>>> Item number 207, dated 93/10/16 13:07:45 -- ALL
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:07:45 CDT Reply-To: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: cfcrw@ecnuxa.bitnet Subject: witchhunts, causation, and the transformation of american law
> Elizabeth Dale raises the question of the European context within > which thinking about legal issues implicated by witchcraft trials in > America takes place. That reminds me that the classic European > "text" was the Malleus Maleficarum. However, I don't recall its being > cited by mather et al.
now this has gotten me thinking.
gordon wood wrote an article a few years back called "conspiracy and the paranoid style" (WMQ?) in which he argues that colonial americans (and others) had no concept of the possibility that larger societal forces (e.g. the invisible hand) might affect their lives. everything was either caused by an individual or by god, and therefore the witchhunts were a result of finding someone to blame for the problems of salem, mass.
here comes the sticky part.
if wood is correct, then this thesis has implication on the so-called
transformation of american law, 1780-1860. in a society where only
individuals and god can cause things to happen, it makes no sense to use
the law as an instrument of social or economic change. only when it is
accepted that large, invisible forces--such as the law--can affect people's
lives does it make sense for elites to coopt these forces for their own
gain.
--
>>> Item number 209, dated 93/10/16 18:10:04 -- ALL
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 18:10:04 CDT Reply-To: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: cfcrw@ecnuxa.bitnet Subject: colonial law and witchcraft (fwd)
With respect to Bob Pasker's point (or "sticky point"): now this has gotten me thinking.
gordon wood wrote an article a few years back called "conspiracy and the paranoid style" (WMQ?) in which he argues that colonial americans (and others) had no concept of the possibility that larger societal forces (e.g. the invisible hand) might affect their lives. everything was either caused by an individual or by god, and therefore the witchhunts were a result of finding someone to blame for the problems of salem, mass.
here comes the sticky part.
if wood is correct, then this thesis has implication on the so-called transformation of american law, 1780-1860. in a society where only individuals and god can cause things to happen, it makes no sense to use the law as an instrument of social or economic change. only when it is accepted that large, invisible forces--such as the law--can affect people's lives does it make sense for elites to coopt these forces for their own gain.
I think this is not only sticky (for colonial legal history) but important. I would add one caveat -- I am not so sure that these limitations on law's authority existed in the last half of the eighteenth century. Maybe by then, it could function as social control.
Actually, I have always thought that an argument could be made that the witchtrials (the Salem trials, that is) might be seen as a turning point in which law started to become concerned with guilt, resolution of disputes according to established guidelines, evidence, and potentially an agent of social control because it has replaced religion (or God) as the primary authority.
Turning point is perhaps too strong a term, perhaps I mean a moment where crack in the old order began to appear. I am not sure how far I want to push this, either, since this is only a thought I had and it is not something I am working on or have worked on.
But I do think Bob's sticky point is an important one for 17th century legal history, and I also think that a legal treatment of the witchtrials is long overdue.
Elizabeth Dale
U of Chicago
erd1@midway.uchicago.edu
>>> Item number 212, dated 93/10/17 17:44:03 -- ALL
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 17:44:03 CDT Reply-To: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: cfcrw@ecnuxa.bitnet Subject: Re: witchhunts, causation, and the transformation of american law
> --
> -- bob pasker
> -- rbp@brown.edu
> -- brown u, dept. of history
> --
Professor Pasker,
Do you have a cite for the Wood article referenced? Thank you.
>>> Item number 213, dated 93/10/18 07:45:20 -- ALL
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 07:45:20 CDT
Reply-To: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET>
From: cfcrw@ecnuxa.bitnet
Subject: Re: witchhunts, causation,
and the transformation of american law (fwd)
Document type: Article Date: 1982
Descriptors: Political Attitudes. Conspiracy. Modernization.
Author: Wood, Gordon S.
Title: CONSPIRACY AND THE PARANOID STYLE: CAUSALITY AND
DECEIT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Journal citation: William and Mary Q. 1982 39(3): 401-441.
Abstract: Explains the paranoid styles and conspiratorial
beliefs of 18th-century Americans in the context
of the whole Atlantic area. For a century people
feared plots of various kinds. Demographic and
economic change affected society and politics,
widening the gulf between populace and centers of
decisionmaking. The more people became strangers
to each other, the more they suspected authority.
Conspiratorial interpretations accompanied
modernization of society. Conspiratorial thinking
served as a rational way to explain motivation and
to preserve the moral order.
Documentation: Based on contemporary correspondence; 97 notes.
Abstracter: H. M. Ward
Language: English.
Time period: 1700-1800.
Print entry no.: 20A:3901
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