A Fever in Salem

by Carlson, Laurie Winn

• ISBN13: 9781566633093
• ISBN10: 1566633095
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee

Summary

In the late winter and early spring of 1692, residents of Salem Village, Massachusetts, began to suffer from strange physical and mental maladies. The randomness of the victims, and unusual symptoms that were seldom duplicated, led residents to suspect an otherworldly meance. Their suspicions and fears eventually prompted the infamous Salem witch trials. While most historians have concentrated their efforts on the accused, Laurie Winn Carlson focuses on the afflicted. In A Fever in Salem she offers a compelling argument that the "bewitched" victims in fact suffered from an outbreak of encephalitis. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Preface	xiii
The Witch Craze in Seventeenth-century New England	3	(6)
The Afflicted	9	(29)
The Response	38	(23)
Mental Illness and the Persecution of Witches	61	(15)
The Forgotten Epidemic	76	(38)
What Happened at Salem?	114	(33)
Alternative Outcomes	147	(7)
Could Encephalitis Lethargica Return?	154	(3)
Afterword: Satanic Possession and Christian Beliefs	157	(2)
Chronology	159	(8)
Statistical Appendix	167	(4)
Notes	171	(12)
Bibliography	183	(6)
Index	189