The author, who died in 1991, was a distinguished journalist and a New Englander with an American ancestry dating back to the Mayflower. Her research, writing and interpretive skills were impeccable. The Devil in Massachusetts was published in 1949 and is ironically sub-titled: A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials.

So, in Salem Village, in the year of 1692, who were the players? There is Betty, the nine-year-old daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris and her eleven-year-old cousin, Abigail. Reverend Parris had come to Salem Village to accept ministry of the Puritan community after a posting in Barbados. He brought with him two slaves, John Indian and his consort, Tituba. Tituba became intimately engaged in mentoring Betty and Abigail, captivating them with "tricks and spells, fragments of something like voodoo remembered from Barbados." Tituba's charms soon reached out to other girls in the neighborhood including Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Booth, and Susanna Sheldon. But the most captivated of the newcomers was Ann Putnam, a twelve-year old with a troubled family history. Ann brought along the Putnam's maidservant, "sly" Mercy Lewis.

Collectively, the girls were vulnerable due to a variety of influences. One, unquestionably, was the effects of being "relentlessly catechized Puritan children." They already "quailed before such terrible realities as predestination and damnation." Ann Putnam, in particular, influenced by the personal tragedies experienced by her mother, was vividly conscious of the mysteries of life and death. With her mother, she had "pored over the Book of Revelation," attempting to interpret its symbolism. Upon joining the other girls in the Parris kitchen, Ann soon became the "aptest of Tituba's pupils," and the leader of the group. Ann was further influenced by exposure to Wigglesworth's Days of Doom. How could there be mercy for those whom God had destined to damnation? 

Then young Betty began displaying signs of psychological distress: inattentiveness, weeping, babbling, screaming, blank "deathlike" staring into space. The family tried to keep it quiet, but as the news spread, "so did the contagion." The malady struck "Mary Walcott, Susanna Sheldon, Ann Putnam, and Mercy Lewis." The village physician, Doctor Griggs, pronounced that "the evil hand is on them." (Interestingly, the girls used their illness to "rebel against every restriction" placed upon them.) Reverend Parris appealed for assistance. If the devil was at work, then there must be witches serving as accomplices. Ministers were convened and a decision was reached. The girls must identify the witches who were tormenting them. Suspicion soon focused on Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osburne as the key suspects.

Warrants were issued and the suspects transported to Ipswich Prison. The cases were heard by "magistrates" of the General Court who were not lawyers. (In 1692, Harvard had no law school.) The testimony of Tituba confirmed what the court wanted to hear. She spoke of "red cats and red rats," and of a "tall man" with a book that listed the names of other witches. She also talked about traveling, airborne, to "Witches' Sabbaths."  Then Ann Putnam pointed out another witch. It was Martha Cory, a farmer's wife, who had laughed derisively at the very thought of demonic possession. On March 19, 1692, a warrant was issued for her arrest. "You can't prove me a witch," she cried out. But how could she prove she wasn’t? That was the rub. Shortly thereafter, Martha Cory was joined by the five year old daughter of Sarah Good, whose "Shape" had been tormenting the girls.

Ann Putnam identified Rebecca Nurse as a "Shape" flying about the country even thought Rebecca, old and frail, had been confined in bed ill and helpless for seven days.  Rebecca's sister, Sarah Cloyce, was labeled a witch as well after she had stalked out of church and slammed the door. She soon thereafter joined her sister, Rebecca, in Salem Prison, along with another sister, Mary Esty. Mary Esty was initially given a reprieve by all the "afflicted children" with the exception of Mercy Lewis. Then, when Mercy Lewis lapsed into a coma, there was no question that Mary Esty had been protected by her "Shape" and that Mary Esty was a witch. As soon as Mary Esty was "trussed up in irons," Mercy Lewis miraculously recovered from her coma.

There were some defectors. Mary Warren was one. She turned on the "afflicted girls" and declaimed their illusions as "sport." But Mary lacked the courage to stay the course, and, in time, she turned once more into an accuser, most notably against John Procter and his wife Elizabeth with whom she had served as a "maidservant." Another defector was Sarah Churchill who had confessed on the stand but then admitted she had "belied" herself out of "fear of torture and hanging." Then there was the case of the witch Bridget Bishop, the "flashy dresser" with her "red paragon bodice." When in court, she rolled her eyes up to heaven in disdain … and so also did all the girls in imitation, showing the "glaring" whites of their eyes. That was all it took to confine poor Bridget to Salem Prison.  

By May, the community had become bewitched "by a kind of mass hypnosis, expressed in panic on the one hand and crusading fervor on the other." In June, the trials began.

It was the lot of Bridget Bishop to be the first to appear before the seven judges appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer ("to hear and determine"). Much of the testimony against Bridget was her power over the "imaginations" of men and the "questionable gaieties" which had transpired in her tavern. One accuser claimed that Bridget had "administered the sacrament on the Witches' Sabbath." A perverse and highly invasive examination of her body revealed signs of a "witch mark." The jury concluded she was guilty as charged and the judges condemned her to hang. On June 10, High Sheriff George Corwin carried out the sentence. She was taken to the top of Gallows Hill where she was hanged from the branches of an oak tree.   

On July 19^th, five more witches were hanged on Gallows Hill, all women. Five more witches, four men and one woman, where hanged on August 19^th. Eight more were hanged on September 22^nd.  In total, nineteen were hanged for witchcraft while four adults and one child died in prison. The author notes that the rope was primarily used "not for those who pleaded guilty, but for those who professed innocence."

By now the spell of the accusers had peaked even though 150 witches were still awaiting trial. On October 26^th, under the direction of Governor Phips, the Court of Oyer and Terminer was dismissed and special sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature were appointed to complete the trials. Spectral evidence (shapes of the devil) was no longer acceptable as a basis of conviction. Without such evidence, there was little point in going forward with the trials. Reprieves and pardons were granted and the community began a painful period of self-criticism which went on for years.

 In closing, the author cautions the reader that "moral seasons come and go." It is easy to dismiss what happened in Salem Village in 1692 as a consequence of extreme and delusional religious fervor, but keep in mind that our present culture continues to display manifestations of irrationality, psychic contagion and mass mania on a far greater scale.