The Devil's Dominion

Colonists in early New England relied on folk magic to foretell events, cure illness, guard against misfortune, and even harm others. Their Protestant ministers insisted that faith and magic could not coexist, yet Richard Godbeer contends that the two shared enough common ground for ordinary people to move between them without feeling they had done wrong.

This study looks at how laypeople, both men and women, practised folk magic, and it lays out the procedures they used and the beliefs behind them. Godbeer maintains that settlers were far less consistent than their clergy hoped, and that even church members sometimes sought out magical help. Some colonists rejected magic entirely while others did not, so the link between magic and religious belief appears tangled and uneven rather than simple.

Godbeer also draws parallels between the disputes over astrological forecasting and the clergy's attacks on magical practice. He further shows that the way magical tradition and Puritan doctrine each understood witchcraft often produced confusion and disagreement when colonists tried to have witches prosecuted under the law.