcraft trials between 1589-1692, seeking to understand not only how children became involved in witchcraft trials but why.
Using primary sources, including legal documents, pamphlets and hitherto overlooked archival materials, this book reveals that children were not always passive accusers who identified witches, but could be aggressive in their denunciations, sometimes even being accused of witchcraft themselves. By once again allowing these children to take centre-stage, Northcott uncovers the haunting history behind children’s pervasive involvement in witchcraft trials on both sides of the Atlantic. Readers are guided through thirty-six case studies from England and New England, making this the most detailed work on the role of children in England and New England to date. The main themes discussed include agency, motivation, influence and impact, incorporating multidisciplinary insights and principles from feminism, anthropology, history of emotion, social, cultural and religious studies.
This volume is a valuable resource for students, scholars and anyone interested in concepts of early modern witchcraft and magic, children and childhood, and social history.
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction: Troublesome Children and the Trouble with Children
Chapter One: Understanding Concepts of the Child, Childhood and
Their Role in Witch-Hunting More Broadly
Chapter Two: Pre-1589, The Children Who Set the Scene
Chapter Three: 1589-1604, The Children that Shook the Adult World
Chapter Four: 1612-1662, The Children Who Called the Shots and the Children
No One Believed
Chapter Five: 1648-1688, The New English Children that Set the Scene and
the Children that Shook the Adult World
Chapter Six: 1692, The Children Who Devastated New England
Conclusion: 1692 and Beyond, The Children that Tried Anything
Epilogue
Appendix A: Catalogue of Children in English Witchcraft Trials
Appendix B: Catalogue of Children in New English Witchcraft Trials
Select Bibliography
Index
Molly Northcott received her PhD at the University of New England, Australia. Her current research focuses on the different roles children played in early modern English and New English witchcraft trials in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ever since studying early modern witch-hunting as an undergraduate at UNE in 2017, Northcott has become fascinated by the subject. Her research interests focus on witchcraft trials in England and New England as well as issues and questions of youth, gender, motivation, agency and fraud.
