Syllabus
History 4330/5330: Witchcraft & Gender in the Atlantic World
Prof. Susanah Shaw Romney
Office: 604 I Stabler Hall
Office Phone: 501 569 8155
E mail: ssromney@ualr.edu
Subject Matter: This course explores witchcraft accusations in the early modern
era. We will look at witchcraft in Europe, colonial Latin America, and colonial North
America through primary and secondary readings. We will see the way that gender,
sex, and sexuality influenced the thinking about the “crime” of witchcraft – one of
the few crimes during the early modern period for which more women were
accused than men. The course will culminate with independent research projects on
Salem, Massachusetts.
This class focuses on your analytical skills, through the critical reading of primary
and secondary documents and through discussion and writing. Using the concept of
gender as an analytical tool, students will analyze the construction of witchcraft
throughout the Atlantic World.
This course can be used to fulfill the history major’s seminar requirement. If you
intend to have it do so, you must let me know in an e mail. Passing the class is not
enough to fulfill the requirement; you must meet all the requirements for the
research paper and produce a strong final draft by the end of the semester.
Course Materials: (On reserve in the library and available in the campus
bookstore.)
Elizabeth Reis, Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England.
Cornell (1999) ISBN-13: 9780801486111.
Irene Marsha Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches, Princeton University Press (May 1,
1987) ISBN-10: 0691022585 ISBN-13: 9780691022581
Peter Morton, ed.,The Trial of Tempel Anneke: Records of a Witchcraft Trial in
Brunswick, Germany, 1663, Broadview Press, 2005 ISBN: 1551117061 ISBN-13:
9781551117065.
Alison Games. Witchcraft in Early North America. Rowman and Littlefield, 2010. ISBN
9781442203587.
Goals and Objectives:
*Students will develop a solid understanding of the development and role of
gender and witchcraft in the Early Modern period.
*Students will understand historical interpretation and analysis of primary and
secondary sources.
*Students will be able to communicate historical knowledge in written and
oral forms and develop skills in reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing.
*Students will be able to use primary and secondary documents to make
arguments of their own in an independent research paper.
Course Expectations: Attendance is required for this course. This is a very
challenging course that requires advanced reading, writing, and analytical skills.
Every student is expected to do the readings thoroughly and on time. Every student
should come to class prepared for discussion, based on notes and questions they
have written about the readings. Guidance points for the discussions are included
on the syllabus. Participation in discussion will count for 15% of the semester grade.
Students are required to write one 4-6 page paper, due at the start of week five, on a
collection of primary documents (which we will be reading and discussing together)
about a German witchcraft trial.
Students are required to take an in-class essay exam on Latin American witchcraft, as
noted on the syllabus. A study sheet for this exam will be distributed in advance.
Questions to consider ahead of time are included in the syllabus.
Finally, students are required to write a 15 page research paper on some aspect of
gender and the Salem witch trials. Documents can be found both in books on
reserve at the library and online at http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html .
Several preliminary assignments, such as an outline and rough draft, will be
required in advance of the paper, as announced in class. The final draft is due
Monday, Dec. 14, at noon.
Undergraduate Grading:
Participation
Paper #1
Exam
Research Paper
15%
25%
25%
35%
Help: I am available in office hours on a drop-in basis or by appointment. The
University Writing Center, located in the Old Student Union building, provides help
with essay writing for free on a drop-in basis. The Academic Success Center can also
provide help with study skills, advising, and academic coaching.
Course Schedule:
Week One: August 17. Introduction. Documents in class. What is a witch?
August 19. Documents in class. See files on Blackboard: Images of
Witches; Kamensky; Malleus Maleficarum.
Aug. 21. The Context: Women and witchcraft in early modern Europe.
Reading: Games, Witchcraft, “Beliefs: Europeans,” pp. 3-18. How were gender and
witchcraft intertwined in Europe between 1500-1750?
Week Two: Aug. 24. A case study: Elline Klokkers. Reading: Burhenn and Hall, “The
Making of a witch,” on Blackboard. Why was this particular woman singled out for
accusation?
Aug. 26. European witchcraft: the context. Reading: “Francatte
Camont,” on Blackboard. What do these documents show about peasants’ ideas of
witchcraft?
Aug. 28. Seeing a witch trial up close. Reading: Morton, Tempel
Anneke, introduction, to page xlv. What was Anneke’s society like?
Week Three: August 31. Accusation and Interrogation. Reading: Morton, Tempel
Anneke, through p. 23. How did people begin bringing their concerns about Anneke
to the attention of the court?
Sept. 2. Beginning a trial. Reading: Morton, Tempel Anneke, through p.
40. What did people suspect Anneke of doing, and how did she respond?
Sept. 4. A glimpse into early modern society. Reading: Morton, Tempel
Anneke, through p. 81. What can we learn from these documents about how this
woman had supported herself and about her practice of medicine? Also, on
Blackboard, Scully and Nummedal. What “careers” were open to women through
magic/science?
Week Four: (Note: Labor day, so no class Monday.)
Sept. 9. Torture and the law. Reading: Morton, Tempel Anneke, through
p. 123. What does Anneke confess to once she has been tortured? Why do you think
she said the exact things that she did? Also: Carolina laws; Foucault Discipline; (on
Blackboard).
Sept. 11. Legal proceedings and gender. Reading: Morton, Tempel
Anneke, through end. If we start with the assumption that Anneke was innocent,
where and how did the legal process go wrong?
Week Five: Sept. 14. Due today: Paper One. On Tempel Anneke and European
witchcraft. What does gender have to do with it?
Sept. 16. Beginning of section two: Cultures Clash in the Americas. No
reading.
Sept. 18. Witchcraft moves into empire. Reading: Games, Witchcraft,
from Section One, pp. 18-38.
Week Six: Sept. 21. Reading: Games, Witchcraft, Documents One (pp. 109-111),
Docs. Four and Five (pp. 120-126). Doc. 12 (pp. 143-152), Doc. 18 (pp. 166-175). How
did European ideas about witchcraft express themselves differently in the diverse
colonial environment of New Mexico? Also, on Blackboard: Mexican Inquisition
Documents: How were men and women treated by the Inquisition when accused of
sorcery?
Sept. 23. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 1. What
are the oldest relationships of gender and power that Silverblatt investigates?
Sept. 25. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 3. What
is the Andean idea of gender parallelism?
Week Seven: Sept. 28. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 5. How
do gender and power relationships begin to change in early modern Peru with the
Spanish conquest?
Sept. 30. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 6. How
do elite women try to adapt to the changing social and economic order?
Oct. 2. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 7. How do
indigenous women begin to use witchcraft as a form of resistance, according to
Silverblatt?
Week Eight: Oct. 5. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 8. How
do political and economic changes affect women's status?
Oct. 7. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through Ch. 9. How
effective is sorcery as a political weapon? A cultural weapon?
Oct. 9. Reading: Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, Witches, through end. Why are
indigenous women accused of witchcraft in colonial Peru, and what does witchcraft
mean in colonial Peru?
Week Nine: Oct. 12. No class! Fall Break.
Oct. 14. Reading: Games, Witchcraft, “Africans and their Descendants
in North America”, pp. 48-55; and Documents Thirteen through Fifteen, pp. 152-158.
Oct. 16. Reading: James Sweet, “Not a Thing for White Men to See:
Central African Divination in Seventeenth-Century Brazil,” available on Blackboard.
How do African ideas of magic influence the construction of witchcraft in early
modern Brazil?
Week Ten: Oct. 19. Blue-book exam today. On witchcraft and early modern
colonization. What is the relationship among gender, power, and race in witchcraft
beliefs and accusations in a diverse colonial setting? How had witchcraft ideas
evolved from European roots?
Oct. 21. Beginning of unit 3: English America. Reading: Games,
Witchcraft, pp. 39-48, pp. 55-70.
Oct. 23. Puritans and Witches. Reading: Games, Witchcraft, Documents
Six through Nine, pp. 127-137, and Document 17, pp. 160-166. What is the role of
gender in the earliest documents on witchcraft from English America? What is the
idea of “possession” as it develops in New England?
Week Eleven: Oct. 26. Putting Salem in context. Reading: Reis, Damned Women,
through Ch.1. What ideas of gender seem distinctive in Puritan New England?
Oct. 28. A Godly society. Reading: Reis, Damned Women, through
Ch.2. Did intellectuals and common people share the same ideas about witches?
Oct. 30. Reading: Reis, Damned Women, through Ch.4. How did ideas
about women's bodies and women's words influence witchcraft accusations?
Week Twelve: Nov. 2. Reading: Reis, Damned Women, through end. Who gets
accused and who accuses in New England, and why? Are these patterns similar to or
different from those we learned about in Europe?
Nov. 4. Discussion, Reis, Damned Women. What are the two key
phenomena that she says influenced the outbreak? What role does gender play, in
her depiction?
Nov. 6. No Class! Reading: Primary documents about Salem.
Week Thirteen: Nov. 9. Investigating the Salem documents firsthand. Reading:
Games, Witchcraft, Documents Nineteen through Twenty-Two, pp. 176-186.
Nov. 11. Possessed girls: believable? Reading: Games, Witchcraft,
Document Seventeen, pp. 160-166. Sarah Good documents, available on Blackboard.
Nov. 13. Individuals at Salem. Reading: Games, Witchcraft, Documents
Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four, pp. 186-190.
Week Fourteen: Nov. 16. Researching your paper; historiography of Salem.
Reading: Latner on Boyer and Nissenbaum; Rivett (available on Blackboard).
Nov. 18. Researching your paper. Reading: online or on reserve. Be
prepared from notes or print-outs to discuss a particular document that you found.
Nov. 20. Researching your paper. Reading: online or on reserve. Be
prepared from notes or print-outs to discuss a particular document that you found.
Week Fifteen: Nov. 23: Researching your paper. Reading: find a scholarly article on
witchcraft in an academic journal by using MUSE or JSTOR through the Ottenheimer
web site, and be prepared to tell your classmates what its argument is.
Nov. 25: No class! Go eat Turkey!
Week Sixteen: Nov. 30. Discussing your paper. Be prepared to share your ideas of a
thesis and outline/rough draft with the class.
Dec. 2. Discussing your paper. Be prepared to share your ideas of a
thesis and outline/rough draft with the class.
Dec. 4. Complete rough draft of paper due by e mail to
ssromney@ualr.edu. Be prepared to share your ideas of a thesis and outline/rough
draft with the class.
Week Seventeen: (Last day of class.) Dec. 7. Ending Salem. Reading: Games,
Witchcraft, pp. 83-91 and Docs. Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six, pp. 190-195. Also, on
Backboard, 1736 statute.
Final draft of research paper due by e mail to ssromney@ualr.edu on Monday,
December 14 at noon.
Disability Statement: If you are going to need accommodation on the exams, you
need to make arrangements before the exam date listed on the syllabus. I
recommend contacting the Disability Resource Center as soon as possible to get a
letter of accommodation if you feel the exams may pose a barrier for you.
“Your success in this class is important to me, and it is the policy and practice of the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock to create inclusive learning environments consistent with federal and state
law. If you have a documented disability (or need to have a disability documented), and need an
accommodation, please contact me privately as soon as possible, so that we can discuss with the
Disability Resource Center (DRC) how to meet your specific needs and the requirements of the
course. The DRC offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with
disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process among you,
your instructor(s) and the DRC. Thus, if you have a disability, please contact me and/or the DRC, at
501-569-3143 (V/TTY) or 501-683-7629 (VP). For more information, please visit the DRC website at
www.ualr.edu/disability.”
Departmental Goals and Objectives:
1.
Students will demonstrate a knowledge of historical information such as names, dates and
chronologies, events, terms, and concepts.
2.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the diversity and complexity of the historical
context that shapes human experience.
3.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the inter-relatedness of historical events as
expressed in such concepts as continuity and change, causation, interdependence of cultures, and
the interaction between differing groups and societies.
4.
Students will organize and articulate their ideas through an essay that presents a thesis
relevant to the question.
5.
Students will support their ideas with historical evidence and will reach conclusions based on
that evidence.
Cheating/Plagiarism:
Cheating in any way can result in severe penalties, including failing the course. Plagiarism is a form
of cheating and can result in severe penalties, including failing the course and disciplinary action.
Any time you use a primary document, whether you got it online or from a book, you need to cite your
source. Any time you rely on the words, ideas, or data of another historian, you must give them credit.