About the author
Cynthia Wolfe Boynton is the author of Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World (History Press, 2014), a history of the witchcraft prosecutions that took place in colonial Connecticut between 1647 and 1697, nearly fifty years before the Salem trials. The book documents at least thirty-four people formally charged with witchcraft across the colony, eleven of whom were hanged, and works through individual cases, including one examined in detail in New Haven. Boynton presents Connecticut's trials as the first, and by her account the most severe, witch hunt in New England, giving the state's largely overlooked episode the same documentary treatment more commonly applied to Salem. The book is aimed at readers of American colonial history and local history rather than at readers of witchcraft practice, drawing on court and town records to reconstruct the cases.
📖 Where to start with Cynthia Wolfe Boynton
💬 What our editors say about Cynthia Wolfe Boynton's books
“Boynton delivers a rigorous, well-researched account that fills a significant gap in the historiography of New England witchcraft. Her use of primary sources effectively illuminates the bizarre accusations and judicial procedures…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World
“While Boynton’s meticulous reconstruction of court documents and period accounts offers a compelling glimpse into New England's earliest witch trials, this volume is not for readers seeking narrative drama or supernatural…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World
