iate for different crimes. Even though these laws were written to be fair to all, the magistrates and clergy delegated punishment by who was being punished. This type of reasoning was typical in New England, and set the stage for the witch trials.The content of The Devil in the Shape of a Woman is broken down into sections, by time and place. There are several charts in the book showing the relationship of gender, age, wealth and place on how an accused witch was treated. Most show that women were targeted at a greater extent than anybody.Most observers now agree that witches in the villages and towns of the late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century New England tended to be poor. They were usually not the poorest women in the community, but the moderately poor. Karlsen tries to show that a woman who was vulnerable was most likely to be accused of being a witch. Even women who had gained wealth because of the death of a husband were prime candidates.Promiscuity was also known to be a reason for being accused accused of witchery. Marital problems often led to a disgruntled husband screaming witch. A woman who could not conceive a child, or one who would not give into her husbands wishes could easily be accused.Karlsen touches on the events leading up to the witch trials of Salem in almost every chapter. The events which led to the witch trial actually occurred in what is now the town of Danvers, then a parish of Salem Town, know as Salem Village. Launching the hysteria was the bizarre, seemingly inexplicable behavior of two young girls; the daughter, Betty, and the niece, Abigail Williams, of the Salem Village minister, Reverend Samuel Parris. These girls were experimenting with magic. They used an improvised crystal ball to try to see their futures. A few days later they began to have fits and exhibited other manifestations of possession, which spread to other females in the village. By the time the hysteria had spent itself, twenty four pe...
