Carol F. Karlsen

Confessing to "Familiarity with the Devils," Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens, was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbours. In 1662, Ann Cole was "taken with very strange Fits" and fuelled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the notorious events in Salem...