The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World

In the middle of the 17th century a witch craze burnt across New England. This is a study of one town in the Connecticut Valley.Gaskill has unearthed a wealth of detail about this little settlement, from which one derives an impression of sheer misery. Crops failed, Indians raided, winters were cold, summers wet. It was a short trip from the cradle to the grave. It was founded as a godly community in 1636, but within a decade its few inhabitants were tearing each other apart. The hatred in Springfield settled on a brickmaker, Hugh Parsons and his wife Mary. He was an argumentative and awkward man, perhaps his own worst enemy. His wife was deeply depressed not helped by her unloving spouse. Neither were liked. But witches?Ideas about witchcraft provided answers to the causes of disease and death, flood, and famine. Such untoward events were attributed the agents of Satan who must be hunted down. It is only partly true that science would dispel such foolish notions in the age of reason. What emerges from his account, however, is that it was not real tragedy which impelled persecution but trivial arguments, crossed words, refused favours and angry curses. Puritan ideology about a shining city on the hill was flawed from the outset. The loving community was a place of spite, distrust, and envy. Some did better than others – how could that be God’s design? The devil must be at work.He highlights the failure of community leaders, especially Springfield’s founder, William Pynchon, who controlled every aspect of town life. Curiously he was himself prosecuted for heresy and his books burnt. His belief in a loving, tolerant God cut little ice with the puritans who defended their wrathful deity against such false thinking. Exactly how events unravelled is related in detail. We follow Mary, Hugh and William to their deaths and then their ancestors as far as records allow.The author did much of his research in Springfield itself. It had become a city in 1852 and is known as the birthplace of basketball. By 2015 it manifested all the symptoms of urban decay: he watched drug deals go down outside the library as he pored over old parchments. Gaskill must be right about our greater understanding of disease and compassion for mental illness. But we live in a society bedevilled by outlandish conspiracy theories, where the response to presumed disrespect is often a rampage with a shot gun. So different?

This book reads like gripping fiction, following the story of the 17th century inhabitants of Springfield, Massachusetts, yet it is all true, researched in such detail that it is as if the author knew his characters personally.

This excellent book tells the dispiriting story of some of the pilgrims who left England for America in the early 1600s to set up new communities based on religious freedom and a simple life - but saw their hopes soured within a few years of landing.Their failure to build their nirvana is not surprising. People have believed in very strange things since the beginning of time, including hundreds of very different religions, and, their attempts to build new societies on their beliefs have not usually been successful. Worst of all were the big bids for utopian societies. The Russian, French and Chinese revolutions all started in idealism and laudable aims but ended in terror, hatred, murder, tyranny and - not least - the madness of crowds.This book follows the story of the a much more modest attempt by a small group of Christians, who saw themselves as righteous, pious and well intentioned, to build their own new world. Their dream was of simple communities based on religious freedom. But things went wrong from the outset. The winters in the new land were bitter. The tiny villages they set up were isolated and seemed threatened. They saw eerie lights in the surrounding woods, mists over the marshes and the eyes of primitive Indians watching from the behind the bushes outside the villages. The pilgrims separated into different sects, each believing their own to be right; and when unexplained tragedies started to become common, with mysterious illnesses and deaths of children, they turned against each other. They began to see evil in their neighbours, and they attributed it to idolatry, heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft - and eventually the presence in their communities of the devil. Within a few years the disenchantment and discord led to trials and executions of their fellow pilgrims.The story, much of which focuses on a young wife who meets a tragic end, is covered in extraordinary detail, based on original sources, meticulously researched.E T Laing

Unfortunately after paying full price for new condition; I received my copy of the book with a slightly embossed dust over that was produced without ink which clearly takes from the product leaving me disappointed with the purchase.

Interesting but hard going

I received this as a birthday present, as I love learning about various historical topics, one being witchcraft trials. This is based on the lesser known trials of Springfield, USA. The map/diagrams of the town at the beginning are a good addition, and we learn alot about how William Pynchon comes to the US from Essex and helps start the new town. We learn of others making the journey for a new life, some perishing on the way, and how these new families make a life. It is tougher than they thought and things going wrong make people believe there’s a witch around.Overall, the book was interesting, but it took a while to get going and learn who the supposed witch(es) is/are, and their outcomes.