The Salem witchcraft trials have been written about from dozens of angles. With A Storm of Witchcraft, Emerson W. Baker explores the dark chapter in colonial America from legal, political and social perspectives. A grand jury indicted the suspects, the wealthier among them had better legal counsel, the judges were divided but the majority voted for the death penalty, the governor reprieved several, jail conditions were abominable and public outcry over the convictions grew louder. The trials took place against a backdrop of anxiety over Indian wars and assaults on Massachusetts’ Puritan theocracy and self-government by the distant British government. A history professor at Salem University (how appropriate!), Baker sees the trials as a turning point in American history. After all, the nephew of a discriminated-against Quaker who accused Puritan neighbors of witchcraft was that outstanding figure of the American Enlightenment, Benjamin Franklin.
