Since I’ve been spending most of my time writing Down Salem Way, a lot of my reading has been about either the Salem Witch Trials or life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One of my favorite parts of writing historical fiction is learning about the time period I’m writing about.
I had a pretty good sense of what happened during the Salem Witch Trials from researching Her Dear & Loving Husband. However, I’ve had to go into much more depth about the era with Down Salem Way since the novel is set entirely in 1692.
One great book I’ve found about life in 17th-century Massachusetts is Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by George Francis Dow. The book covers every aspect of life from the first waves of Puritan immigration to piracy to cooking to clothing. It’s been my first line of defense in understanding James and Elizabeth’s day-to-day life in 1692.
Another book that has been helpful is The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England by Carol F. Karlsen. Karlsen’s work began life as a Ph.D. dissertation, and she does a fine job making her research accessible to the public.
It isn’t easy to take scholarly work and make it palatable for general readers (as I’ve learned from experience). Karlsen’s work isn’t strictly about the Salem Witch Trials; rather, it looks at witchcraft accusations throughout the New England colonies. As strong scholarly work does, Karlsen connects the dots as to how the witchcraft trials were more about colonial society’s (particularly Puritan society’s) expectations of women.
The accused didn’t conform to society’s expectations so they were punished by being called out as witches. Karlsen also goes into detail about the accusers. These were women–younger and middle-aged–who were given a box to live in. When that box grew too small, these women began seeing visions and acting out, claiming the Devil made them do it. If you’re interested in colonial witch hunts, I highly recommend Karlsen’s work.
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (a descendant of Salem Witch Trials judge John Hathorne) isn’t set specifically during the witch hunts–or not much of it anyway. The story is about how the choices of earlier generations affect future generations. The book is set in Salem, MA and I have been to the house. I haven’t read it since I began writing Her Dear & Loving Husband nearly ten years ago (where does the time go?) and I thought now was a good time to reread it.
Circe by Madeline Miller has nothing to do with either the Salem Witch Trials or life in colonial Massachusetts. This was one of those brain-break books I need sometimes when I’m in the middle of research. Miller has a talent for bringing stories from The Iliad and The Odyssey to life from different perspectives. If you loved Miller’s Song of Achilles as I did, you will love Circe as well.
