This does sound amusing. Further to the historical note, the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, were in 1690s, so that era is generally thought of as the time when witch-hunting was at its peak. The actual witch-finder Cotton Mather was active at this time.
Executions for witchcraft had actually declined a lot in Britain & Europe by this time, but old habits died hard in the colonies. (Plus the Puritans were an intolerant lot.)
An earlier historical novel about persecuted sex in that culture is "The Scarlet Letter," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (descended from the Puritans) in the 1840s, but set in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s. The movie version starring Demi Moore as the Adulteress, Hester Prynne, is actually quite good, IMO, even though it departs from the novel in interesting ways.
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Executions for witchcraft had actually declined a lot in Britain & Europe by this time, but old habits died hard in the colonies. (Plus the Puritans were an intolerant lot.)
An earlier historical novel about persecuted sex in that culture is "The Scarlet Letter," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (descended from the Puritans) in the 1840s, but set in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s.
The movie version starring Demi Moore as the Adulteress, Hester Prynne, is actually quite good, IMO, even though it departs from the novel in interesting ways.