The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England

The witch was an ominous specter that hung over Puritan society; indeed, witches encompassed all of Puritans’ foremost fears into one being. As Karlsen illustrates in her book, studying the witch and those women accused of being one illuminates social, political, and economic aspects of Puritan life that are rarely explicitly described in sources from 17th-century New England. Understanding the witch—both as a mythological figure and as a real presence in Puritan society, as seen through the women who were accused as being witches themselves—is a vital component to understanding colonial America as a whole. Further, as Karlsen ultimately argues in her book, studying the witch is to study women’s history in America because it enlightens the structures of oppression still facing women to this day.

The witch a human who consorted with the Devil, straddling the natural and supernatural world. To the Puritan society, which relied heavily on nature to survive (e.g., crops, farm animals, etc.), threats to this natural order were taken very seriously. Witchcraft accusations were often linked to farm animal diseases and crop failures. Women who were thought to be witches were also blamed for infant deaths and miscarriages, reflecting Puritans’ anxieties over population levels and surviving in their new colonies.