Masculinity and Male Witches in Old and New England, 1593-1680

Abstract

This article concentrates on the way ordinary people in English communities in East Anglia and New England represented male witches and male witchcraft when they accused men of criminal magic. I begin by examining the data from the indictments of male witches in early modern Essex courts in order to demonstrate some of the ways English male witchcraft was distinct from the larger prosecution of female witches. The remainder of the paper is devoted to four case histories of individual men and demonstrates how early modern ideas of manhood shaped the witchcraft beliefs of accusers. I argue that, because they were men, these witches had had very different relationships to the legal, cultural, social and economic institutions of their day, and that this must be considered in any analysis. Throughout, I am concerned with how application of masculinity as a category of analysis reconfigures historiographical ideas of early modern witchcraft