SALEM — Ten years before the infamous Salem Witch Trials, a New Hampshire town was plagued by unexplained stone throwing that fueled accusations of witchcraft.
During a lecture in Salem tonight, Emerson "Tad" Baker will discuss his book about those events, called "The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft & Conflict in Early New England."
Baker, a history professor at Salem State University, said that in 1682 hundreds of stones pummeled a tavern in the small town of Great Island (which is Newcastle today), and the mysterious activity was blamed on a stone-throwing devil.
His lecture is scheduled for 7:30 tonight. It is the second in the Old Town Hall Lecture Series presented by The Institute for Public History at Gordon College.
The Salem News spoke with Baker about his lecture and what happened on Great Island.
When did you write this book?
It came out three years ago. I said, "I'm doing something no one in Salem has ever done before: I'm writing a book about witchcraft, but it's not about Salem." But when you're writing about witchcraft, all roads lead to Salem, so we get there eventually.
Why did you want to write about Great Island, N.H.?
Most people, when they look at Salem, they don't realize it's part of a much, much larger pattern — a great age of witchcraft. It was a phenomenon from the mid-1400s to the 1700s from Europe and across the Americas, and Salem is one isolated example.
Were many other people accused of witchcraft?
There were literally dozens of people accused of witchcraft in New England outside of Salem. You can't really understand what is going on in Salem unless you look at the big picture.
Premise of the book?
It's a case of a tavern in New Hampshire that is supernaturally assaulted by a stone-throwing demon. And it's just 10 years before Salem, so I kind of got caught up in this story.
Similarities or differences with Salem?
First off, we have these stereotypes of witchcraft, based on Salem, of the dour Puritan ministers dressed in black and tormented girls haunted by specters and witches. But in fact, the case I studied takes place in a rowdy and debauched Quaker-owned tavern, and the woman accused is a member of the Church of England; she's Anglican.
How did you research it?
There are a couple of accounts of it. You have the underpinnings of a strange story, but it still doesn't answer the questions: What was going on here? Why did people think it was witchcraft?
What did you learn?
There was huge tension in the community in Great Island because people wanted to break away from the mother town of Portsmouth. (On Sunday), they would spend half a day sailing to and from Portsmouth just to attend community meeting. Then you find out the tavern owner was a very unpopular figure for many, many reasons.
What happened?
He seems to be one of the people who opposed Great Island getting its own town and its own minister. There was a contentious meeting in downtown Portsmouth. ... Mysteriously, two nights later, the stones assault the tavern.
How will you tie this into tonight's lecture?
I want to talk about witchcraft before Salem and how that influenced what happened in Salem. One of the ministers involved in Great Island finds himself in Salem 10 years later getting confessions out of witches. It's kind of fun to see the influence some of these people had; their ideas of witchcraft maybe fed the hysteria in Salem a little.
And you're working on a second book now?
It's on Salem witchcraft. I might even read the first paragraph of my new book (tonight). I've always been interested in Salem witchcraft, even before I came to Salem. Anybody who has been in Salem gets caught by its spell, shall we say.
If you go
What: Lecture by Emerson "Tad" Baker on "The Devil of Great Island"
Where: Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square, Salem
When: Tonight, 7:30
Tickets: $20; $10 for students
More information: www.oldtownhalllectures.com
