The devil of Great Island : witchcraft and conflict in early New England

Introduction -- The first stone is cast -- Evil things -- The Waltons -- The neighbors from Hell -- Fences and neighbors -- Neighbors and witches -- Great Island's great matter -- The Mason Family stakes its claim -- The spread of lithobolia -- To Salem -- Epilogue.

In 1682, ten years before the infamous Salem witch trials, the town of Great Island, New Hampshire, was plagued by mysterious events: strange, demonic noises; unexplainable movement of objects; and hundreds of stones that rained upon a local tavern and appeared at random inside its walls. Town residents blamed what they called "Lithobolia" or "the stone-throwing devil." In this lively account, Emerson Baker shows how witchcraft hysteria overtook one town and spawned copycat incidents elsewhere in New England, prefiguring the horrors of Salem. In the process, he illuminates a cross-section of colonial society and overturns many popular assumptions about witchcraft in the seventeenth century.

In this lively account, Emerson Baker shows how in 1682, ten years before the infamous Salem witch trials, witchcraft hysteria overtook the town of Great Island, New Hampshire after it was plagued by mysterious events, spawning copycat incidents elsewhere in New England.