SOURCE: "Rape of a Whole Colony: The 1692 Witch Hunt," in The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 179–222.

In the following excerpt, Godbeer explores the ways in which catastrophes and threats of invasion created widespread fear and xenophobia in pre-1692 New England.

… Until 1675, the northern colonies had enjoyed relative peace, stability, and prosperity. Over the previous fifty years, the English colonists had transformed a patchwork of scattered and vulnerable settlements into a well-organized and seemingly permanent colonial society. The New Englanders lived in peace, albeit an uneasy peace, with the Dutch in New York and the French in Canada. Since 1636, their conflicts with the native Americans had been sporadic and minimally disruptive. The settlers had constructed an efficient and representative political system that gave loyal support to an entrenched but responsive leadership. Religious and civil institutions had succeeded in enforcing at least...