“By Magick and a Familiarity with the Devil” Constructing Witchcraft in Enlightenment Colonial New England and in the Mind of Jonathan Edwards

Author(s):  
Daniel N. Gullotta
2005 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Winiarski

It is difficult to imagine Jonathan Edwards countenancing the “Confus'd, but very Affecting Noise” that erupted in Suffield, Massachusetts, on July 6, 1741. Yet there he stood, his loud voice rising in prayer above the din that emanated from an assembly of more than two hundred boisterous men and women who had gathered to listen to his exhortations in the “two large Rooms” of a private house. On the previous day, the visiting Northampton, Massachusetts, revivalist had administered the sacrament to nearly five hundred Suffield communicants, ninety-seven of whom had joined the church that very day. It was an extraordinary event—quite possibly the largest oneday church admission ritual ever observed in colonial New England.


1989 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
Richard P. Gildrie ◽  
Carol F. Karlsen

1989 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 593
Author(s):  
Stephen Nissenbaum ◽  
Carol F. Karlsen

1988 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 893
Author(s):  
Paul Boyer ◽  
Carol F. Karlsen

Author(s):  
Ava Chamberlain

This chapter gives an overview of the family life of Jonathan Edwards. It seeks to establish Edwards’s success as a patriarch in colonial New England according to Puritan standards. Beginning with his relationships with his father, Timothy Edwards, and his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, both pastors, this chapter traces the relational and familial dynamics throughout Edwards’s life. From a young age, Edwards sought to establish himself as a mature and godly man capable of heading a family. After moving to Northampton, Edwards married Sarah Pierpont at the age of 23 and began a family of his own. Together, they had eleven children and ran their household successfully. Edwards’s discipline, kindness, and faithful presence helped him to become a model Puritan patriarch. While Jonathan and Sarah’s lives were both cut short, they left a legacy of love and domestic flourishing behind them when they passed.


Author(s):  
Richard A. Bailey

In scholarly discussions about “race” in the Americas, colonial New England often receives little attention. While race-based slavery perhaps never commanded the same attention in the northern colonies as in regions farther south, “race” factored into nearly every aspect of life in New England from the outset. This chapter not only discusses how scholars have approached this conversation but also investigates some of the ways in which New Englanders made sense of themselves and the peoples of varying ethnicities, relying at times on the specific theological context of New England puritanism. Focusing on the ways in which New Englanders wrestled with the dilemma of racial thinking within their theological system brings New England fully into the discussion of the intersections between “race” and religion in colonial America.


1951 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 536
Author(s):  
Theodore Hornberger ◽  
Kenneth B. Murdock

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