Erika Gasser - Vexed with Devils: Manhood and Witchcraft in Old and New England

Early American Places is a collaborative project of the University of Georgia Press, New York University Press, Northern Illinois University Press, and the University of Nebraska Press. The series is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.earlyamericanplaces.org.

A DVISORY B OARD

Vincent Brown, Duke University

Andrew Cayton, Miami University

Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut

Nicole Eustace, New York University

Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University

Ramn A. Gutirrez, University of Chicago

Peter Charles Hoffer, University of Georgia

Karen Ordahl Kupperman, New York University

Joshua Piker, College of William & Mary

Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina

Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University

ERIKA GASSER

New York University Press

NEW YORK

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

www.nyupress.org

2017 by New York University

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-4798-3179-1

For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data, please contact the Library of Congress

A version of chapter 2 was published as Witchcraft, Possession, and the Unmaking of Women and Men: A Late Sixteenth-Century English Case Study, in Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft 11, no. 2 (Winter 2016): 15175; copyright 2016, University of Pennsylvania Press; reprinted by permission.

A version of chapter 3 was published as Samuel Harsnett, John Darrell, and the Use of Gender as an English Possession Propaganda Strategy, in The Devil in Society in Premodern Europe, ed. Richard Raiswell and Peter Dendle, 25782 (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto, 2012).

References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

To my parents

Gary and Nancy Gasser

In the many years since I first began this work, I have had the good fortune to receive considerable help and encouragement. At the University of Michigan I received support from the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the Department of History, the Department of Womens Studies, and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. The University of Michigan also provided resources and people without whom this book would never have gotten off the ground. I owe a great deal to all of the students, office staff, and professors with whom I worked, and particularly to Carol Karlsen, Sue Juster, Michael MacDonald, and Scotti Parrish for their engagement, encouragement, and generosity.

While in Ann Arbor, I received valuable comments and suggestions from two writing groups. The first was made up of welcoming European historians: Erik Huneke, Mia Lee, Kathrin Levitan, Marti Lybeck, Mary OReilly, Roberta Pergher, Natalie Rothman, Jessica Thurlow, and especially Tara Zahrawho was and is a model historian and friend. I would never have survived without her humor, encouragement, and suitcases of protein. The second group was made up of welcoming American Culture Girl Turtles, whose insight and support meant a great deal to me: Jennifer Beckham, Laura Halperin, Kathy Jurado, Shani Mott, Nikki Stanton, Carla Vecchiola, and Grace Wang. I am grateful to many people who made both work and life in Michigan better, including Chandra Bhimull, Rebecca Brannon, Tamar Carroll, Shaun Lopez, Jen Manion, Jennifer Palmer, Rebekah Pite, and Chris Talbot. Andrea Dottolo had better be on her way to pick me up for dinner. Nick Syrett and Holly Dugan taught me that white w(h)ine and country music, in combination with hilarity and steadfast friendship, make up more than the sum of their parts. I am so grateful for their wit and camaraderie after all these years. I know that Mary Harris OReilly would suggest we celebrate the completion of this project with a sundae, so I will have one in her memory and in honor of her brilliance, which so many of us miss dearly.

I am very grateful for the financial and scholarly assistance I received from archives and institutes, and the kind aid of archivists and staff at the American Antiquarian Society (particularly Caroline Sloat), the British Library, the Clements Library, the Danvers Archival Center, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. I was fortunate to have opportunities to present parts of this project at several conferences and workshops, and to have received especially helpful feedback from Richard Godbeer, Ann Little, Mark Peterson, the participants in the Ohio Seminar in Early American History and Culture, and the Womens, Gender, and Sexuality History Workshop at Ohio State University. At New York University Press I have been fortunate to work with Clara Platter, Constance Grady, Amy Klopfenstein, and the two anonymous readers who offered constructive feedback that has left the book better than when they found it. I also owe thanks to Brian Halley and the two reviewers he commissioned to read the manuscript, whose comments also considerably shaped the books final form.

I want to thank my colleagues, friends, and students in the History Department at Sacramento State for four wonderful years, and the professors, teachers, and students I met in Teaching American History Grant programs through the Placer County Office of Education and the History Project at UC Davis. I thank Mimi Coughlin and Valerie Becker for being such inspiring teachers and friends. Kim and Dana Moore made our time in California a delight, with such epic dinners and porch time that I choose to believe they are still living right next door.

At the University of Cincinnati I have benefited from the support of the History Department, the University Research Council, research assistance (all too briefly!) from Emily Filinger-Huggins, and especially the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center. I was grateful for having received a Taft Center Fellowship and appreciate those who helped make it both enjoyable and worthwhile, particularly Erynn Masi de Casanova, Angela Potochnik, and Kate Sorrels. I owe thanks to all of my colleagues who have given feedback on chapters of the book, shared teaching ideas, and provided encouragement and advice. I especially thank Wendy Kline for giving us the best possible welcome to Cincinnati, and Holly McGee for rallying the troops to help me get through a difficult winter. I have also greatly enjoyed teaching our students, who inspire and teach me in turn.

I owe special thanks and unending gratitude to those who have discussed and/or read significant parts of the manuscript over the years: Tobin Anderson, Zvi Biener, Andrea Dottolo, Kate Sorrels, Nick Syrett, and Tara Zahra. Clay Howard and Brianna Leavitt-Alcntara were especially generous readers whose good sense helped guide my revisions. Kate Sorrels deserves additional thanks for her willingness to share the process of writing and revising with me, and for agreeing that thinking can be accompanied by drinking. Lastly, I can only begin to thank my parents for their generous support over the years and for their kindness. The only flaw I am aware of in my sisters is that they and their families live too far away from me; our reunions remind me how fortunate I am to have sisters who are my favorite people. Finally and above all I owe thanks to Jonathan Barber, who by now understands (more than he should have to) what Cotton Mather meant when he referred to a woman crazd in her Intellectuals. I am so lucky to have him as my partner in our adventures.