While Salem gets all the press and the plays and is used as the analogy, author Cynthia Wolfe Boynton notes that Connecticut had its share of witch trials and executions; in fact, your odds of getting the noose as a witch were a lot worse in Connecticut – of 34 people charged, 11 were executed. Connecticut also had the first victim: Alse Young (or Younge), dropped off the mortal coil in 1647 (it’s noted that while a witch execution was documented for that year, the name of the deceased wasn’t discovered until 1904). Witchcraft was second on the list of capital crimes in Connecticut, right after being a pagan but before being a blasphemer.

This little book (126 pages) is very well researched, but there just isn’t as much information out there. Perhaps because the Massachusetts witches were concentrated in Salem while the Connecticut witches were spread out? Boynton therefore has to do some padding: a general discussion of witchcraft prosecution (including Matthew Hopkins and Heinrich Kramer) and lots of illustrations (most of which are generic painting and woodcuts of witches doing their thing, rather than specific to Connecticut).

Boynton might be a little hard on Cotton Mather over the question of “spectral evidence”. (A “specter” was the appearance of a living person somewhere when the physical body was elsewhere – like in a person’s bedroom, sitting on their chest. It was argued that a person could only appear as a specter if they had made a pact with the devil; therefore “spectral evidence” was definite proof that the person involved was a witch. Boynton claims that Mather supported spectral evidence while Mather’s own writing suggests he was dubious about it, asking people to consider the possibility that the Devil might be able to create the specter of an innocent person.

In an interesting finale, Boynton notes that the Connecticut government made two essays at issuing formal pardons for condemned witches in 2008 and 2012. One didn’t make it out committee, and another was rejected by the governor on the grounds that it was inappropriate to condemn previous government decisions.

Well written, well researched, and a easy read. For more on the Massachusetts trials, see Death in Salem, Salem Possessed, The Devil in Massachusetts, and The Witches. For Cotton Mather, see Wonders of the Invisible World. ( )