Episode 55
Witches & Puritans
Why was an argumentative brickmaker in Puritan Massachusetts accused of being a vengeful witch and what does his story tell us about the social anxieties of the New World in 1651?
Not Just the Tudors · History Hit
October 25, 202156m 46s
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Show Notes
<p>On a remote Massachusetts plantation in 1651, an unpopular local brickmaker was blamed for a wave of animal ailments, children dying and vanishing property. The argumentative Hugh Parsons was accused of being a vengeful witch. </p><br><p>In this edition of <em>Not Just the Tudors</em>, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Malcolm Gaskill about his research into this dark, real-life folktale of family tragedy, supernatural obsessions and social anxiety in the New World of the Puritans.</p>
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