Burning Feathers: A Hint at Hysteria in a Connecticut Witchcraft Case

Abstract : Citation : Online Sources : Other Notes

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Abstract

In Stamford, Connecticut, in 1692, the teenage Katherine Branch was tormented by visions, fainting spells, convulsions, and crying episodes. She claimed that she was bewitched. Many neighbours came to see her during her affliction, offering their own suggestions and interpretations of what was happening. One woman, Mrs Sarah Bates, suggested that Katherine’s affliction resulted from a natural illness, and advised that feathers be burnt under the girl’s nose. This article proposes that Mrs Bates supposed that Katherine was suffering from hysteria, or ‘suffocation of the mother’, a medical diagnosis proposed by English physician Edward Jorden in 1603 specifically to address cases of apparent witchcraft.

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Citation

Pentangelo, Joseph. 2021. Burning feathers: A hint at hysteria in a Connecticut witchcraft case. Folklore 132(1), 59–71.

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Online Sources

Many of the sources that I refer to in this and my other works are publicly available online for free. This section provides links to all such sources. (It’s not the complete reference list for this paper.)

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Other Notes

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