17th Century New England, with special emphasis on the Salem Witchcraft Trials

A 17th Century Colonial New England Bibliography

This is a sometimes-annotated bibliography of the books in my personal reference library as I research 17th century colonial New England. There are a lot about the Salem witch-hunt, Puritan thought, and Anglo-Indian contact, but also a few odds and ends that make sense to me to have on hand. Please note: I do not lend books. To anyone. Most of these titles can be borrowed from any good public or university library. If you want to purchase a copy of any of these titles, I have included direct links to Amazon.com for all but a handful of out-of-print or hard-to-find local imprint titles. To print out the whole bibliography, please use the printer-friendly version to save paper.

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Anderson | Bailyn | Bouchard | Bradford | Bremer | Calloway | Condé | Daniels | Dow | Fisher
Gildrie | Grumet | Hayes | Holifield | Koehler | Lockridge | Mather | Miller | Norton | Powers
Robinson | Scot | Slotkin | Tapley | Ulrich | Vaughan | Whiting | Woodward

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  1. Bouchard, Betty J.. Our Silent Neighbors: A Study of Gravestones in the Old Salem Area. Second edition, revised and expanded. T.B.S. Enterprises: Salem, MA. 2000. Order from Amazon.com

  2. Bourne, Russell. The Red King's Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England 1675-1678. Oxford University Press: New York. 1990. Order from Amazon.com

    A rather plodding account of the politics and battles of King Philip's War.
  3. Bovet, Richard. Panaemonium: The Devil's Cloyster. Reprinted from 1951 edition. Rowman and Littlefield: Totowa, NJ. 1975. Order from Amazon.com

    Republication of the 1684 book, discussing the Anglican view of witchcraft.
  4. Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. 1974. Order from Amazon.com

    Boyer & Nissenbaum provide a neat Marxist reading of the events of the witchcraft hysteria of 1692, showing how the conflicting economic interests and allegiances of the agrarian and mercantile classes in Salem Village were reflected in the patterns of who were the accusers and the accused.
  5. Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, eds.. Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England. Northeastern University Press: Boston, MA. 1972. Order from Amazon.com

    A single-volume collection of the central primary texts, but not all.
  6. Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, eds.. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Wiutchcraft Outbreak of 1692. 3 volumes. DaCapo Press: New York. 1977.

    The current seminal collection of primary texts, in 3 volumes, taken from the WPA transcriptions in the 1930s, but beware of errors! [NOTE: This item is unfortunately out of stock indefinitely from the publisher, and absolutely impossible to obtain used. It is available, however, on-line at http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/transcripts.html]
  7. Bradford, William. Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Originally published in 1622 by John Bellamie, London, as A Relation or Journal of the beginnings and proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England, by certain English adventurers both merchants and others. Applewood: Bedford, MA. 1963. Order from Amazon.com

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This page was last updated Feb. 15, 2009 by Margo Burns, My email address.