Women's History Resource Site

King's College History Department

Book Review

Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts. Garden City, New York: Doubleday& Company, 1969.

The Devil in Massachusetts describes in sequence the people and events that surrounded the Salem Witch Trials. It is written in a narrative format, making it very interesting to read. There are also many historical records and reproductions of the trials that make it somewhat accurate. The book tells the story of the accusers and the accused, the prosecutors and the defenders of the trials that stirred up Salem, Massachusetts. She wrote the book like a novel but adds that it is not fiction, it is American history. The way it is written makes it easy and very interesting to read, but leaves me wondering how much of the information is the honest truth. The theory surfaces that these bored young women, living in times that tended to be boring because life consisted of working to eat, were looking for some type of drama in their life. With this in mind we know that these girls took it to the extreme, considering the things they did and the many lives they ruined. The book is supposed to be a historical account of the times, but there are some reasons to doubt its legitimacy. The narrative form leads one to question its accuracy. The dialog in the book might not be the exact same as is written in the records, but I think that is what makes it more enjoyable to read. 

The book's topic is based on the people of the town. There is a Negro slave named Tituba who is the mother figure in the Parris Household. She shows the children tricks and spells something similar to the voodoo she learned in her homeland of Barbados. She fits perfectly into a mold of a person to accuse because she is black and from another country, which leads to some questions about her. The list of accused people seemed to be endless. Many people were accused of being witches, and then the remainder of their family was accused. A woman named Sarah Goode was accused of being a witch then her daughter was accused also. A woman named Martha and her husband Giles were accused. He died while being under tortured being pressed under a large load of stones. Two women, one named Sarah Osborne and the other Rebecca Nurse, were taken from their deathbeds to stand the trial for being witches. The people of the town of Salem, Massachusetts were disturbed by this new news and could not stop themselves from trying to eliminate the bad that they perceived was in town.

In the book’s preface, Marion Starkey herself states that " this dialogue is not of my invention: it is copied out of the records" and "Here and there, but rarely, I have taken slight liberties with the records"(18). This alone tells you that she did use the historical records, but in some parts added a little bit to make it more entertaining. Starkey obviously did her research and admits that she has added some information here and there.

While reading this story and reflecting on life and the way people act, I could understand how and even why these things happened in Salem. Young teenage girls that did not have much joy, happiness and entertainment in their lives decided to stir things up. When they did stir things up, they found out that many other people felt the same way that they did and it pretty much turned into something similar to today’s soap operas on daytime television. Through all the frustration that had built up inside of the people in town, the final count ended at twenty people dead for crimes that they did not commit.

Marion Starkey’s The Devil in Massachusetts historically was accurate. At the end of the book she has her notes and her primary source the Essex County Archives. She also has a selected bibliography of her sources and many secondary sources that she used to research. This just goes to show that most of her book is accurate.  There were parts that were embellished to some degree, but I feel that when it is written in the narrative form like it is, it might be more legitimate. Each time I talk with someone, I feel that I can take something or learn from the discussion whether I agree or not. This is how I feel regarding the book because there is truth to it, maybe not the whole truth. I think that you take the information given and form your own decision as to what actually happened. This is one thing that reading affords the reader you can formulate your own decision good, bad, or indifferent.

URL: http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/wrevstarkey.html Written by Matt Gingo Last Revision: 12 November 2001 Copyright © MM Prof. Pavlac's Women's History Site