Includes bibliographical references and index.

Section I. Witchcraft in early North America : an introduction -- Beliefs : Europeans -- Beliefs : west and west-central Africans -- Beliefs : Native Americans -- Colonization, witchcraft, and resistance -- New Mexico -- New France -- British North America -- Africans and their descendants in North America -- Outbreaks : putting Salem in context -- Confession -- Possession -- Prophets and witch hunts in the new United States -- Skepticism -- Notes -- Section II. Primary documents -- First impressions -- Fray Benavides sees wizards, sorcerers, and the demon in New Mexico, 1625-1627 -- Making sense of sickness in Huron Country, 1636-1637 : who's a witch? -- The execution of Isaac Jogues, 1646 -- Resistance and the Devil -- Andrš Přez de Ribas explains the origins of Tepehuan Revolt, 1616 -- Witchcraft, sorcery, and the Pueblo Revolt, 1680-1681 -- English witch beliefs cross the Atlantic -- The English Act against Conjuration, 1604 -- The law of the Colony of Connecticut, 1642 -- The case of Goodwife Wright, Virginia, 1626 -- The execution of Mary Lee en route to Maryland, 1654 -- The case of Grace Sherwood, Virginia, 1706 -- Governor Kaine Pardons Grace Sherwood, 2006 -- New worlds -- A case of witchcraft in New Mexico, 1708 -- Willem Bosman explains ritual use of poison in Guinea, 1704 -- South Carolina strengthens laws against poisoning and slave doctors, 1740, 1751 -- Items about poisoning from the South Carolina gazette, 1749, 1769 -- Poison at Monticello, 1800 -- Two cases of possession -- The possession of Elizabeth Knapp, Massachusetts, 1671-1672 -- Possession at Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1763-1764 -- Outbreaks -- The examinations of Tituba and Sarah Good, Salem, March 1, 1692 -- Nathaniel Cary's account of his wife's examination, May 1692 -- The examination of Candy, July 4, 1692 -- The petition of John Proctor, July 23, 1692 -- The examination of Mary Toothaker, July 30, 1692 -- The examinations of Abigail Faulkner, August 1692 -- Thomas Brattle's skepticism, 1692 -- Ann Putnam's confession, 1706 -- The code of Handsome Lake -- The code of the Shawnee prophet, circa 1812 -- The witch hunt at the White River Mission, 1806.