Puritan cole
The Diversity Paradox
2024.03.21 04:35 RogueFiveSeven The Diversity Paradox
With the passing of manga legend Akira Toriyama and subsequent delving into nostalgic media, I came to learn that much of my childhood has been shaped by the beautiful different cultures around the world that had a positive impact on my life. Aladdin introduced me to the magic of Arab and Indian aesthetics and folklore such as genies and Djinns. The George Lopez show and Fresh Prince gave me glimpses of Hispanic and black culture and comedy. Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece from Japanese manga artists set me off on a grand adventure with Dragon Ball Z inspiring me to work out and be the best I can be physically and mentally. Native American and Celtic music helped me feel connection with nature. Hey Arnold, Rocket Power, Jackie Chan Adventures, Static Shock, etc. I could go on and on.. Dragon Ball had an awesome positive portrayal of two Native American men. Teen Titans gave me Cyborg who was my mom's favorite character. Hell, even some flamboyant characters who were obviously gay were even amusing sometimes, even if a little creepy. They added some personality, I just didn't want to see the actual romantic stuff from them. In old video games such as Gears of War, there was a part where the squad consisted of a white guy (Marcus), Asian lieutenant who was in charge (Kim), black guy that everyone loved (Cole Train), and the most tragic character at the time (Dom Santiago). Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Lora Craft gave us strong female characters. Mind you, this was still when gaming's majority demographic was straight white men yet they loved these characters regardless. Nobody cared how diverse and "representative" these characters were. What mattered was the badassery they exhumed with the diversity being a second thought.
So the part I am confused about is why now are we being told that games aren't representative enough? Why is it preached constantly that gamers and the entertainment industry is racist and sexist? Why are people being gaslit to believe they can't enjoy a game like Kingdom Come Deliverance or a piece of media like the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which were very much successful without diversity) because their physical identities aren't at the forefront? Why is "diversity and inclusion" being so worshipped to the point that we have to lie about reality? Why all the commotion now out of all times possible? Why is there hostility?
As I grew older, the thing I came to learn was that the diversity I experienced when I was younger had more positive impact on me because I grew up in a more culturally homogenous society. The world felt bigger because of it as other parts of the world felt foreign and unknown. This is where I discovered the "Diversity Paradox", that diversity exists in the world only because we didn't mix. Cultures can only originate when there is ample space and distance for them to develop naturally. When diversity becomes ingrained locally at a mass scale, cultures and identities eventually merge together which eliminates diversity and they become more generic. To pattern this after Syndrome "When everyone is diverse, nobody will be". This in my opinion causes people to resort to tribalism and self segregation in order to protect their differences, which doesn't bode well at all in society since no human civilization can flourish in a divided and uncooperative state (hence why ancient civilizations promoted homogeneity and assimilation above all). You have people demonizing the other group in order to bid for power and influence which creates a cycle of unjust hatred.
Diversity in media worked back then because it was done out of respect and there was nobody pressuring for it. There was no Sweet Baby Inc. pulling the strings. There was no ESG rating to socially pressure companies to implement needless representation. There was no personal agenda or bias involved in shoehorning a self insert. I would argue gaming going mainstream has introduced this plague of self obsession and people believing games need to "represent humanity" but the problem of modern diversity is that it isn't diverse. Everybody is just brown and thinks the same. How is that diverse? Where are all the Asians, blonde men (we need love too right?), women who don't view themselves as feminist, or black people who don't associate with "black culture"? The irony here is that this diversity movement invokes a lot of stereotypes, categorization, and divisive ideas. Like even the term colored pe- whoops, I mean "people of color" (almost forgot to switch the word order there, phew), was meant to unite everybody against the "evil white colonizers" when the reality is that many do not want to harbor the grudges and sins of their ancestors. They are being gaslit and manipulated to hold these views. There also is the problem of lying to people that you need "diversity" to be successful. Huh? A black guy couldn't enjoy Kingdom Come Deliverance or the Lord of the Rings movie, the latter of which has stood the test of time and won several awards? Did Japanese media need more non Asian for whites to enjoy their work? Did Halo have a "no gay players allowed" on the front cover? None of this is true. You do not need to have a cast handpicked out of a generic busy Manhattan street in order to be successful. If somebody can't enjoy a game or show because "they aren't represented" then they are the problem, not the media. People want good stories that set them into a believable world. Having everything be artificially diverse and customs of our world thrown in breaks the immersion because we know subconsciously how fake, unnatural, and regressive it is. It is okay to have a non diverse village people. It's okay to have attractive women. It's okay you have "insensitive" characters because humans can be insensitive, it's a part of life and the human condition.
And that is the sin of this "diversity" movement. Why does it not work? Because it isn't done to show the beauty of diversity nor to respect the variances we have in our world, it is being done to encourage hatred, tribalism, shelterment, self worship, and lies. Let's be honest, out of all my interactions with people, none have been more insufferable, hypocritical, mean, self righteous, and egotistical than these "woke" puritans and I am sure there are those who experienced the same. This current movement's sole purpose is to stroke the egos of the ones who profess it.
I don't know how many people here are religious but this reminds me of a scripture written by St. Paul that goes along the lines of "[...] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Timothy 3:5). Rephrased, "having a form of goodness, but denying goodness thereof". "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me." These "woke" people, like the Pharisees and Sadducees long ago, want to portray themselves as loving, caring, kind, and good and their actions are deceivingly convincing but close examination reveals they are anything but that. They're deceivers who beguile others to believe in absurdities; and if they can make you believe in absurdities, they can make you commit atrocities.
And that's my rant.
submitted by RogueFiveSeven to KotakuInAction [link] [comments]
So the part I am confused about is why now are we being told that games aren't representative enough? Why is it preached constantly that gamers and the entertainment industry is racist and sexist? Why are people being gaslit to believe they can't enjoy a game like Kingdom Come Deliverance or a piece of media like the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which were very much successful without diversity) because their physical identities aren't at the forefront? Why is "diversity and inclusion" being so worshipped to the point that we have to lie about reality? Why all the commotion now out of all times possible? Why is there hostility?
As I grew older, the thing I came to learn was that the diversity I experienced when I was younger had more positive impact on me because I grew up in a more culturally homogenous society. The world felt bigger because of it as other parts of the world felt foreign and unknown. This is where I discovered the "Diversity Paradox", that diversity exists in the world only because we didn't mix. Cultures can only originate when there is ample space and distance for them to develop naturally. When diversity becomes ingrained locally at a mass scale, cultures and identities eventually merge together which eliminates diversity and they become more generic. To pattern this after Syndrome "When everyone is diverse, nobody will be". This in my opinion causes people to resort to tribalism and self segregation in order to protect their differences, which doesn't bode well at all in society since no human civilization can flourish in a divided and uncooperative state (hence why ancient civilizations promoted homogeneity and assimilation above all). You have people demonizing the other group in order to bid for power and influence which creates a cycle of unjust hatred.
Diversity in media worked back then because it was done out of respect and there was nobody pressuring for it. There was no Sweet Baby Inc. pulling the strings. There was no ESG rating to socially pressure companies to implement needless representation. There was no personal agenda or bias involved in shoehorning a self insert. I would argue gaming going mainstream has introduced this plague of self obsession and people believing games need to "represent humanity" but the problem of modern diversity is that it isn't diverse. Everybody is just brown and thinks the same. How is that diverse? Where are all the Asians, blonde men (we need love too right?), women who don't view themselves as feminist, or black people who don't associate with "black culture"? The irony here is that this diversity movement invokes a lot of stereotypes, categorization, and divisive ideas. Like even the term colored pe- whoops, I mean "people of color" (almost forgot to switch the word order there, phew), was meant to unite everybody against the "evil white colonizers" when the reality is that many do not want to harbor the grudges and sins of their ancestors. They are being gaslit and manipulated to hold these views. There also is the problem of lying to people that you need "diversity" to be successful. Huh? A black guy couldn't enjoy Kingdom Come Deliverance or the Lord of the Rings movie, the latter of which has stood the test of time and won several awards? Did Japanese media need more non Asian for whites to enjoy their work? Did Halo have a "no gay players allowed" on the front cover? None of this is true. You do not need to have a cast handpicked out of a generic busy Manhattan street in order to be successful. If somebody can't enjoy a game or show because "they aren't represented" then they are the problem, not the media. People want good stories that set them into a believable world. Having everything be artificially diverse and customs of our world thrown in breaks the immersion because we know subconsciously how fake, unnatural, and regressive it is. It is okay to have a non diverse village people. It's okay to have attractive women. It's okay you have "insensitive" characters because humans can be insensitive, it's a part of life and the human condition.
And that is the sin of this "diversity" movement. Why does it not work? Because it isn't done to show the beauty of diversity nor to respect the variances we have in our world, it is being done to encourage hatred, tribalism, shelterment, self worship, and lies. Let's be honest, out of all my interactions with people, none have been more insufferable, hypocritical, mean, self righteous, and egotistical than these "woke" puritans and I am sure there are those who experienced the same. This current movement's sole purpose is to stroke the egos of the ones who profess it.
I don't know how many people here are religious but this reminds me of a scripture written by St. Paul that goes along the lines of "[...] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Timothy 3:5). Rephrased, "having a form of goodness, but denying goodness thereof". "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me." These "woke" people, like the Pharisees and Sadducees long ago, want to portray themselves as loving, caring, kind, and good and their actions are deceivingly convincing but close examination reveals they are anything but that. They're deceivers who beguile others to believe in absurdities; and if they can make you believe in absurdities, they can make you commit atrocities.
And that's my rant.
2024.01.16 17:29 Boooooooooo9 Help required for an index of historical romance books involving a main character with physical disability
It’s one of our goals, in HistoricalRomance, to help people find books they will love, including diverse book. That’s why we’re currently working on a community resource showcasing diversity! As a part of this project, I searched all the historical romance books that feature a main character with disability.
Taking this into account, it’s not always easy to know what’s really in a book without having to read it. That’s why I make this post, asking for everyone in this community to help me. I have made a list of historical romance involving a main character who has a PHYSICAL DISABILITY. This is important because the word disability can include a lot of things, but as of now, this list and the help I need from you is only about physical disability (the disability doesn’t need to be visible, but it needs to be classified as a physical disability). Even if scars can be dishabilitating, they’re not included in this list either. This list also won’t include things like selective mutism since it’s not caused by anything physical, but this will be included in the final result.
What is exactly the help I’m looking for? Well, if I made any mistakes in this list, let me know. Any precision about the disability featured in a book listed is welcome. Any CW important to mention is welcomed as well. If the character is no longer disabled by the end of the book, it’s also something important to mention. And lastly, if you know a book that would fit in this list but it’s not mentioned, let me know the title, the author, the character who is disable and what exactly is the disability of this character.
I know this is a lot, but I want to offer to this sub the most accurate and helpful list possible. Thank you very much for your help!
PS: while I’m trying to not use any inappropriate terminology, it’s possible that I made some mistakes, if that’s the case, please let me know so that I can edit my post!
The list is ranked by alphabetical order of the author’s name:
- Alexa Aston, Devoted to the duke (FMC has a limp)
- Alexandra Hawkins, Till dawn with the devil (FMC has partial blindness)
- Alexis Hall, A lady for a duke (MMC uses a cane)
- Alice Coldbreath, Her bridegroom, bought and paid for (MMC is blind from one eye)
- Alissa Johnson, McAlistair’s forturne (FMC has a limp)
- Alysson Jeleyne, The solemn Bell (FMC is blind)
- Amanda Quick, Deception (MMC has one eye missing)
- Amanda Quick, Reckless (FMC has a limp)
- Amanda Quick, Surrender (MMC has a limp)
- Amanda Quick, The girl who knew too much (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Amelia Grey, Wedding night with the earl (FMC has a limp)
- Ann Barker, A gift for a rake (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Anna Harrington, How the duke saved Christmas (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Anne Gracie, Gallant Waif (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Anne Gracie, The summer bride (FMC has a limp)
- Arlem Hawks, The steadfast heart (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Audrey Harrison, The captain’s wallflower (MMC is blind)
- Barbara Devlin, The accidental duke (MMC has a missing arm)
- Barbara Hazard, The guarded heart (MMC has a limp)
- Barbara Metger, A loyal companion (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Beth Williamson, Lee (MMC has a missing arm)
- Bonnie Dee, The hearing heart (MMC is deaf)
- Brenda Joyce, After innocence (FMC has a limp)
- Brenda Joyce, The conqueror (FMC has amblyopia)
- Brenda Joyce, The perfect bride (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Brooke Stanton, Serena’s silence (FMC is mute)
- Callie Hutton, A prescription for love (FMC has asthma)
- Candice Hern, Fate strikes a bargain (FMC has a limp)
- Carla Kelly, Reforming lord Ragsdale (MMC has a blind eye)
- Carla Kelly, Summer campaign (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Carla Kelly, The admiral’s penniless bride (MMC has a hook instead of a hand)
- Carla Kelly, The wedding ring quest (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Caroline Linden, It takes a scandal (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Carrie Lofty, What a scoundrel wants (FMC is blind)
- Cassandra Austin, Wait for the sunrise (MMC is blind)
- Cat Sebastian, The queer principles of Kitt Webb (One of the MMC has a leg impairment)
- Cat Sebastian, The soldier’s scoundrel (One of the MMC has a leg impairment)
- Catherine Anderson, Annie’s song (FMC is deaf)
- Catherine Anderson, Velvet touch (FMC has a limp)
- Catherine Coulter, Moonspun magic (FMC has a limp)
- Celeste Bradley, The charmer (MMC has an impaired arm)
- Celeste de Blasis, The tiger’s woman (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Charlotte Featherstone, Temptation and twilight (FMC is blind)
- Cheryl St. John, Sweet Annie (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Christi Caldwell, A season of hope (MMC has a missing eye)
- Christi Caldwell, Seduced by a lady’s heart (MMC has a missing arm)
- Christi Caldwell, To redeem a rake (FMC has a limp)
- Christina Britton, A duke worth fighting for (MMC has a limp)
- Christina Dodd, Candle in the window (FMC and MMC are both blind)
- Christine Merill, Lady Folbroke’s delicious deception (MMC is blind)
- Christine Sterling, The farmer’s bride (MMC has a prostetic leg)
- Claire Devon, The blind duke’s ward (MMC is blind)
- Claudia Stone, Proposing to a duke (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Colette Cameron, Bride of falcon (FMC has a limp and MMC has missing fingers)
- Danelle Harmon, Taken by storm (MMC has a limp)
- Danelle Harmon, The beloved one (MMC is blind)
- Dawn Mactavish, Prisoner of the flames (FMC is blind)
- Deana James, Seek only passion (MMC has a blind eye)
- Deborah Simmons, The companion (MMC suffers from a limp)
- Delilah Marvelle, The perfect scandal (FMC has a missing leg)
- Diana Palmer, Midnight rider (FMC has asthma)
- Diane Gatson, A lady of notoriety (MMC is blind)
- Dinah Dean, The cockermouth mail (MMC has a knee injury)
- Donna Fletcher, Highlander unchained (FMC is mute)
- Donna Lea Simpson, The guilded knight (MMC has a limp)
- Edna Maye Manley, Agatha (FMC has a limp)
- Edie Harris, The corrupt comte (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Eilen Dryer, Never a gentleman (FMC has a limp)
- Eilen Putman, The dastardly duke (FMC is deaf)
- Elisa Braden, Ever yours, Annabelle (MMC uses a cane)
- Elisa Braden, The taming of a highlander (MMC has a missing eye)
- Elisabeth Fairchild, The silent suitor (FMC is blind)
- Elisabeth Hobbes, The saxon outlaw’s revenge (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Eliza Knight, The highlander’s gift (MMC has a missing arm)
- Elizabeth Cole, A winter’s knight (MMC has a missing leg)
- Elizabeth Everett, A perfect equation (MMC has seizure as a child)
- Elizabeth Hoyt, Dearest rogue (FMC is blind and MMC uses a cane)
- Elizabeth Mansfield, The phantom lover (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Elizabeth Rolls, The unexpected bride (FMC is blind)
- Ellen O’Connel, Without words (FMC is mute)
- Eloisa James, How the beauty tamed the beast (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Eloisa James, Fool for love (FMC has a limp)
- Eloisa James With this kiss (MMC become blind)
- Emily Bascon, Major Westhaven’s unwilling ward (MMC has a missing leg)
- Emily Larkin, The baronet’s bride (MMC has a missing arm)
- Emily Larkin, The spinster’s secret (MMC has missing fingers)
- Emma Jensen, Entwined (MMC is blind)
- Emma Linfield, His blind duchess (FMC is blind)
- Emma V. Leech, To tame a savage heart (one of the MMC has a missing leg)
- Emma V. Leech, Truly, madly, daring (MMC is blind)
- Erica Ridley, My rogue to ruin (FMC is partially deaf)
- Erica Ridley, The major’s faux fiancée (MMC has a missing leg)
- Erica Ridley, Never say duke (MMC has a limp)
- Erin Knightley, The baron next door (MMC has headaches due to spinal injury)
- Eva Devon, My wild duke (FMC has a limp)
- Eve Silver, Dark prince (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Felicity Niven, When ardor Blooms (MMC has a limp)
- Gabrielle Car, Designing his duchess (FMC has an earing impairment)
- Gayle Callen, Surrender to the earl (FMC is blind)
- Gayle Callen, The viscount in her bedroom (MMC is blind)
- Gayle Wilson, Bride by engagement (MMC is blind)
- Gayle Wilson, His secret duchess (MMC has a limp)
- Gayle Wilson, Lady Sarah’s son (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Gayle Wilson, The gambler’s heart (MMC has a blind eye)
- Gayle Wilson, The heart’s desire (MMC has a limp)
- Georgette Heyer, An infamous army (MMC has a missing arm)
- Georgette Heyer, The convenient marriage (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Geralyn Dawson, The wedding ramson (FMC has rheumathism)
- Grace Burrowes, How to catch a duke (MMC uses a cane)
- Grace Burrowes, Morgan and Archer (FMC is partially deaf)
- Grace Burrowes, The virtuoso (MMC…)
- Grace Burrowes, The MacGregor’s lady (FMC has a limp)
- Gwyneth Atkee, Innocent Deceptions (MMC has a prostetic leg)
- Hannah Howell, Highland savage (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Heather Blanton, To love and to honor (MMC has a missing leg)
- Heather Boyd, Broke, (FMC has chronic pain)
- Heather Cullman, Bewitched (MMC has seizure)
- Heidi Cullinan, A private gentleman (One of the MMC has a speech impediment)
- Holly Bush, Reconstructing Jackson (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Isabelle Bradford, A wicked pursuit (MMC has a leg impairment)
- J’nell Ciesielski, Beauty among ruins (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Jane Feather, Valentine (MMC has chronic headaches)
- Janette Oke, Love finds a home (MMC has a missing arm)
- Janice Graham, The tailor’s daughter (FMC is deaf)
- Janna McGregor, Rules for engaging the earl (MMC has a limp)
- Jeanne Savery, Taming Lord Renwick (MMC is almost blind)
- Jeanne Savery, The Christmas gift (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Jennifer Horsman, With one look (FMC is blind)
- Jennifer Monroe, Whisper of light (MMC has a limp)
- Jenny Holiday, The miss Mirren mission (MMC has a missing hand)
- Jess Michaels, The silent duke (MMC is mute)
- Jessica Coutler Smith, To kiss a lord (FMC has a limp)
- Jill Barnett, Just a kiss away (MMC has a missing eye)
- Jill Barnett, Wild (MMC is becoming mute)
- Jill Marie Landis, Blue moon (MMC has a missing eye)
- Jillian Hart, Homespun bride (FMC is blind)
- Jo Beverly, Hazard (FMC has a limp)
- Jo Goodman, More than you know (FMC is blind)
- Jo Goodman, My heart’s desire (MMC has an arm impairment)
- Joan Johnston, After the kiss (MMC has an impaired hand)
- Joan Wolf, The edge of light (MMC has chronic headaches)
- Joanna Bourne, The spymaster’s lady (FMC is blind)
- Joanna Chambers, The first snow of winter (MMC has a missing leg)
- Joanna Lowell, Dark season (FMC has epilepsy)
- Joanna Shupe, A notorious vow (MMC is deaf)
- Joanna Waugh, Blind fortune (FMC is blind)
- John C. Houser, The door behind us (One of the MMC has a missing leg)
- Josi C. Kilpack, Love and lavender (FMC has a limp)
- Judith A. Landsowne, A devilish dilemma (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Judith Ivory, Beast (MMC has a blind eye and a limp)
- Judith Ivory, Untie my heart (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Julie Garwood, Castles (MMC has a limp)
- Julia Justiss, A most unconventional match (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Julia Justiss, The rake to reveal her (MMC has a missing arm)
- Julia Latham, Taken and seduced (FMC has a limp)
- Julia London, A princess by Christmas (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Julia London, The dangerous gentleman (MMC is blind)
- Julia Quinn, First comes scandal (FMC has asthma)
- Julia Quinn, The duke and I (MMC has a speech impairment)
- Julia Quinn, The sum of all kisses (MMC has a limp)
- Julia Quinn, Dancing at midnight (MMC has a limp)
- Julianna Gray, How to tame your duke (MMC has a missing arm)
- Julie Klassen, The silent governess (FMC is mute)
- Julie Moffett, The thorn and the thistle (MMC has an impaired hand)
- K.A. Mitchell, An improper holliday (One of the MMC has a missing arm)
- K.J. Charles, An unsuitable heir (MMC has a missing arm)
- K.J. Charles, Think of England (One of the MMC has a impaired arm)
- Karen Hawkins, How to entice an enchantress (MMC has a limp)
- Karen Hawkins, The seduction of Sara (MMC has chronic headaches)
- Karen Ranney, Tapestry (MMC has a blind eye)
- Karen Ranney, The lass wore black (FMC has a movement impairment)
- Karen Robards, Scandalous (FMC has a limp)
- Karen Witemeyer, To win her heart (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Karyn Monk, Once a warrior (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Kat Martin, Night secrets (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Kate Bateman, The princess and the rogue (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Kate Noble, The summer of you (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Kate Pearce, loving Michael (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Katherine Hale, The curse of the Redmonts (FMC has a limp)
- Kathleen Baldwin, Mistaken kiss (FMC is nearly blind)
- Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, A rose in winter (MMC has a limp)
- Kerrygan Byrne, The duke with the dragon tattoo (FMC has a limp)
- Kerrygan Byrne, The highwayman (MMC has a blind eye)
- Keta Diablo, Land of falling stars (FMC is blind)
- Kimberly Bell, A scandal by any other name (FMC has spina bifida)
- Kit Morgan, The healing touch (MMC is blind)
- Kris Tualla, The discreet gentleman serie (MMC is deaf)
- Lacy Williams, A cowboy for Christmas (FMC has a missing arm)
- Laura Kinsale, Flowers from the storm (MMC has medical condition after a stroke)
- Laura Kinsale, The prince of midnight (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Laura Landon, Cast in the shadows (MMC has seizures)
- Laura Landon, Shattered dreams (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Laura Landon, Silent revenge (FMC is mute)
- Laura Lee Gurke, His every kiss (MMC has tinnitus)
- Laura Renken, Heart of the Condor (FMC is blind)
- Lauren Smith, Her wicked proposal (MMC is blind)
- Laurie Grant, Love’s own crown (FMC is blind)
- Laurie Grant, Lawman (MMC has a blind eye)
- Laurie Grant, Maggie and the Maverick (MMC has a missing eye)
- LaVryle Spencer, The gamble (FMC has a hip disability)
- Lecia Cornwall, Beauty and the Highland beast (FMC has a limp)
- Lecia Cornwall, What a lady most desires (MMC is blind)
- Leigh Greenwood, Violet (MMC has a missing arm)
- Lenora Bell, Love is a rogue (FMC has palsy)
- Lily George, Captain of her heart (MMC has a missing leg)
- Lily Maxton, Enchanting the earl (MMC has a missing leg)
- Lindsay McKenna, Lord of Shadowhack (FMC is blind and MMC has a limp)
- Lisa Kleypas, Again the magic (FMC has a limp)
- Lisa Kleypas, Devil in spring (FMC has a deaf hear)
- Lisa Kleypas, Devil in winter (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Lisa Kleypas, Midnight angel (MMC has a missing hand)
- Loretta Chase, Miss Wonderful (MMC has a limp)
- Lorraine Heath, She tempts the duke (MMC has a missing eye)
- Lorraine Heath, Surrender to the devil (MMC is losing his eyesight)
- Lorraine Heath, The lady and the outlaw (FMC is blind)
- Lucinda Brant, Dair devil (FMC uses a cane)
- Lucy Ashford, The major and the pickpocket (MMC has a limp)
- Lyn Stone, The highland wife (MMC his deaf)
- Lynn Kurland, This is all I ask (MMC is blind)
- Maddison Michaels, The bachelor bargain (FMC uses a cane and a wheelchair)
- Madeline Martin, Mesmerizing the Marquis (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Maggie Robinson, Redeeming lord Ryder (FMC is mute)
- Manda Collins, How to romance a rake (FMC has a limp)
- Margo Maguire, Brash (FMC has a limp)
- Margo Maguire, The bride hunt (MMC has a missing eye)
- Marie Higgins, Love comes blindly (MMC is blind)
- Marjorie Farell, Miss Ware’s refusal (MMC is blind)
- Martha Waters, To woo and to wed (MMC uses a cane)
- Mary Balogh, Always remember (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Mary Balogh, Dancing with Clara (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Mary Balogh, Lord Carew’s bride (MMC has a limp and an hand impairment)
- Mary Balogh, Only enchanting (MMC has a brain injury that caused him to forget things, to have a speech impediment, etc.)
- Mary Balogh, Red rose (FMC has a limp)
- Mary Balogh, Silent melody (FMC is deaf)
- Mary Balogh, Simply love (MMC has a missing eye and a missin arm)
- Mary Balogh, The arrangement (MMC is blind)
- Mary Balogh, The escape (MMC almost has missing legs)
- Mary Balogh, The proposal (FMC has a limp)
- Mary Balogh, The suitor (MMC is blind)
- Mary Jo Putney, Silk and shadows (FMC has a limp)
- Mary Jo Putney, Veils of silk (MMC has a missing eye)
- Mary Spencer, The vow (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Maya Banks, Never seduce a Scot (FMC is deaf)
- Melody Thomas, The perfect kiss (MMC has a limp)
- Merry Farmer, His perfect bride (MMC has legs impairment)
- Merry Farmer, The Scandal of a perfect kiss (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Merry Farmer, Under his lover’s wing (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Michele Sinclair, The Christmas knight (MMC has a missing eye)
- Michelle Willingham, A match made in London (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Michelle Willingham, Good earls don’t lie (FMC has difficulties walking after a medical condition)
- Michelle Willingham, Tempted by the Highlander warrior (MMC is mute)
- Michelle Willingham, The warrior’s forbidden virgin (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Michelle Willingham, The warrior’s touch (MMC has hand impairment)
- Mimi Matthew, Appointment in Bath (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Mimi Matthew, The lost letter (MMC has a blind eye)
- Mimi Matthew, The winter companion (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Mimi Matthew, The work of art (MMC uses a cane)
- Minerva Spencer, Selina (MMC is blind)
- Miranda Davis, The duke’s tattoo (MMC had a leg impairment)
- Miriam Minger, Wild roses (FMC has a limp)
- Monya Clayton, The pirate and the puritan (FMC is mute)
- Nadine Miller, An unlikely angel (MMC has a limp)
- Nancy Butler, The prodigal hero (MMC has a missing hand)
- Nancy Butler, Prospero’s daughter (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Norma Lee Clark, Lady Jane (MMC has health issue that stopped him from growing and other things)
- Paige Cameron, The duke’s blind temptation (MMC is blind)
- Patricia Grasso, Tempting the prince (MMC is blind)
- Patricia Ryan, Silken threads (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Patricia Verian, Never doubt I love (MMC has a prostetic leg)
- Patricia Verian, The Mandarin of Mayfair (FMC has a limp)
- Paty Jager, Doctor in petticoats (MMC is blind)
- Renee Bernard, Blind Aphrodite (FMC is blind)
- Renee Bernard, Passion wears pearls (MMC is losing his eyesight)
- Robin Lee Hatcher, Chances are (MMC has a blind eye)
- Robyn DeHart, The secret of Mia Danvers (FMC is blind)
- Rosalyn Alsobrook, Wild western bride (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Rosalyn West, A man’s touch (MMC is blind)
- Rose Gordon, The perfect lady Worthe (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Rose Lerner, Sweet disorder (MMC uses a cane)
- Ruby Moone, The heat of the moment (one of the MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Ruth Ann Nordin, Loving Eliza (MMC is mute)
- Ruth Ann Nordin, The reclusive earl (MMC has a lisp)
- S.M. LaViolette, The footman (FMC has a limp)
- Sabrina Jeffries, A notorious love (FMC has a limp)
- Sabrina York, Hannah and the Highlander (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Sally Vixen, The blind duchess and her rakish duke (FMC is blind)
- Samantha Garver, One night to be sinful (FMC has a limp)
- Samantha James, Every wish fulfilled (FMC has a limp)
- Samantha Kane, Defeated by love (one of the MMC has a missing eye)
- Sarah Brophy, Midnight eyes (FMC is blind)
- Sasha Lord, Across a wild sea (FMC is blind)
- Shana Galen, Sweet rogue of mine (MMC is blind)
- Sharon Cullen, Sutherland’s secret (FMC is mute)
- Sharon Page, Engage in sin (MMC is blind)
- Sheri Humphrey, A hero to hold (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Shirlee Busbee, Scandal becomes her (FMC …)
- Shirley Kiger Connolly (MMC has a limp)
- Sophia James, One unashamed night (MMC is losing his eyesight)
- Sophie Jordan, How to lose a bride in one night (FMC has a limp)
- Sorcha MacMurrough, The model master (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Stacy Reid, My darling duke (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Stacy Reid, The duke and I (FMC uses a cane)
- Stacy Reid, The marquess and I (FMC is blind)
- Stace Reid, When the earl met his match (MMC is mute)
- Stella Cameron, Bride (FMC has a limp)
- Stella Riley, The parfit knight (FMC is blind)
- Susan Carrol, Winterbourne (FMC has a foot impairment)
- Susan King, The heather moon (FMC has an hand impairment)
- Susan Spencer Paul, Beguiled (FMC has difficulty to speak because of damaged vocal cords)
- Susan Wiggs, Halfway to heaven (FMC has a foot impairment)
- Susannah Carleton, A twist of fate (FMC is hard of hearing)
- Suzanne Enoch, A lady’s guide to improper behaviour (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Suzanne Enoch, England’s perfect hero (MMC has a limp)
- Suzanne Robinson, Lod of the dragon (FMC has a limp)
- Tami Dee, Innocent deception (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Tanya Anne Crosby, On bended knee (FMC has a limp)
- Taylor Chase, heart of night (FMC has a hand impairment)
- Taylor Ryan, Beauty and the beast (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Teresa Medeiros, Yours until dawn (MMC is blind)
- Terri Brisbin, His ennemy’s daughter (FMC is blind)
- Terri Brisbin, The highlander’s substitute bride (FMC has an impaired arm)
- Tessa Dare, A night to surrender (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Tessa Dare, Romancing the duke (MMC is blind)
- Tessa Dare, The beauty and the blacksmith (FMC has asthma)
- Tessa Dare, Three night with a scoundrel (FMC is deaf)
- Tessa Dare, Twice tempted by a rogue (MMC has impaired fingers and leg)
- Theresa Romain, Fortune favors the wicked (MMC is blind)
- Theresa Romain, It takes two to tangle (MMC has an arm impairment)
- Vanessa Riley, A duke, a lady and a baby (MMC has a missing leg)
- Victoria Holt, Menfreya in the morning (FMC has a limp)
- Viola Grey, His hellion ward (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Virginia Heath, A warriner to rescue her (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Virginia Heath, How to woo a wallflower (FMC has a limp)
- Vivienne Lorret, This earl is on fire (FMC has a limp)
submitted by Boooooooooo9 to HistoricalRomance [link] [comments]
Taking this into account, it’s not always easy to know what’s really in a book without having to read it. That’s why I make this post, asking for everyone in this community to help me. I have made a list of historical romance involving a main character who has a PHYSICAL DISABILITY. This is important because the word disability can include a lot of things, but as of now, this list and the help I need from you is only about physical disability (the disability doesn’t need to be visible, but it needs to be classified as a physical disability). Even if scars can be dishabilitating, they’re not included in this list either. This list also won’t include things like selective mutism since it’s not caused by anything physical, but this will be included in the final result.
What is exactly the help I’m looking for? Well, if I made any mistakes in this list, let me know. Any precision about the disability featured in a book listed is welcome. Any CW important to mention is welcomed as well. If the character is no longer disabled by the end of the book, it’s also something important to mention. And lastly, if you know a book that would fit in this list but it’s not mentioned, let me know the title, the author, the character who is disable and what exactly is the disability of this character.
I know this is a lot, but I want to offer to this sub the most accurate and helpful list possible. Thank you very much for your help!
PS: while I’m trying to not use any inappropriate terminology, it’s possible that I made some mistakes, if that’s the case, please let me know so that I can edit my post!
The list is ranked by alphabetical order of the author’s name:
- Alexa Aston, Devoted to the duke (FMC has a limp)
- Alexandra Hawkins, Till dawn with the devil (FMC has partial blindness)
- Alexis Hall, A lady for a duke (MMC uses a cane)
- Alice Coldbreath, Her bridegroom, bought and paid for (MMC is blind from one eye)
- Alissa Johnson, McAlistair’s forturne (FMC has a limp)
- Alysson Jeleyne, The solemn Bell (FMC is blind)
- Amanda Quick, Deception (MMC has one eye missing)
- Amanda Quick, Reckless (FMC has a limp)
- Amanda Quick, Surrender (MMC has a limp)
- Amanda Quick, The girl who knew too much (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Amelia Grey, Wedding night with the earl (FMC has a limp)
- Ann Barker, A gift for a rake (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Anna Harrington, How the duke saved Christmas (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Anne Gracie, Gallant Waif (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Anne Gracie, The summer bride (FMC has a limp)
- Arlem Hawks, The steadfast heart (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Audrey Harrison, The captain’s wallflower (MMC is blind)
- Barbara Devlin, The accidental duke (MMC has a missing arm)
- Barbara Hazard, The guarded heart (MMC has a limp)
- Barbara Metger, A loyal companion (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Beth Williamson, Lee (MMC has a missing arm)
- Bonnie Dee, The hearing heart (MMC is deaf)
- Brenda Joyce, After innocence (FMC has a limp)
- Brenda Joyce, The conqueror (FMC has amblyopia)
- Brenda Joyce, The perfect bride (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Brooke Stanton, Serena’s silence (FMC is mute)
- Callie Hutton, A prescription for love (FMC has asthma)
- Candice Hern, Fate strikes a bargain (FMC has a limp)
- Carla Kelly, Reforming lord Ragsdale (MMC has a blind eye)
- Carla Kelly, Summer campaign (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Carla Kelly, The admiral’s penniless bride (MMC has a hook instead of a hand)
- Carla Kelly, The wedding ring quest (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Caroline Linden, It takes a scandal (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Carrie Lofty, What a scoundrel wants (FMC is blind)
- Cassandra Austin, Wait for the sunrise (MMC is blind)
- Cat Sebastian, The queer principles of Kitt Webb (One of the MMC has a leg impairment)
- Cat Sebastian, The soldier’s scoundrel (One of the MMC has a leg impairment)
- Catherine Anderson, Annie’s song (FMC is deaf)
- Catherine Anderson, Velvet touch (FMC has a limp)
- Catherine Coulter, Moonspun magic (FMC has a limp)
- Celeste Bradley, The charmer (MMC has an impaired arm)
- Celeste de Blasis, The tiger’s woman (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Charlotte Featherstone, Temptation and twilight (FMC is blind)
- Cheryl St. John, Sweet Annie (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Christi Caldwell, A season of hope (MMC has a missing eye)
- Christi Caldwell, Seduced by a lady’s heart (MMC has a missing arm)
- Christi Caldwell, To redeem a rake (FMC has a limp)
- Christina Britton, A duke worth fighting for (MMC has a limp)
- Christina Dodd, Candle in the window (FMC and MMC are both blind)
- Christine Merill, Lady Folbroke’s delicious deception (MMC is blind)
- Christine Sterling, The farmer’s bride (MMC has a prostetic leg)
- Claire Devon, The blind duke’s ward (MMC is blind)
- Claudia Stone, Proposing to a duke (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Colette Cameron, Bride of falcon (FMC has a limp and MMC has missing fingers)
- Danelle Harmon, Taken by storm (MMC has a limp)
- Danelle Harmon, The beloved one (MMC is blind)
- Dawn Mactavish, Prisoner of the flames (FMC is blind)
- Deana James, Seek only passion (MMC has a blind eye)
- Deborah Simmons, The companion (MMC suffers from a limp)
- Delilah Marvelle, The perfect scandal (FMC has a missing leg)
- Diana Palmer, Midnight rider (FMC has asthma)
- Diane Gatson, A lady of notoriety (MMC is blind)
- Dinah Dean, The cockermouth mail (MMC has a knee injury)
- Donna Fletcher, Highlander unchained (FMC is mute)
- Donna Lea Simpson, The guilded knight (MMC has a limp)
- Edna Maye Manley, Agatha (FMC has a limp)
- Edie Harris, The corrupt comte (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Eilen Dryer, Never a gentleman (FMC has a limp)
- Eilen Putman, The dastardly duke (FMC is deaf)
- Elisa Braden, Ever yours, Annabelle (MMC uses a cane)
- Elisa Braden, The taming of a highlander (MMC has a missing eye)
- Elisabeth Fairchild, The silent suitor (FMC is blind)
- Elisabeth Hobbes, The saxon outlaw’s revenge (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Eliza Knight, The highlander’s gift (MMC has a missing arm)
- Elizabeth Cole, A winter’s knight (MMC has a missing leg)
- Elizabeth Everett, A perfect equation (MMC has seizure as a child)
- Elizabeth Hoyt, Dearest rogue (FMC is blind and MMC uses a cane)
- Elizabeth Mansfield, The phantom lover (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Elizabeth Rolls, The unexpected bride (FMC is blind)
- Ellen O’Connel, Without words (FMC is mute)
- Eloisa James, How the beauty tamed the beast (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Eloisa James, Fool for love (FMC has a limp)
- Eloisa James With this kiss (MMC become blind)
- Emily Bascon, Major Westhaven’s unwilling ward (MMC has a missing leg)
- Emily Larkin, The baronet’s bride (MMC has a missing arm)
- Emily Larkin, The spinster’s secret (MMC has missing fingers)
- Emma Jensen, Entwined (MMC is blind)
- Emma Linfield, His blind duchess (FMC is blind)
- Emma V. Leech, To tame a savage heart (one of the MMC has a missing leg)
- Emma V. Leech, Truly, madly, daring (MMC is blind)
- Erica Ridley, My rogue to ruin (FMC is partially deaf)
- Erica Ridley, The major’s faux fiancée (MMC has a missing leg)
- Erica Ridley, Never say duke (MMC has a limp)
- Erin Knightley, The baron next door (MMC has headaches due to spinal injury)
- Eva Devon, My wild duke (FMC has a limp)
- Eve Silver, Dark prince (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Felicity Niven, When ardor Blooms (MMC has a limp)
- Gabrielle Car, Designing his duchess (FMC has an earing impairment)
- Gayle Callen, Surrender to the earl (FMC is blind)
- Gayle Callen, The viscount in her bedroom (MMC is blind)
- Gayle Wilson, Bride by engagement (MMC is blind)
- Gayle Wilson, His secret duchess (MMC has a limp)
- Gayle Wilson, Lady Sarah’s son (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Gayle Wilson, The gambler’s heart (MMC has a blind eye)
- Gayle Wilson, The heart’s desire (MMC has a limp)
- Georgette Heyer, An infamous army (MMC has a missing arm)
- Georgette Heyer, The convenient marriage (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Geralyn Dawson, The wedding ramson (FMC has rheumathism)
- Grace Burrowes, How to catch a duke (MMC uses a cane)
- Grace Burrowes, Morgan and Archer (FMC is partially deaf)
- Grace Burrowes, The virtuoso (MMC…)
- Grace Burrowes, The MacGregor’s lady (FMC has a limp)
- Gwyneth Atkee, Innocent Deceptions (MMC has a prostetic leg)
- Hannah Howell, Highland savage (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Heather Blanton, To love and to honor (MMC has a missing leg)
- Heather Boyd, Broke, (FMC has chronic pain)
- Heather Cullman, Bewitched (MMC has seizure)
- Heidi Cullinan, A private gentleman (One of the MMC has a speech impediment)
- Holly Bush, Reconstructing Jackson (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Isabelle Bradford, A wicked pursuit (MMC has a leg impairment)
- J’nell Ciesielski, Beauty among ruins (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Jane Feather, Valentine (MMC has chronic headaches)
- Janette Oke, Love finds a home (MMC has a missing arm)
- Janice Graham, The tailor’s daughter (FMC is deaf)
- Janna McGregor, Rules for engaging the earl (MMC has a limp)
- Jeanne Savery, Taming Lord Renwick (MMC is almost blind)
- Jeanne Savery, The Christmas gift (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Jennifer Horsman, With one look (FMC is blind)
- Jennifer Monroe, Whisper of light (MMC has a limp)
- Jenny Holiday, The miss Mirren mission (MMC has a missing hand)
- Jess Michaels, The silent duke (MMC is mute)
- Jessica Coutler Smith, To kiss a lord (FMC has a limp)
- Jill Barnett, Just a kiss away (MMC has a missing eye)
- Jill Barnett, Wild (MMC is becoming mute)
- Jill Marie Landis, Blue moon (MMC has a missing eye)
- Jillian Hart, Homespun bride (FMC is blind)
- Jo Beverly, Hazard (FMC has a limp)
- Jo Goodman, More than you know (FMC is blind)
- Jo Goodman, My heart’s desire (MMC has an arm impairment)
- Joan Johnston, After the kiss (MMC has an impaired hand)
- Joan Wolf, The edge of light (MMC has chronic headaches)
- Joanna Bourne, The spymaster’s lady (FMC is blind)
- Joanna Chambers, The first snow of winter (MMC has a missing leg)
- Joanna Lowell, Dark season (FMC has epilepsy)
- Joanna Shupe, A notorious vow (MMC is deaf)
- Joanna Waugh, Blind fortune (FMC is blind)
- John C. Houser, The door behind us (One of the MMC has a missing leg)
- Josi C. Kilpack, Love and lavender (FMC has a limp)
- Judith A. Landsowne, A devilish dilemma (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Judith Ivory, Beast (MMC has a blind eye and a limp)
- Judith Ivory, Untie my heart (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Julie Garwood, Castles (MMC has a limp)
- Julia Justiss, A most unconventional match (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Julia Justiss, The rake to reveal her (MMC has a missing arm)
- Julia Latham, Taken and seduced (FMC has a limp)
- Julia London, A princess by Christmas (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Julia London, The dangerous gentleman (MMC is blind)
- Julia Quinn, First comes scandal (FMC has asthma)
- Julia Quinn, The duke and I (MMC has a speech impairment)
- Julia Quinn, The sum of all kisses (MMC has a limp)
- Julia Quinn, Dancing at midnight (MMC has a limp)
- Julianna Gray, How to tame your duke (MMC has a missing arm)
- Julie Klassen, The silent governess (FMC is mute)
- Julie Moffett, The thorn and the thistle (MMC has an impaired hand)
- K.A. Mitchell, An improper holliday (One of the MMC has a missing arm)
- K.J. Charles, An unsuitable heir (MMC has a missing arm)
- K.J. Charles, Think of England (One of the MMC has a impaired arm)
- Karen Hawkins, How to entice an enchantress (MMC has a limp)
- Karen Hawkins, The seduction of Sara (MMC has chronic headaches)
- Karen Ranney, Tapestry (MMC has a blind eye)
- Karen Ranney, The lass wore black (FMC has a movement impairment)
- Karen Robards, Scandalous (FMC has a limp)
- Karen Witemeyer, To win her heart (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Karyn Monk, Once a warrior (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Kat Martin, Night secrets (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Kate Bateman, The princess and the rogue (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Kate Noble, The summer of you (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Kate Pearce, loving Michael (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Katherine Hale, The curse of the Redmonts (FMC has a limp)
- Kathleen Baldwin, Mistaken kiss (FMC is nearly blind)
- Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, A rose in winter (MMC has a limp)
- Kerrygan Byrne, The duke with the dragon tattoo (FMC has a limp)
- Kerrygan Byrne, The highwayman (MMC has a blind eye)
- Keta Diablo, Land of falling stars (FMC is blind)
- Kimberly Bell, A scandal by any other name (FMC has spina bifida)
- Kit Morgan, The healing touch (MMC is blind)
- Kris Tualla, The discreet gentleman serie (MMC is deaf)
- Lacy Williams, A cowboy for Christmas (FMC has a missing arm)
- Laura Kinsale, Flowers from the storm (MMC has medical condition after a stroke)
- Laura Kinsale, The prince of midnight (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Laura Landon, Cast in the shadows (MMC has seizures)
- Laura Landon, Shattered dreams (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Laura Landon, Silent revenge (FMC is mute)
- Laura Lee Gurke, His every kiss (MMC has tinnitus)
- Laura Renken, Heart of the Condor (FMC is blind)
- Lauren Smith, Her wicked proposal (MMC is blind)
- Laurie Grant, Love’s own crown (FMC is blind)
- Laurie Grant, Lawman (MMC has a blind eye)
- Laurie Grant, Maggie and the Maverick (MMC has a missing eye)
- LaVryle Spencer, The gamble (FMC has a hip disability)
- Lecia Cornwall, Beauty and the Highland beast (FMC has a limp)
- Lecia Cornwall, What a lady most desires (MMC is blind)
- Leigh Greenwood, Violet (MMC has a missing arm)
- Lenora Bell, Love is a rogue (FMC has palsy)
- Lily George, Captain of her heart (MMC has a missing leg)
- Lily Maxton, Enchanting the earl (MMC has a missing leg)
- Lindsay McKenna, Lord of Shadowhack (FMC is blind and MMC has a limp)
- Lisa Kleypas, Again the magic (FMC has a limp)
- Lisa Kleypas, Devil in spring (FMC has a deaf hear)
- Lisa Kleypas, Devil in winter (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Lisa Kleypas, Midnight angel (MMC has a missing hand)
- Loretta Chase, Miss Wonderful (MMC has a limp)
- Lorraine Heath, She tempts the duke (MMC has a missing eye)
- Lorraine Heath, Surrender to the devil (MMC is losing his eyesight)
- Lorraine Heath, The lady and the outlaw (FMC is blind)
- Lucinda Brant, Dair devil (FMC uses a cane)
- Lucy Ashford, The major and the pickpocket (MMC has a limp)
- Lyn Stone, The highland wife (MMC his deaf)
- Lynn Kurland, This is all I ask (MMC is blind)
- Maddison Michaels, The bachelor bargain (FMC uses a cane and a wheelchair)
- Madeline Martin, Mesmerizing the Marquis (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Maggie Robinson, Redeeming lord Ryder (FMC is mute)
- Manda Collins, How to romance a rake (FMC has a limp)
- Margo Maguire, Brash (FMC has a limp)
- Margo Maguire, The bride hunt (MMC has a missing eye)
- Marie Higgins, Love comes blindly (MMC is blind)
- Marjorie Farell, Miss Ware’s refusal (MMC is blind)
- Martha Waters, To woo and to wed (MMC uses a cane)
- Mary Balogh, Always remember (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Mary Balogh, Dancing with Clara (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Mary Balogh, Lord Carew’s bride (MMC has a limp and an hand impairment)
- Mary Balogh, Only enchanting (MMC has a brain injury that caused him to forget things, to have a speech impediment, etc.)
- Mary Balogh, Red rose (FMC has a limp)
- Mary Balogh, Silent melody (FMC is deaf)
- Mary Balogh, Simply love (MMC has a missing eye and a missin arm)
- Mary Balogh, The arrangement (MMC is blind)
- Mary Balogh, The escape (MMC almost has missing legs)
- Mary Balogh, The proposal (FMC has a limp)
- Mary Balogh, The suitor (MMC is blind)
- Mary Jo Putney, Silk and shadows (FMC has a limp)
- Mary Jo Putney, Veils of silk (MMC has a missing eye)
- Mary Spencer, The vow (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Maya Banks, Never seduce a Scot (FMC is deaf)
- Melody Thomas, The perfect kiss (MMC has a limp)
- Merry Farmer, His perfect bride (MMC has legs impairment)
- Merry Farmer, The Scandal of a perfect kiss (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Merry Farmer, Under his lover’s wing (MMC has a deaf ear)
- Michele Sinclair, The Christmas knight (MMC has a missing eye)
- Michelle Willingham, A match made in London (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Michelle Willingham, Good earls don’t lie (FMC has difficulties walking after a medical condition)
- Michelle Willingham, Tempted by the Highlander warrior (MMC is mute)
- Michelle Willingham, The warrior’s forbidden virgin (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Michelle Willingham, The warrior’s touch (MMC has hand impairment)
- Mimi Matthew, Appointment in Bath (FMC has a speech impediment)
- Mimi Matthew, The lost letter (MMC has a blind eye)
- Mimi Matthew, The winter companion (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Mimi Matthew, The work of art (MMC uses a cane)
- Minerva Spencer, Selina (MMC is blind)
- Miranda Davis, The duke’s tattoo (MMC had a leg impairment)
- Miriam Minger, Wild roses (FMC has a limp)
- Monya Clayton, The pirate and the puritan (FMC is mute)
- Nadine Miller, An unlikely angel (MMC has a limp)
- Nancy Butler, The prodigal hero (MMC has a missing hand)
- Nancy Butler, Prospero’s daughter (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Norma Lee Clark, Lady Jane (MMC has health issue that stopped him from growing and other things)
- Paige Cameron, The duke’s blind temptation (MMC is blind)
- Patricia Grasso, Tempting the prince (MMC is blind)
- Patricia Ryan, Silken threads (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Patricia Verian, Never doubt I love (MMC has a prostetic leg)
- Patricia Verian, The Mandarin of Mayfair (FMC has a limp)
- Paty Jager, Doctor in petticoats (MMC is blind)
- Renee Bernard, Blind Aphrodite (FMC is blind)
- Renee Bernard, Passion wears pearls (MMC is losing his eyesight)
- Robin Lee Hatcher, Chances are (MMC has a blind eye)
- Robyn DeHart, The secret of Mia Danvers (FMC is blind)
- Rosalyn Alsobrook, Wild western bride (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Rosalyn West, A man’s touch (MMC is blind)
- Rose Gordon, The perfect lady Worthe (FMC uses a wheelchair)
- Rose Lerner, Sweet disorder (MMC uses a cane)
- Ruby Moone, The heat of the moment (one of the MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Ruth Ann Nordin, Loving Eliza (MMC is mute)
- Ruth Ann Nordin, The reclusive earl (MMC has a lisp)
- S.M. LaViolette, The footman (FMC has a limp)
- Sabrina Jeffries, A notorious love (FMC has a limp)
- Sabrina York, Hannah and the Highlander (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Sally Vixen, The blind duchess and her rakish duke (FMC is blind)
- Samantha Garver, One night to be sinful (FMC has a limp)
- Samantha James, Every wish fulfilled (FMC has a limp)
- Samantha Kane, Defeated by love (one of the MMC has a missing eye)
- Sarah Brophy, Midnight eyes (FMC is blind)
- Sasha Lord, Across a wild sea (FMC is blind)
- Shana Galen, Sweet rogue of mine (MMC is blind)
- Sharon Cullen, Sutherland’s secret (FMC is mute)
- Sharon Page, Engage in sin (MMC is blind)
- Sheri Humphrey, A hero to hold (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Shirlee Busbee, Scandal becomes her (FMC …)
- Shirley Kiger Connolly (MMC has a limp)
- Sophia James, One unashamed night (MMC is losing his eyesight)
- Sophie Jordan, How to lose a bride in one night (FMC has a limp)
- Sorcha MacMurrough, The model master (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Stacy Reid, My darling duke (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Stacy Reid, The duke and I (FMC uses a cane)
- Stacy Reid, The marquess and I (FMC is blind)
- Stace Reid, When the earl met his match (MMC is mute)
- Stella Cameron, Bride (FMC has a limp)
- Stella Riley, The parfit knight (FMC is blind)
- Susan Carrol, Winterbourne (FMC has a foot impairment)
- Susan King, The heather moon (FMC has an hand impairment)
- Susan Spencer Paul, Beguiled (FMC has difficulty to speak because of damaged vocal cords)
- Susan Wiggs, Halfway to heaven (FMC has a foot impairment)
- Susannah Carleton, A twist of fate (FMC is hard of hearing)
- Suzanne Enoch, A lady’s guide to improper behaviour (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Suzanne Enoch, England’s perfect hero (MMC has a limp)
- Suzanne Robinson, Lod of the dragon (FMC has a limp)
- Tami Dee, Innocent deception (MMC has a speech impediment)
- Tanya Anne Crosby, On bended knee (FMC has a limp)
- Taylor Chase, heart of night (FMC has a hand impairment)
- Taylor Ryan, Beauty and the beast (MMC uses a wheelchair)
- Teresa Medeiros, Yours until dawn (MMC is blind)
- Terri Brisbin, His ennemy’s daughter (FMC is blind)
- Terri Brisbin, The highlander’s substitute bride (FMC has an impaired arm)
- Tessa Dare, A night to surrender (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Tessa Dare, Romancing the duke (MMC is blind)
- Tessa Dare, The beauty and the blacksmith (FMC has asthma)
- Tessa Dare, Three night with a scoundrel (FMC is deaf)
- Tessa Dare, Twice tempted by a rogue (MMC has impaired fingers and leg)
- Theresa Romain, Fortune favors the wicked (MMC is blind)
- Theresa Romain, It takes two to tangle (MMC has an arm impairment)
- Vanessa Riley, A duke, a lady and a baby (MMC has a missing leg)
- Victoria Holt, Menfreya in the morning (FMC has a limp)
- Viola Grey, His hellion ward (MMC has a leg impairment)
- Virginia Heath, A warriner to rescue her (FMC has a leg impairment)
- Virginia Heath, How to woo a wallflower (FMC has a limp)
- Vivienne Lorret, This earl is on fire (FMC has a limp)
2023.12.03 18:06 E_streak The entire history of the Connecticut Witch Trials because why not (Part 3)
Previous Part
The Owl House has to be one of the best shows that has come out from the Disney Channel ever. Not only does the show's crew, led by Dana Terrace, give us a glimpse into a magical and creative world, we also get to know a whole cast of unforgettable characters that compliment both each other and the world around them. But do you know what my favourite part of the Owl House is? It's Lumity of course! They are just so cute together and deserve all the happiness and I think the mods are gone let's talk about witch trials
Unlike the trials at Salem, which ended once members of the elite class started being implicated, the trials in Connecticut ended primarily through the actions of a few rational individuals. The unsung heroes in New England history, I believe that their actions should be better known.
John Winthrop Jr.
John Winthrop Jr has quickly become my favourite person in history. Like his father, John Winthrop Sr, who was Governor of Massachusetts, he quickly got involved in New England politics. In 1635, he helped settle Saybrook colony at the mouth of the Connecticut river and became governor there. In 1636, amid rising tensions with the Indians, he helped negotiate a settlement between the Pequots and the English at Saybrook. However, these would eventually fall through, resulting in the Pequot War. He was present on the court in Massachusetts for the witch trial of Margaret Jones in 1648, which ended in her execution, the second ever in New England. I imagine that this result did not sit well with Winthrop, based on his later actions.
Nevertheless, Winthrop was a charming individual and an excellent diplomat. He used his influence to drive progress in New England, creating the first integrated ironworks on the continent, as well as a grist mill in Connecticut (which still stands to this day). Winthrop was also a man of science, notably alchemy, owning New England's most extensive library of alchemical books. He even started an organisation dedicated to its study. Winthrop was also talented physician, treating people from all over Connecticut using a whole manner of strange concoctions. He was very successful in this profession, treating at least 500 people across Connecticut (the population was only about 5000). Winthrop's popularity as a politician, entrepreneur and physician even led to a bidding war between New Haven and Hartford for Winthrop's residency, offering ammenities like furnished housing, free transportation and free goods.
But for the purposes of our story, Winthrop's most important aspect was that he was a foremost expert on the occult and probably the most knowledgeable person about this subject on the continent. His stance on witchcraft was one of skepticism. While he believed that magic existed, he never assumed it as a cause for misfortune, believing instead that alternative explanations existed. Winthrop's knowledge and attitudes towards the occult would shape the course of the witch trials, and eventually helped bring them to a conclusion.
Winthrop was elected Governor of Connecticut Colony in 1657, a role in which he was successful enough to be re-elected every year from 1659 to 1676. Using his influence as governor and chief magistrate, he made it incredibly difficult to convict on charges of witchcraft. He used his knowledge of the occult to refute supernatural claims in court, allowing accused witches to go free. He pursued a policy of reintegration, advising free witches to either "carry neighbourly and peaceably" or to get out of the colony. Because of Winthrop, between 1655 and 1661, every accused witch in Connecticut was acquitted. A lot of people were appalled that tried witches were allowed to remain in their communities. But while Winthrop was in office, there was nothing anyone could do.
That was until 1661, when Winthrop set sail for England to obtain a royal charter for Connecticut Colony. His task was to negotiate with an unsympathetic Charles II, who was displeased that the colonies were harbouring some of his father's killers. While Winthrop was busy trying to charm the King of England, all hell broke loose in Hartford. Its residents were itching to get rid of witches within the community, resulting in the explosive Hartford Witch Panic in 1662.
Winthrop arrived back in Connecticut in 1663 after a wildly successful mission. While in England, he had been elected a Fellow of the newly formed Royal Society for his work on alchemy. He had also brought over one of the first astronomical telescopes in New England which he would later use to study Jupiter's moons. But most importantly, he had managed to gain Connecticut a royal charter. This charter not only granted Connecticut permission to exist, but also gave the colonists extra rights, expanded the powers of the office of governor, and provided ridiculous territorial gains which made Connecticut very long. Imagine his shock upon discovering the disaster that had happened while he was gone. Four innocent people had been hanged, many others had fled and left everything behind. Connecticut was in a terrible state, and something had to change.
Elizabeth Seager
Out of the remaining accused witches, Elizabeth Seager had an especially rough time. In 1663, others like Judith Varlett and James Wakely were able to escape conviction and had fled to other colonies. Elizabeth, however, stayed in Hartford. Out of all the Connecticut witches, Seager was tried the greatest number of times, having to defend herself thrice from 1663 to 1665.
Unlike many in Hartford, Seager was skeptical of Ann Cole's witchcraft accusations, and of the ministers taking her outbursts seriously. When Ann accused her of witchcraft, Seager was quick to call all of it "a great deal of hodge podge." Nevertheless, in order to smooth over her reputation, Seager sent her daughter to the home of Thomas and Goody Hosmer, neighbours of the Coles, with a gift of parsnips. This goodwill gesture was flatly rejected since Thomas Hosmer did not want to associate himself or his wife with a potential witch.
In an event corroborated by multiple parties in court, shortly after this incident, Seager "went to prayer, and did adventure to bid Satan to tell them, she was no witch." When asked why she prayed for Satan to exonerate her and not for God, Seager said it was "because Satan knew she was no witch,” citing a bible passage that implied that only Jesus and St Paul can understand demons. She was suggesting that the ministers had no spiritual authority to confront or understand Ann's demon.
Thanks in part to her own sharp tongue, Seager was indicted in January 1663, the same day as Mary Barnes. Shortly after, Rebecca Greensmith implicated many accused witches, including Seager. Others testified against her in court, including her neighbour Robert Sterne, who claimed he had witnessed her at a witch's Sabbat:
More evidence was laid against Seager. Goodwife Mygatt testified that Seager had blasphemed, claiming that Seager had told her that "God was Naught, God was Naught, it was very good to be a witch and desired her to be one. She should not need fear going to hell, for she should not burn in the fire." Mygatt also claimed that, in an example of spectral evidence, Seager's apparition "took her by the hand and struck her on the face as she was in bed with her husband."
It was just before this second trial that John Winthrop Jr. came back to Connecticut colony, horrified by what had happened. Given his powerful position and stark opposition to convicting accused witches, it isn't a stretch to suggest that he would have intervened in Seager's case. According to Connecticut State Historian Walter Woodward:
But the accusers of Hartford were not satisfied. In one last attempt to get rid of Seager (who had inexplicably not fled Hartford yet), the court indicted her for "continuing to practice witchcraft" in 1665. Evidence was collected from the previous trials, as well as from new testimonies. Goodwife Watson claimed that Seager had once admitted to being part of a coven of witches but refused to reveal any of them. Goodwife Garrett further testified that Seager had once made a bewitched cheese that was full of maggots, which Garrett then threw into a fire, upon which Seager to cried out in pain while outside in the barn.
Governor Winthrop was put into a tough position. He had already expended a lot of political capital while preventing Seager's execution during her second trial. As chief magistrate, he could have presided over the court and refuted every bit of evidence presented, but doing this would have laid suspicion onto him as a witch sympathiser. Given that he was a publicly known alchemist, such accusations against him would have been dangerous. Instead, Winthrop stayed away from the trial and let it play out on its own, but not without a plan.
The jury convicted Seager of witchcraft and sentenced her to death. Shortly after this moment, Winthrop acted. He declared that Seager's trial was "so obscure and ambiguous" that he would put off carrying out her sentence. Winthrop then waited for the royal charter's judicial reforms to take effect, which gave the governor, the deputy governor, and magistrates the right to “impose, alter, change or annul any penalty, and to punish, release or pardon any offender." In May 1666, a special Court of Assistants, under Governor Winthrop, was called for the first time and declared that:
Katherine Harrison
While this is the last witch trial I shall be covering, there was still one more big witch hunt in Connecticut. The Fairfield Witch Panic of 1692 happened partially as a result of spillover from Salem, and all cases resulted in acquittals. However, talking about it here would require introducing even more characters at the last minute, which would just add extra bloat. And given the Harrison case's significance in judicial history, I feel that it would be a good place to stop.
To the people of Wethersfield, Katherine Harrison was the perfect target for witch hunting. Initially working as a servant in Captain Cullick's house in Hartford, she was fired for telling the fortunes her fellow servants. Katherine then moved to Wethersfield where she married the town crier, John Harrison. They were a very successful couple, and together they accumulated a small fortune through farming and by trading goods. In 1666, John Harrison died, leaving Katherine and her three daughters with an estate of over 900 pounds. Katherine's sudden increase in social status, in addition to her outspoken and impudent nature, may have sparked resentment among the community of Wethersfield. Additionally, Katherine was a well-known folk healer, and used occult techniques to cure her neighbours' ailments, with limited success. In one case, a sick child that she had used her methods on did not recover and eventually died. It should be no surprise that Katherine Harrison was one of the most hated people in Wethersfield.
Trouble started a few years after her husband's death. In 1668, accusations of witchcraft began to pile up against Katherine. In summer, a neighbour accused her of slander, and she was made to pay damages. In October, Katherine filed a complaint to the court for vandalism against her property. She testified that over a few weeks, people had beaten her cows and oxen to unserviceability, cut off the ear marks from her livestock and replaced them, killed one of her cows with a "knife or some weapon", let loose some horses to graze on her wheat field, wounded Katherine's horse in the pasture, and spoiled a batch of hops by cutting them from her field. It is unclear whether the court even considered these grievances.
Harrison stood trial for witchcraft between 1668 and 1669. This involved a mixture of a few suits against her, but I won't go into detail here. During that time, about 30 witnesses gave testimony against her. Of course, I won't go through all of it here, but I will summarise a few that I find interesting. In the words of John M Taylor, "They speak for themselves".
The residents of Wethersfield were furious at Winthrop's court, who they saw as being too soft on witchcraft. A petition was signed by 38 residents, including 2 ministers, in protest of Harrison's release. They alleged that since her release, "very evle, hurtfull and dangerous effects" had befallen residents of Wethersfield, and that these incidents should be considered new evidence. They also noted that Harrison was preparing to flee Wethersfield and escape justice. They demanded that Harrison take a trial by swimming, which she had offered to do in court. The petitioners concluded that Winthrop's magistrates were ineffective in prosecuting the case. Instead, they argued for their own choice of prosecution, which included their leader John Blackleach, to replace the current prosecution for a satisfactory result.
Winthrop was stuck in a tough position once again. And just like in Elizabeth Seager's case, he stepped back from the courtroom and let it play out. When the jury reconvened, it found Katherine Harrison guilty and sentenced her to death. But Winthrop had one last card to play, which would end the bloodshed in Connecticut once and for all. His magistrates challenged the decision of the jury, since the case rested on some fundamental, but yet unanswered questions that needed clarification. Until those questions were answered, Harrison would be held in prison with her fate hanging in the balance.
Gershom Bulkeley
The court sent these questions to the top ministers of Connecticut. This group was led, not by Samuel Stone who had died in 1663, but by Winthrop's friend and fellow alchemist, Reverend Gershom Bulkeley. Like Winthrop, Bulkeley had an interest in the occult and was opposed to convicting witches. In fact, Bulkeley would later become a major player in the 1692 trials in Fairfield, helping to save many accused witches there. For now, with his theological knowledge as a minister, and with Winthrop's influence, Bulkeley crafted the perfect response to the court's questions.
The first question was:
The second question was:
While it looks like Bulkeley is supporting spectral evidence, in practice this wipes out most spectral evidence ever used. It implies that someone's spectre appearing to a single witness could just as easily be the devil causing mischief by imitating an innocent person. Therefore spectral evidence is only admissible if a person's spectre appears to multiple people. This, of course, never happens, and so more evidence of witchcraft is thrown out. In his answer, Bulkeley both confirms the validity of spectral evidence, while making it impossible to use in court.
The last question was:
Notice how broad the categories of human skill and strength of reason are. People during this time would have seen natural, or folk, magic as an acceptable practice. It could be argued that discovering secrets or telling fortunes through these occult methods may constitute human skill and strength of reason. Bulkeley's wording here deflects the crime of witchcraft away from fortune tellers like Harrison, and from occultists like himself and Winthrop. As long as the accused does not admit to contacting the devil, they may have used acceptable practices. Bulkley has both confirmed the devil's hand in certain forms of fortune telling, but at the same time made those forms so specific that it becomes practically impossible to prove.
With those questions answered, the court hearing Harrison's case reconvened and overturned the jury's verdict. In May 1670, she was referred to a special Court of Assistants who, upon considering Bulkeley's answers, ordered her to be freed, but also removed from Wethersfield for her own safety and for the contentment of her neighbours. Unfortunately, Harrison would always have the reputation of being a witch, and even had complaints filed against her long after moving to New York.
But after this case, the dangers of being accused as a witch subsided. The changes to the system made by Bulkeley and Winthrop would put a permanent and almost unbeatable obstacle before the colony's obsession with convicting witches. There would not be another witch trial in Connecticut for another twenty-two years. When the trials finally started again in 1692, none of those cases would end with an execution. It was through the hard work and level heads of people like John Winthrop Jr and Gershom Bulkeley, as well as the incredible resilience of people like Elizabeth Seager and Katherine Harrison that the hysteria finally ended.
R.G. Tomlinson, Witchcraft Trials of Connecticut: The First Comprehensive, Documented History of Witchcraft Trials in Colonial Connecticut
Richard S. Ross, Before Salem: Witch Hunting in the Connecticut River Valley
Cynthia W. Boynton, Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World
John M. Taylor, The Witchcraft Delusion In Colonial Connecticut
Books and Articles that Cover Specific Topics
Walter W. Woodward, Prospero's America: John Winthrop Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture
Liam Connell, University of Melbourne, ‘A Great or Notorious Liar’: Katherine Harrison and her Neighbours, Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1668 – 1670
Walter W. Woodward, OAH Magazine of History, The Trial of Katherine Harrison
Aaron J. Whiting, To Hang a Witch: Religion and Paranoia in Seventeenth Century Hartford
YouTube Videos by Great Channels
Esoterica, The American Witch Trials Before Salem - Witches & Witch Hunting in Colonial North America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky86E-Zu8bI
Atun-Shei Films, In Defense of Puritanism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJanv1NUlrQ
submitted by E_streak to TheOwlHouse [link] [comments]
The Owl House has to be one of the best shows that has come out from the Disney Channel ever. Not only does the show's crew, led by Dana Terrace, give us a glimpse into a magical and creative world, we also get to know a whole cast of unforgettable characters that compliment both each other and the world around them. But do you know what my favourite part of the Owl House is? It's Lumity of course! They are just so cute together and deserve all the happiness and I think the mods are gone let's talk about witch trials
Level Heads
Coming out of 1663, Connecticut had experienced its most chaotic witch hunt to date. But conspicuously, the trials in Connecticut following this time seemed to just drop off. There would be more no witch trials in the state for a quarter century, and there would be no further executions. So what happened?Unlike the trials at Salem, which ended once members of the elite class started being implicated, the trials in Connecticut ended primarily through the actions of a few rational individuals. The unsung heroes in New England history, I believe that their actions should be better known.
John Winthrop Jr.
John Winthrop Jr has quickly become my favourite person in history. Like his father, John Winthrop Sr, who was Governor of Massachusetts, he quickly got involved in New England politics. In 1635, he helped settle Saybrook colony at the mouth of the Connecticut river and became governor there. In 1636, amid rising tensions with the Indians, he helped negotiate a settlement between the Pequots and the English at Saybrook. However, these would eventually fall through, resulting in the Pequot War. He was present on the court in Massachusetts for the witch trial of Margaret Jones in 1648, which ended in her execution, the second ever in New England. I imagine that this result did not sit well with Winthrop, based on his later actions.
Nevertheless, Winthrop was a charming individual and an excellent diplomat. He used his influence to drive progress in New England, creating the first integrated ironworks on the continent, as well as a grist mill in Connecticut (which still stands to this day). Winthrop was also a man of science, notably alchemy, owning New England's most extensive library of alchemical books. He even started an organisation dedicated to its study. Winthrop was also talented physician, treating people from all over Connecticut using a whole manner of strange concoctions. He was very successful in this profession, treating at least 500 people across Connecticut (the population was only about 5000). Winthrop's popularity as a politician, entrepreneur and physician even led to a bidding war between New Haven and Hartford for Winthrop's residency, offering ammenities like furnished housing, free transportation and free goods.
But for the purposes of our story, Winthrop's most important aspect was that he was a foremost expert on the occult and probably the most knowledgeable person about this subject on the continent. His stance on witchcraft was one of skepticism. While he believed that magic existed, he never assumed it as a cause for misfortune, believing instead that alternative explanations existed. Winthrop's knowledge and attitudes towards the occult would shape the course of the witch trials, and eventually helped bring them to a conclusion.
Winthrop was elected Governor of Connecticut Colony in 1657, a role in which he was successful enough to be re-elected every year from 1659 to 1676. Using his influence as governor and chief magistrate, he made it incredibly difficult to convict on charges of witchcraft. He used his knowledge of the occult to refute supernatural claims in court, allowing accused witches to go free. He pursued a policy of reintegration, advising free witches to either "carry neighbourly and peaceably" or to get out of the colony. Because of Winthrop, between 1655 and 1661, every accused witch in Connecticut was acquitted. A lot of people were appalled that tried witches were allowed to remain in their communities. But while Winthrop was in office, there was nothing anyone could do.
That was until 1661, when Winthrop set sail for England to obtain a royal charter for Connecticut Colony. His task was to negotiate with an unsympathetic Charles II, who was displeased that the colonies were harbouring some of his father's killers. While Winthrop was busy trying to charm the King of England, all hell broke loose in Hartford. Its residents were itching to get rid of witches within the community, resulting in the explosive Hartford Witch Panic in 1662.
Winthrop arrived back in Connecticut in 1663 after a wildly successful mission. While in England, he had been elected a Fellow of the newly formed Royal Society for his work on alchemy. He had also brought over one of the first astronomical telescopes in New England which he would later use to study Jupiter's moons. But most importantly, he had managed to gain Connecticut a royal charter. This charter not only granted Connecticut permission to exist, but also gave the colonists extra rights, expanded the powers of the office of governor, and provided ridiculous territorial gains which made Connecticut very long. Imagine his shock upon discovering the disaster that had happened while he was gone. Four innocent people had been hanged, many others had fled and left everything behind. Connecticut was in a terrible state, and something had to change.
Elizabeth Seager
Out of the remaining accused witches, Elizabeth Seager had an especially rough time. In 1663, others like Judith Varlett and James Wakely were able to escape conviction and had fled to other colonies. Elizabeth, however, stayed in Hartford. Out of all the Connecticut witches, Seager was tried the greatest number of times, having to defend herself thrice from 1663 to 1665.
Unlike many in Hartford, Seager was skeptical of Ann Cole's witchcraft accusations, and of the ministers taking her outbursts seriously. When Ann accused her of witchcraft, Seager was quick to call all of it "a great deal of hodge podge." Nevertheless, in order to smooth over her reputation, Seager sent her daughter to the home of Thomas and Goody Hosmer, neighbours of the Coles, with a gift of parsnips. This goodwill gesture was flatly rejected since Thomas Hosmer did not want to associate himself or his wife with a potential witch.
In an event corroborated by multiple parties in court, shortly after this incident, Seager "went to prayer, and did adventure to bid Satan to tell them, she was no witch." When asked why she prayed for Satan to exonerate her and not for God, Seager said it was "because Satan knew she was no witch,” citing a bible passage that implied that only Jesus and St Paul can understand demons. She was suggesting that the ministers had no spiritual authority to confront or understand Ann's demon.
Thanks in part to her own sharp tongue, Seager was indicted in January 1663, the same day as Mary Barnes. Shortly after, Rebecca Greensmith implicated many accused witches, including Seager. Others testified against her in court, including her neighbour Robert Sterne, who claimed he had witnessed her at a witch's Sabbat:
"I saw this woman, Goodwife Seager, in the woods with three more women, and with them I saw two black creatures like two Indians but taller. I saw likewise a kettle there over a fire. I saw the women dance round these black creatures, and whiles I looked upon them, one of the women, Goody Greensmith, said 'look who is yonder.' And then they ran away up the hill. I stood still and the black things came towards me, and then I turned to come away. ... I knew the persons by their habits or clothes, having observed such clothes on them not long before."During this trial, William Edwards, a relative of Ann Cole, claimed that he had seen Elizabeth Seager fly. From Goodwife Garrett's testimony in a later trial:
"William Edwards told Goodwife Seager that she did fly ... Seager replied that William Edwards made her fly. Then Goodwife Garrett said, 'then you own that you did fly.' Then Goodwife Seager replied, 'if I did fly, William Edwards made me fly.'"A trial by swimming was brought up, which Seager rebuked by questioning its efficacy. She claimed that the devil would make her float regardless of her guilt, saying:
"The devil that caused me to come here can keep me up!"Remarkably, although the result was close, the jury found her not guilty on the basis of insufficient evidence. This caused outrage in Hartford, and she was tried again for witchcraft that same year, along with charges of blasphemy and adultery.
More evidence was laid against Seager. Goodwife Mygatt testified that Seager had blasphemed, claiming that Seager had told her that "God was Naught, God was Naught, it was very good to be a witch and desired her to be one. She should not need fear going to hell, for she should not burn in the fire." Mygatt also claimed that, in an example of spectral evidence, Seager's apparition "took her by the hand and struck her on the face as she was in bed with her husband."
It was just before this second trial that John Winthrop Jr. came back to Connecticut colony, horrified by what had happened. Given his powerful position and stark opposition to convicting accused witches, it isn't a stretch to suggest that he would have intervened in Seager's case. According to Connecticut State Historian Walter Woodward:
"Considering the adulation that had accompanied his return to Hartford ... Winthrop might easily have been able to defuse the accusations of witchcraft. More likely a compromise was arranged with his fellow assistants and pressed on an intractable jury."In the end, the jury found Seager not guilty for blasphemy or witchcraft, but she was still convicted of adultery. Although adultery was a capital offence according to the colony's laws, there have been no examples of a death penalty ever being imposed. Although Seager had escaped death once again, she was likely whipped for the adultery charge.
But the accusers of Hartford were not satisfied. In one last attempt to get rid of Seager (who had inexplicably not fled Hartford yet), the court indicted her for "continuing to practice witchcraft" in 1665. Evidence was collected from the previous trials, as well as from new testimonies. Goodwife Watson claimed that Seager had once admitted to being part of a coven of witches but refused to reveal any of them. Goodwife Garrett further testified that Seager had once made a bewitched cheese that was full of maggots, which Garrett then threw into a fire, upon which Seager to cried out in pain while outside in the barn.
Governor Winthrop was put into a tough position. He had already expended a lot of political capital while preventing Seager's execution during her second trial. As chief magistrate, he could have presided over the court and refuted every bit of evidence presented, but doing this would have laid suspicion onto him as a witch sympathiser. Given that he was a publicly known alchemist, such accusations against him would have been dangerous. Instead, Winthrop stayed away from the trial and let it play out on its own, but not without a plan.
The jury convicted Seager of witchcraft and sentenced her to death. Shortly after this moment, Winthrop acted. He declared that Seager's trial was "so obscure and ambiguous" that he would put off carrying out her sentence. Winthrop then waited for the royal charter's judicial reforms to take effect, which gave the governor, the deputy governor, and magistrates the right to “impose, alter, change or annul any penalty, and to punish, release or pardon any offender." In May 1666, a special Court of Assistants, under Governor Winthrop, was called for the first time and declared that:
"Respecting Elizabeth Seager, this court, on reviewing the verdict of the jury and finding it doth not legally answer the indictment do therefore discharge and set her free from further suffering or imprisonment."Walter Woodward notes the significance of this: “for the first time in Connecticut’s history, a convicted witch did not die.” A few years after being freed, Elizabeth Seager finally took the hint and moved to Rhode Island with her family. However, the trials in Connecticut were not done yet.
Katherine Harrison
While this is the last witch trial I shall be covering, there was still one more big witch hunt in Connecticut. The Fairfield Witch Panic of 1692 happened partially as a result of spillover from Salem, and all cases resulted in acquittals. However, talking about it here would require introducing even more characters at the last minute, which would just add extra bloat. And given the Harrison case's significance in judicial history, I feel that it would be a good place to stop.
To the people of Wethersfield, Katherine Harrison was the perfect target for witch hunting. Initially working as a servant in Captain Cullick's house in Hartford, she was fired for telling the fortunes her fellow servants. Katherine then moved to Wethersfield where she married the town crier, John Harrison. They were a very successful couple, and together they accumulated a small fortune through farming and by trading goods. In 1666, John Harrison died, leaving Katherine and her three daughters with an estate of over 900 pounds. Katherine's sudden increase in social status, in addition to her outspoken and impudent nature, may have sparked resentment among the community of Wethersfield. Additionally, Katherine was a well-known folk healer, and used occult techniques to cure her neighbours' ailments, with limited success. In one case, a sick child that she had used her methods on did not recover and eventually died. It should be no surprise that Katherine Harrison was one of the most hated people in Wethersfield.
Trouble started a few years after her husband's death. In 1668, accusations of witchcraft began to pile up against Katherine. In summer, a neighbour accused her of slander, and she was made to pay damages. In October, Katherine filed a complaint to the court for vandalism against her property. She testified that over a few weeks, people had beaten her cows and oxen to unserviceability, cut off the ear marks from her livestock and replaced them, killed one of her cows with a "knife or some weapon", let loose some horses to graze on her wheat field, wounded Katherine's horse in the pasture, and spoiled a batch of hops by cutting them from her field. It is unclear whether the court even considered these grievances.
Harrison stood trial for witchcraft between 1668 and 1669. This involved a mixture of a few suits against her, but I won't go into detail here. During that time, about 30 witnesses gave testimony against her. Of course, I won't go through all of it here, but I will summarise a few that I find interesting. In the words of John M Taylor, "They speak for themselves".
- Testimony of Thomas Bracy:
- After Bracy refused to lend a saddle to James Wakely (another accused witch), he began to have unexplainable trouble at work. He sewed on the sleaves of a jacket the wrong way seven times, and he accidentally cut cloth of different colours for one pair of breeches.
- Bracy was watching a cart of hay pass by when he saw a red calf's head, with its ear standing up, sitting on top of the hay. As the cart came closer, the calf's head vanished and in its place was Katherine Harrison.
- After Bracy was threatened by Harrison for spreading rumours that she was a witch, James Wakely and Harrison appeared to him that night. After deliberating on how to kill Bracy, they strangled and pinched him until his father-in-law heard his groaning and woke him up. In the morning, they found a mark on his skin where the pinching was.
- Testimony of Joseph Dickinson:
- While Dickinson was walking in a dry swamp with Philip Smith, they heard Katherine Harrison's voice cry strangely, "Hoccanum! Hoccanum! Come Hoccanum!" They later found Samuel Belden, who told them that he had seen Katherine with her cows running home, tail on end, and with great violence.
- Testimony of Rebecca Smith:
- Katherine Harrison wanted to buy Goody Gilbert's black hat, but Gilbert refused. Later, whenever Gilbert wore the hat, "her shoulders and head was much afflicted". Gilbert then burned the hat, believing it to be bewitched.
- Smith believed herself to be bewitched, having episodes where her leg would suddenly become stiff, she would be dreadfully sick, and she would have strange fits. She said that her family could testify to this.
- Testimony of Mary Hale
- While in bed, a dog-like creature jumped violently onto her legs and rest itself very heavily upon her chest, crushing her. Upon closer examination, she saw that the creature had Katherine Harrison's face. It then wandered around the room before disappearing.
- The creature came back a few nights later, and in the darkness, Mary felt its face and judged it to be a woman's face. She then felt a painful blow to her fingers, later discovering that they had become black and blue with bruises.
- A few nights later, Mary heard Katherine Harrison's voice speak to her. She threatened to make Mary afraid. When Mary replied that she was not afraid, believing God would protect her, Mary was "crushed and oppressed". She called to her parents who were sleeping nearby, but Harrison's voice told her that they would not hear anything until she was gone. Before the voice left, she threatened Mary to keep this encounter secret, or else she will afflict her again. Mary testified that she told this story many times since.
- Testimony of Goodwife Johnson
- Goody Johnson's husband, Jacob, was hired by John Harrison to go to Windsor with a canoe for a meal. While lying in bed at night in Windsor, Jacob felt a great blow to his ears, and came home ill. Katherine Harrison came to treat him with "diet drink and plasters".
- They sent for Captain Atwood for help, but that day when Goody Johnson opened the door, she saw the likeness of Katherine Harrison looking right at her husband. As she turned around to lock the door, Harrison vanished. Then Jacob's nose began to bleed heavily, and it continued to do so whenever it was disturbed, up until his death.
The residents of Wethersfield were furious at Winthrop's court, who they saw as being too soft on witchcraft. A petition was signed by 38 residents, including 2 ministers, in protest of Harrison's release. They alleged that since her release, "very evle, hurtfull and dangerous effects" had befallen residents of Wethersfield, and that these incidents should be considered new evidence. They also noted that Harrison was preparing to flee Wethersfield and escape justice. They demanded that Harrison take a trial by swimming, which she had offered to do in court. The petitioners concluded that Winthrop's magistrates were ineffective in prosecuting the case. Instead, they argued for their own choice of prosecution, which included their leader John Blackleach, to replace the current prosecution for a satisfactory result.
Winthrop was stuck in a tough position once again. And just like in Elizabeth Seager's case, he stepped back from the courtroom and let it play out. When the jury reconvened, it found Katherine Harrison guilty and sentenced her to death. But Winthrop had one last card to play, which would end the bloodshed in Connecticut once and for all. His magistrates challenged the decision of the jury, since the case rested on some fundamental, but yet unanswered questions that needed clarification. Until those questions were answered, Harrison would be held in prison with her fate hanging in the balance.
Gershom Bulkeley
The court sent these questions to the top ministers of Connecticut. This group was led, not by Samuel Stone who had died in 1663, but by Winthrop's friend and fellow alchemist, Reverend Gershom Bulkeley. Like Winthrop, Bulkeley had an interest in the occult and was opposed to convicting witches. In fact, Bulkeley would later become a major player in the 1692 trials in Fairfield, helping to save many accused witches there. For now, with his theological knowledge as a minister, and with Winthrop's influence, Bulkeley crafted the perfect response to the court's questions.
The first question was:
"whether [in the case of witchcraft] a plurality of witnesses be necessary, legally to evidence one and the same individual fact?"Bulkeley answers that in order for a testimony to be considered legal evidence for a captial crime, at least two people would have to testify to the same individual fact. If a witness testifies to something that only they saw, it cannot be counted as evidence of witchcraft. This distinction alone invalidates most of the evidence presented in every witchcraft case.
The second question was:
"whether the preternatural apparitions of a person, legally proved, be a demonstration of familiarity with the devil?"In other words, is spectral evidence proof of the someone working with the devil? Bulkeley answers this ambiguously, but in essence he says that the devil can appear as an innocent person in front of a single witness, but can't appear as an innocent person in front of multiple witnesses. Therefore, if a person's apparition appears to multiple witnesses, then the person must have given the devil their permission to use their likeness, and therefore they were not innocent.
While it looks like Bulkeley is supporting spectral evidence, in practice this wipes out most spectral evidence ever used. It implies that someone's spectre appearing to a single witness could just as easily be the devil causing mischief by imitating an innocent person. Therefore spectral evidence is only admissible if a person's spectre appears to multiple people. This, of course, never happens, and so more evidence of witchcraft is thrown out. In his answer, Bulkeley both confirms the validity of spectral evidence, while making it impossible to use in court.
The last question was:
"whether a vicious person foretelling some future event, or revealing of a secret, be a demonstration of familiarity with the devil?"In other words, is predicting the future or revealing secrets evidence of witchcraft? Bulkeley answers that if someone gains secret or future knowledge in a way that cannot be done through human skill, strength of reason, or through divine revelation, then the knowledge must have been gained through the devil.
Notice how broad the categories of human skill and strength of reason are. People during this time would have seen natural, or folk, magic as an acceptable practice. It could be argued that discovering secrets or telling fortunes through these occult methods may constitute human skill and strength of reason. Bulkeley's wording here deflects the crime of witchcraft away from fortune tellers like Harrison, and from occultists like himself and Winthrop. As long as the accused does not admit to contacting the devil, they may have used acceptable practices. Bulkley has both confirmed the devil's hand in certain forms of fortune telling, but at the same time made those forms so specific that it becomes practically impossible to prove.
With those questions answered, the court hearing Harrison's case reconvened and overturned the jury's verdict. In May 1670, she was referred to a special Court of Assistants who, upon considering Bulkeley's answers, ordered her to be freed, but also removed from Wethersfield for her own safety and for the contentment of her neighbours. Unfortunately, Harrison would always have the reputation of being a witch, and even had complaints filed against her long after moving to New York.
But after this case, the dangers of being accused as a witch subsided. The changes to the system made by Bulkeley and Winthrop would put a permanent and almost unbeatable obstacle before the colony's obsession with convicting witches. There would not be another witch trial in Connecticut for another twenty-two years. When the trials finally started again in 1692, none of those cases would end with an execution. It was through the hard work and level heads of people like John Winthrop Jr and Gershom Bulkeley, as well as the incredible resilience of people like Elizabeth Seager and Katherine Harrison that the hysteria finally ended.
Sources
Books that Cover the Connecticut Trials in General:R.G. Tomlinson, Witchcraft Trials of Connecticut: The First Comprehensive, Documented History of Witchcraft Trials in Colonial Connecticut
Richard S. Ross, Before Salem: Witch Hunting in the Connecticut River Valley
Cynthia W. Boynton, Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World
John M. Taylor, The Witchcraft Delusion In Colonial Connecticut
Books and Articles that Cover Specific Topics
Walter W. Woodward, Prospero's America: John Winthrop Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture
Liam Connell, University of Melbourne, ‘A Great or Notorious Liar’: Katherine Harrison and her Neighbours, Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1668 – 1670
Walter W. Woodward, OAH Magazine of History, The Trial of Katherine Harrison
Aaron J. Whiting, To Hang a Witch: Religion and Paranoia in Seventeenth Century Hartford
YouTube Videos by Great Channels
Esoterica, The American Witch Trials Before Salem - Witches & Witch Hunting in Colonial North America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky86E-Zu8bI
Atun-Shei Films, In Defense of Puritanism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJanv1NUlrQ
2023.12.03 18:06 E_streak The entire history of the Connecticut Witch Trials because why not (Part 2)
Previous Part
This part covers the bulk of the trials and their direct causes. If you want ideas for plots, settings, or characters in a Wittebanes prequel story, then this section has got you covered. Every trial has its own story to tell, and each has its own heroes and villains. Maybe you can have Evelyn break the Ayreses out of jail, or maybe an arc where Philip is corrupted by a Roger Ludlow or Samuel Stone inspired characters. Who knows! I think this post is relevant now, let's continue.
Alse (Alice) Young
No court records from her trial exist, so we can only speculate why she was condemned to die. However, it is known that an influenza epidemic spread throughout Connecticut shortly before her execution, causing the deaths of many people. Because of these horrible conditions, it is possible that Alse Young was hanged by out of a need for a scapegoat.
Mary Johnson
Mary Johnson was hanged in 1650. She is the first case of an accused witch confessing to her alleged crimes, which included "familiarity with the devil" and getting him to do her chores, as well as murdering a child. Her confession was given under duress, through physical torture and interrogation.
While imprisoned and pregnant with her son, she was visited by Reverend Samuel Stone of Hartford who successfully got Mary to confess and repent for her sins. Soon after giving birth in prison, she was executed. Cotton Mather wrote about the event, as described by Reverend Whiting, Stone's successor:
Joanne and John Carrington
We know next to nothing about this case. However, we do know that the Carringtons were quite poor. They had just £23 pounds to their name and had £13 of debt. Furthemore, it is known that John Carrington had previously gotten in trouble for selling a gun to an Indian, which would have been seen as a betrayal of his fellow colonists. The Carringtons were charged with "familiarity with Satan" and were hanged in 1651.
Chaos in Fairfield
This story is one of the best documented of the early trials, and one of the most interesting. It is a story of three accused women, Goodwife Bassett, Goodwife Knapp, and Mary Staples, whose fates would intertwine.
Before discussing the accused witches, we must first turn our attention to Roger Ludlow, a key player in all of this. In 1637, while fighting in the Pequot War, he stumbled across land west of New Haven which he thought suitable for a town. In 1639, Ludlow settled that land, founding the town of Fairfield.
In 1652, Cromwell went to war against the Dutch. This was bad news for the young Fairfield since New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony, was right on its doorstep. Afraid that Fairfield could become the front lines in a potential war, Ludlow tried to stir his people into forming a militia against Dutch and Indian attacks. This ended up just stressing the people of Fairfield out, especially by the threat of Indian attacks. Furthermore, Ludlow himself was under suspicion by Connecticut and New Haven of trying to start his own independent colony. This chaos, along with famine conditions setting in, led to the perfect conditions for a witch trial.
One year previously, in 1651, Goodwife Bassett (Goodwife was a contemporary honorific for married women, Goody for short) was charged with witchcraft and hanged in nearby Stratford. The exact details of her case are unknown, but we do know that before her execution, she claimed that "there was another witch in Fairefield that held her head full high." With political tension at a boiling point and Ludlow in need of someone to blame, Goody Bassett's claim about a witch in Fairfield seemed like a good opportunity.
In 1653, An accusation of witchcraft was levelled against Goodwife Knapp. She was skin-searched for devil's marks and after close examination she was determined to have "witch's teats". Her fellow residents (including Mary Staples) then testified against her in a trial by jury. Not long after, Knapp was sentenced to hang. Roger Ludlow, who participated in this trial, was probably pleased by this result. Not just because it was ridding Fairfield of its troubles, but especially because it deflected blame away from him for causing it.
Although declared guilty, Goody Knapp would not confess to the crime, nor would she implicate others in Fairfield. She was subjected to interrogation after interrogation by several groups while awaiting her execution. Knapp was told that for the good of her soul she should reveal everything she knew about other witches, just like Goody Bassett did. In order to bait Knapp into implicating out of revenge, she was also told that Mary Staples's testimony in court was decisive in convicting her. But Goody Knapp stuck to her principles, and instead promised that on the gallows she would inform Ludlow of everything told to her in private. Someone told her that if she waited until she was at the gallows, the "Devill will have [her] quick" before she could reveal her secrets. Knapp retorted:
At last, Goody Knapp was brought to the gallows. Along Knapp's journey from the prison, Mary Staples yelled to the crowd that Knapp was innocent, but she was shouted down. Just as Knapp promised, she whispered something into Roger Ludlow's ear before ascending the ladder. After the execution, Knapp's body was cut down to be carried to the grave, but things did not end there.
A crowd of women clamoured around the body in order to see Knapp's "witch's teats" for themselves. Among them was Mary Staples, who tumbled the corpse up and down, stripping away fabric to reveal bare skin. Seeing the alleged marks, Mary said something to this effect:
The story still doesn't end there. In a supposedly private conversation, Ludlow claimed that Goody Knapp had implicated Mary Staples as a witch in her final moments. As the rumour spread, any existing tension between Ludlow and the Staples soon exploded into an all-out feud. It is reported that Ludlow publicly called Mary Staples a liar, and when Mary asked for an example of a lie she told, Ludlow said that he didn't need to provide one since she lied constantly. It got so bad that they even argued in church.
To Ludlow, the assumption that Mary Staples was a witch was perfectly sound. She had been implicated by a proven witch, she had professed said witch's innocence, she was intemperate in church, she was prideful, and was a notorious liar. The Staples were worried that Ludlow would eventually try Mary as a witch, so they acted first.
In 1654, Thomas Staples accused Roger Ludlow of slandering his wife, accusing him of calling Mary a witch and a liar. Ludlow was out of the country at the time and could not testify in person, which did not help his case, and much of his written testimony was deemed untrustworthy. After listening to all the evidence pertaining to both Goody Knapp's trial and the Staples' accusations, the court made its decision and ruled favour of the Staples, forcing Ludlow to pay a fine.
Despite this victory, suspicions of witchcraft would follow Mary Staples for the rest of her life. She was even tried at Fairfield thirty eight years later in 1692, but this is out of the scope of this post. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the Staples trial had ramifications which would extend much further into world history. Mary, having survived the accusations, would go on to have a daughter, Hannah, in 1659. It was this lineage that produced Sir Winston Churchill in 1874, making Mary Staples his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.
As for Ludlow himself, the humiliation from both the Staples case and the Fairfield militia debacle was too much for him, and he left the colonies soon after. He moved to Dublin where he took up positions in councils and courts around the island before he died around 1664.
Lydia Gilbert
This case is probably the most bizarre out of all the trials, since the supposed witch was not even present for the crime which she was accused of.
In 1651, Windsor, during a militia drill, an accidental shooting occurred. A musket in the hands of a young Thomas Allyn misfired, killing 58-year-old Henry Stiles. Henry was the oldest brother of the Stiles family, one of the first parties to settle in Windsor. Thomas Allyn was the son of Mathew Allyn, a wealthy resident of Windsor. This accidental murder became a high-profile incident in the town.
Allyn was charged with "homicide by misadventure", for which he was fined £20 and had to post a bond of £10 to ensure his good behaviour for a year, which included a prohibition from bearing arms. Although the matter had been settled in court, the community would not forget this incident. 3 years later, it would be back in the public consciousness.
So where was Lydia Gilbert in all of this? It turns out that she and her husband, Thomas Gilbert, were living on the same land as Henry Stiles. Stiles was an employer of the Gilberts, and the two parties had joint ownership of the farmland. Lydia, it seems, did some of the housework for the aging Henry Stiles.
In 1654, Lydia Gilbert was accused of witchcraft.
Lydia was found guilty and was sentenced to hang, the last witch in Windsor. Although no record of the execution exists, it was likely carried out since Thomas Gilbert sold his farm and moved to Wethersfield where he remarried shortly after. For his part, Thomas Allyn had his £20 fine refunded and he would eventually become a captain of the local militia.
Background
Things were not going well for the Puritans in the 1660s. Cromwell's protectorate in England had just fallen apart, making way for the ascension of Charles II. Charles had a bone to pick with the Puritans, especially those responsible for executing his father. Some of the regicides had managed to flee to New England in order to escape execution, so it was only a matter of time before the colonies had the king's attention.
There were fears that Charles may begin to exert his rule over New England, which had until this point enjoyed relative independence from the government in London. This tension was particularly high in Connecticut. The colony was, in practice, independent with their own constitution, the Fundamental Orders. However, the colony had never received a Royal Charter. Without this recognition by the crown, their colonial claim was technically illegal. So in 1661, Connecticut's governor, John Winthrop Jr. (son of John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts) set sail for England in the hopes of securing a charter for Connecticut. Until he came back, Connecticut's future was up in the air.
On a theological level, things were not going well either. Church membership had undergone a steady decline, partially due to strict requirements for church membership. Church members had to show evidence of godliness and commitment to the faith, and only those whose parents had been baptised could themselves be baptised. Throughout this time, debates about the Half-way Covenant (a form of partial membership) sprang up across New England. Proponents saw it as a way to continue the church's influence, while more conservative Puritans saw it as a violation of congregationalism and visible sainthood.
In Connecticut, the religious turmoil did not end there. In 1647, Hartford's co-founder and beloved Pastor, Reverend Thomas Hooker, had died from epidemic sickness, the same one that Alse Young may have been hanged for. His death left an open position for the Pastor of Hartford's church, whose role was to guide the congregation in the daily application of the Christian faith. Whoever wanted the job would have to contend with Reverend Samuel Stone, the Teacher of Hartford's church, whose responsibility was over church doctrine. Stone held a powerful position within the community. His actions such as converting Mary Johnson during her witch trial had also earned him a lot of respect.
In the early 1650s, a quarrel broke out in Hartford which threatened to split the church in two. The details of this are too complicated for this post, but the conflict really took off in 1653 when Samuel Stone withdrew the candidacy of his student, Michael Wigglesworth, for the role of Pastor. This prevented a vote by the congregation, infuriating many conservative Puritans. Despite being a moderate Puritan, Stone believed in the authority of the church and that his position as Teacher allowed him to control a whole manner of internal matters, including the candidacy of its leadership. A vocal minority, led by Ruling Elder William Goodwin, felt that Stone had betrayed the ideas of congregationalism upon which Hooker had founded Hartford.
This quarrel went on for several years, spilling over into the courts in Massachusetts. Many Puritan leaders saw the whole event as a disgrace, since religious strife was seen as an act of the devil. The quarrel ended in 1659 with the minority removing themselves from Hartford and settling in Hadley, Massachusetts. This took away many devoted members from Hartford's church, and Samuel Stone was left an embittered man.
Looking at the conditions in Hartford in 1662, it's unsurprising that things would quickly get out of hand. Religious turmoil, both past and ongoing, was fresh in everybody's minds. Combined with the uncertainty of the colony's political future, it was a time of great paranoia for Hartford. It would only take a spark to set it off, which eventually came in the form of a death and a possession.
Elizabeth Kelly
On March 23, 1662, 8-year-old Elizabeth Kelly returned home from the morning church service, accompanied by her neighbour, Judith Ayres. Judith Ayres and her husband, William Ayres, had somewhat of a mixed reputation. Although the Ayreses were rather wealthy landowners, they frequently got into trouble. William had been convicted of stealing multiple times, and both of them had posted multiple bonds to ensure their good behaviour. Additionally, Judith Ayres had to terminate her second child in order to save her life, the emotional trauma from which may explain the unusually close relationship between her and Elizabeth Kelly.
Once they arrived at the Kelly household, Goody Ayres served Elizabeth some broth from a pot hanging over the fire. John and Bethia Kelly, Elizabeth's parents, protested that the broth was too hot, but Elizabeth drank it all anyway. Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth immediately complained of stomach pains. John then gave Elizabeth powdered angelica root, an herb usually used to ward of witchcraft, which seemed to cure her pain. Later that afternoon, Elizabeth went back to town to attend the afternoon church service. She arrived home that evening without any complaints.
That night, while in bed next to her father, Elizabeth Kelly suddenly woke up and began to scream.
That night, Elizabeth began to scream once more. This time, she did not stop. She cried out against Goody Ayres and asked her father to go to the magistrates to punish her. Elizabeth continued like this for another day and night, until she finally cried:
The Beginning of the Hartford Trials
Upon Elizabeth's death, an investigation ensued. Its purpose was to find out if a supernatural crime had been committed. Judith Ayres was a prime suspect, and many people, including John Kelly, were set on proving her guilt.
This started with an examination of the corpse. A common test of witchcraft was to have the suspected witch touch the murdered corpse. If blood appeared where they touched, it was a sign they had killed them through witchcraft. When Goody Ayres was brought before the body, no blood was found wherever she touched. However, after Ayres had left, a great red spot appeared on Elizabeth's cheek next to where she had stood. This was good evidence, but more was needed.
Five days after Elizabeth's death, an autopsy was performed by Bray Rossiter, a physician from a neighbouring town. This was only the second autopsy ever performed in New England, and Rossiter himself seemed to have a rather limited understanding of corpses. The autopsy found that the body was "pliable, without stiffness or contraction", noting that "experience of dead bodies renders such symptoms unusual". It also found that areas of the flesh "had a deep blue tincture." With our modern understanding, we know that these "unusual" findings were the result of the cessation of rigor mortis and the pooling of blood due to gravity. Rossiter, however, took these as signs of an unnatural cause of death.
The trials began soon after, and both William and Judith Ayres were implicated. At the time, Increase Mather wrote that two people in Hartford, possibly the Ayreses, were given a trial by swimming, whereby the victim's hands and legs were tied together before being thrown into water. If the victim floated, it was a sign that they were a witch. When the Ayreses were given this test, they both floated to the surface "after the manner of a buoy." When a skeptical volunteer offered to jump in himself, he was found to sink. It seemed like their fates were sealed. But luckily for the Ayreses, the prison they were held in was not heavily guarded, and the couple were easily broken out by some friends. The Ayreses fled to Rhode Island, leaving almost everything behind, including two sons of 5 and 8 years old.
Unfortunately, this escape only escalated the hysteria in Hartford. Accusations began to fly across the town. Before long, there was another trial for witchcraft. Hartford residents, Mary and Andrew Sanford, were indicted for "familiarity with Satan". Details of the trial are unclear, including the names of the accusers, but we do know that the charges against them included fortune telling, an act that suggested contact with preternatural forces. Mary was found guilty and presumably hanged, while Andrew was acquitted and later moved to Milford where he remarried.
This was far from the end of the Hartford trials. Later that year, a new catalyst emerged which would accelerate the violence into a full-blown witch hunt.
Ann Cole
Ann Cole was the sixteen-year-old daughter of John Cole who, according to historian Richard Ross, was a “prominent member of the conservative Congregationalist minority in the Hartford Church and an enemy of Samuel Stone’s progressive policies.” Their family was beset by many troubles such as the ongoing controversy in the church, a lack of inheritance causing financial issues, and having two male family members who were lame. Additionally, the exodus of many conservative congregationalist church members to Hadley, Massachusetts had had a detrimental effect on Ann's marital prospects.
In the midst of the first trials in Hartford, Ann began having fits. This was promptly investigated by a team of ministers, led by Samuel Stone, possibly eager to prove himself still capable as a spiritual leader. Among them was Reverend John Whiting, who wrote an account of this event. Ann experienced "extremely violent bodily motions," speaking about how "a company of familiars of the evill one ... were contriving how to carry out mischievous designes, against some and especially against her." Whiting continues, "after some time of unintelligible mutterings, the discourse passed into a Dutch tone." Although a Dutch family was living in town, Reverend Stone declared that it was impossible for Ann to imitate a Dutch accent so accurately without being familiar with it herself.
During a "day of prayer" held specially for her, Ann was displayed publicly in the Wyllys mansion with two other afflicted women, who also began having fits. During this extraordinary assembly, Ann accused several residents in Hartford of witchcraft, including Rebecca Greensmith, whose subsequent actions would raise this story to dramatic new heights.
The trial of Rebecca Greensmith
Rebecca, and her husband Nathaniel Greensmith, had very poor reputations in Hartford. Nathaniel was described as "a small wiry and quarrelsome man." He had accumulated a significant amount of property as a farmer, but also had constant run-ins with the law, being previously convicted on multiple counts of thievery, as well as assault and battery. Rebecca Greensmith was described by Whiting as "a lewd, ignorant, considerably aged woman." She was twice widowed, had extramarital relationships with other men, and was a heavy drinker. Before the two were married, Rebecca was afraid of Nathaniel having heard "so much of him." The marriage was almost certainly unhappy.
The timing of events in this next part are a bit fuzzy, and although I think I've got it right, I can't say so with full confidence. My sources can't agree on the timing either.
By the time Rebecca was accused by Ann Cole, she was already imprisoned "upon suspicion of witchcraft," as a result of the previous panic. Hartford had good reasons for suspecting Greensmith, since she had visited the home of Elizabeth Kelly during her illness, and she was friends with Goody Ayres. Both Rebecca and her husband were indicted and were made to attend the hearing.
During the proceedings, Nathaniel maintained his innocence. But shockingly, when Rebecca heard the accusations made against her by Ann Cole, she confessed her guilt on all charges, and more. Rebecca claimed that although she had not yet made a covenant with devil, she had promised to have several meetings with him, including a "merry meeting" at Christmas. Upon hearing this, the aging Reverend Samuel Stone, who was present in court, proclaimed the "exceeding heinousness and hazard of that dreadful sin," pointing out that the devil loved Christmas (the holiday was banned in the colonies). Nathaniel was allowed to go home, while Rebecca had to stay in prison. The court was to reconvene in a few weeks, and both of them had to attend.
As an aside, Farmington resident Mary Barnes was also indicted for witchcraft during this chaos along with her husband, Thomas, who would be acquitted. We know tragically little about Mary, despite her being the last witch executed in Connecticut. We do know that she was an illiterate servant, she was previously accused of adultery, and she was not a member of the Farmington church. Her unsavoury reputation probably helped the court reach their decision to convict.
Back in Hartford, Nathaniel Greensmith visited Rebecca in prison and tried to persuade her not to implicate him, even bringing up the wellbeing of her children. He allegedly said something to the effect of:
Rebecca had thoroughly condemned herself, but that was not all. Possibly out of anger, or revenge, or "out of love to my husbands soule", she accused Nathaniel of being a witch. During the trial, Rebecca testified that her husband possessed unusual strength despite "being a man of little body and weake to my apprhension." She shared stories about familiars following him around, such as "a red creature" and "two creatures like dogs" which he said were foxes.
But Rebecca did not stop at testifying against her husband. She began implicating many others who had been mentioned in Ann Cole's mutterings:
Next Part
submitted by E_streak to TheOwlHouse [link] [comments]
This part covers the bulk of the trials and their direct causes. If you want ideas for plots, settings, or characters in a Wittebanes prequel story, then this section has got you covered. Every trial has its own story to tell, and each has its own heroes and villains. Maybe you can have Evelyn break the Ayreses out of jail, or maybe an arc where Philip is corrupted by a Roger Ludlow or Samuel Stone inspired characters. Who knows! I think this post is relevant now, let's continue.
1647 - 1654: The Early Witch Trials
The early witch trials in Connecticut were quite scattershot, but they were the deadliest by far. Out of the first 9 trials, 7 ended in execution. Although the later trials are much better documented, I think these trials can teach us a lot about contemporary attitudes.Alse (Alice) Young
"May 26, 1647, Alse Young was hanged"This is an entry in the diary of town clerk Matthew Grant, and one of only two scraps of evidence we have of Alse Young's existence. The other is an entry in the journal of John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts.
"One [blank] of Windsor arraigned and executed at Hartford for a witch."It is through these two entries that we know that Alse Young was the first witch executed in America.
No court records from her trial exist, so we can only speculate why she was condemned to die. However, it is known that an influenza epidemic spread throughout Connecticut shortly before her execution, causing the deaths of many people. Because of these horrible conditions, it is possible that Alse Young was hanged by out of a need for a scapegoat.
Mary Johnson
Mary Johnson was hanged in 1650. She is the first case of an accused witch confessing to her alleged crimes, which included "familiarity with the devil" and getting him to do her chores, as well as murdering a child. Her confession was given under duress, through physical torture and interrogation.
While imprisoned and pregnant with her son, she was visited by Reverend Samuel Stone of Hartford who successfully got Mary to confess and repent for her sins. Soon after giving birth in prison, she was executed. Cotton Mather wrote about the event, as described by Reverend Whiting, Stone's successor:
"She was by most observers judged very Penitent, both before and at her Execution; and she went out of the World with many Hopes of Mercy through the Merit of Jesus Christ ... And she died in a Frame extremely to the Satisfaction of them that were Spectators of it. Our GOD is a great Forgiver."For his act of converting Mary Johnson and providing her penance, Rev. Stone was made famous in New England.
Joanne and John Carrington
We know next to nothing about this case. However, we do know that the Carringtons were quite poor. They had just £23 pounds to their name and had £13 of debt. Furthemore, it is known that John Carrington had previously gotten in trouble for selling a gun to an Indian, which would have been seen as a betrayal of his fellow colonists. The Carringtons were charged with "familiarity with Satan" and were hanged in 1651.
Chaos in Fairfield
This story is one of the best documented of the early trials, and one of the most interesting. It is a story of three accused women, Goodwife Bassett, Goodwife Knapp, and Mary Staples, whose fates would intertwine.
Before discussing the accused witches, we must first turn our attention to Roger Ludlow, a key player in all of this. In 1637, while fighting in the Pequot War, he stumbled across land west of New Haven which he thought suitable for a town. In 1639, Ludlow settled that land, founding the town of Fairfield.
In 1652, Cromwell went to war against the Dutch. This was bad news for the young Fairfield since New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony, was right on its doorstep. Afraid that Fairfield could become the front lines in a potential war, Ludlow tried to stir his people into forming a militia against Dutch and Indian attacks. This ended up just stressing the people of Fairfield out, especially by the threat of Indian attacks. Furthermore, Ludlow himself was under suspicion by Connecticut and New Haven of trying to start his own independent colony. This chaos, along with famine conditions setting in, led to the perfect conditions for a witch trial.
One year previously, in 1651, Goodwife Bassett (Goodwife was a contemporary honorific for married women, Goody for short) was charged with witchcraft and hanged in nearby Stratford. The exact details of her case are unknown, but we do know that before her execution, she claimed that "there was another witch in Fairefield that held her head full high." With political tension at a boiling point and Ludlow in need of someone to blame, Goody Bassett's claim about a witch in Fairfield seemed like a good opportunity.
In 1653, An accusation of witchcraft was levelled against Goodwife Knapp. She was skin-searched for devil's marks and after close examination she was determined to have "witch's teats". Her fellow residents (including Mary Staples) then testified against her in a trial by jury. Not long after, Knapp was sentenced to hang. Roger Ludlow, who participated in this trial, was probably pleased by this result. Not just because it was ridding Fairfield of its troubles, but especially because it deflected blame away from him for causing it.
Although declared guilty, Goody Knapp would not confess to the crime, nor would she implicate others in Fairfield. She was subjected to interrogation after interrogation by several groups while awaiting her execution. Knapp was told that for the good of her soul she should reveal everything she knew about other witches, just like Goody Bassett did. In order to bait Knapp into implicating out of revenge, she was also told that Mary Staples's testimony in court was decisive in convicting her. But Goody Knapp stuck to her principles, and instead promised that on the gallows she would inform Ludlow of everything told to her in private. Someone told her that if she waited until she was at the gallows, the "Devill will have [her] quick" before she could reveal her secrets. Knapp retorted:
"Take heed the devil have not you, for she could not tell how soon she might be her companion. The truth is you would have me say that goodwife Staples is a witch, but I have sins enough to answer for already, and I hope I shall not add to my condemnation; I know nothing by goodwife Staples, and I hope she is an honest woman."What happened next is unclear, but it seems that Knapp did let slip about an incident involving Mary Staples. She claimed that Staples was approached by an Indian man carrying two shiny objects "brighter than the light of day", which the man told her were "Indian gods". Knapp was initially unclear about whether Staples had accepted these gifts. It would have been damning for Mary Staples if she did accept them. When Thomas Staples, Mary's husband, visited her in prison to confront these rumours, Knapp vehemently claimed that Mary had refused the gifts.
At last, Goody Knapp was brought to the gallows. Along Knapp's journey from the prison, Mary Staples yelled to the crowd that Knapp was innocent, but she was shouted down. Just as Knapp promised, she whispered something into Roger Ludlow's ear before ascending the ladder. After the execution, Knapp's body was cut down to be carried to the grave, but things did not end there.
A crowd of women clamoured around the body in order to see Knapp's "witch's teats" for themselves. Among them was Mary Staples, who tumbled the corpse up and down, stripping away fabric to reveal bare skin. Seeing the alleged marks, Mary said something to this effect:
"If these be the markes of a witch I am one. "The other women rebuked her, saying that no honest women have those marks. Mary eventually yielded control of the body, and Goody Knapp was carted away to her grave.
or
"I have such markes."
The story still doesn't end there. In a supposedly private conversation, Ludlow claimed that Goody Knapp had implicated Mary Staples as a witch in her final moments. As the rumour spread, any existing tension between Ludlow and the Staples soon exploded into an all-out feud. It is reported that Ludlow publicly called Mary Staples a liar, and when Mary asked for an example of a lie she told, Ludlow said that he didn't need to provide one since she lied constantly. It got so bad that they even argued in church.
To Ludlow, the assumption that Mary Staples was a witch was perfectly sound. She had been implicated by a proven witch, she had professed said witch's innocence, she was intemperate in church, she was prideful, and was a notorious liar. The Staples were worried that Ludlow would eventually try Mary as a witch, so they acted first.
In 1654, Thomas Staples accused Roger Ludlow of slandering his wife, accusing him of calling Mary a witch and a liar. Ludlow was out of the country at the time and could not testify in person, which did not help his case, and much of his written testimony was deemed untrustworthy. After listening to all the evidence pertaining to both Goody Knapp's trial and the Staples' accusations, the court made its decision and ruled favour of the Staples, forcing Ludlow to pay a fine.
Despite this victory, suspicions of witchcraft would follow Mary Staples for the rest of her life. She was even tried at Fairfield thirty eight years later in 1692, but this is out of the scope of this post. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the Staples trial had ramifications which would extend much further into world history. Mary, having survived the accusations, would go on to have a daughter, Hannah, in 1659. It was this lineage that produced Sir Winston Churchill in 1874, making Mary Staples his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.
As for Ludlow himself, the humiliation from both the Staples case and the Fairfield militia debacle was too much for him, and he left the colonies soon after. He moved to Dublin where he took up positions in councils and courts around the island before he died around 1664.
Lydia Gilbert
This case is probably the most bizarre out of all the trials, since the supposed witch was not even present for the crime which she was accused of.
In 1651, Windsor, during a militia drill, an accidental shooting occurred. A musket in the hands of a young Thomas Allyn misfired, killing 58-year-old Henry Stiles. Henry was the oldest brother of the Stiles family, one of the first parties to settle in Windsor. Thomas Allyn was the son of Mathew Allyn, a wealthy resident of Windsor. This accidental murder became a high-profile incident in the town.
Allyn was charged with "homicide by misadventure", for which he was fined £20 and had to post a bond of £10 to ensure his good behaviour for a year, which included a prohibition from bearing arms. Although the matter had been settled in court, the community would not forget this incident. 3 years later, it would be back in the public consciousness.
So where was Lydia Gilbert in all of this? It turns out that she and her husband, Thomas Gilbert, were living on the same land as Henry Stiles. Stiles was an employer of the Gilberts, and the two parties had joint ownership of the farmland. Lydia, it seems, did some of the housework for the aging Henry Stiles.
In 1654, Lydia Gilbert was accused of witchcraft.
"Lydia Gilbert thou art indicted... that not having the feare of God before thy eyes thou hast of late years, or still dost give entertainment to Sathan ... and by his helpe hast killed the body of Henry Styles, besides other witchcrafts for which... thou deservest to dye."While the other charges of witchcraft are unknown, the charge that Lydia Gilbert was responsible for the death of Henry Stiles was probably the most damning. The court seemed to believe that Lydia, using powers granted by the devil, had caused Thomas Allyn's musket to misfire and kill Henry Stiles.
Lydia was found guilty and was sentenced to hang, the last witch in Windsor. Although no record of the execution exists, it was likely carried out since Thomas Gilbert sold his farm and moved to Wethersfield where he remarried shortly after. For his part, Thomas Allyn had his £20 fine refunded and he would eventually become a captain of the local militia.
1662 - 1663: The Hartford Witch Panic
Between 1655 and 1661, a few more witch trials occurred, but all of them ended with an acquittal, the reasons for which will be discussed later. This peace, however, would end abruptly in 1662 with eight witch trials in eight months. During this time, four witches were hanged and many of the accused fled. This was the climax of the Connecticut Witch Trials, and a prelude to the events at Salem in 1692.Background
Things were not going well for the Puritans in the 1660s. Cromwell's protectorate in England had just fallen apart, making way for the ascension of Charles II. Charles had a bone to pick with the Puritans, especially those responsible for executing his father. Some of the regicides had managed to flee to New England in order to escape execution, so it was only a matter of time before the colonies had the king's attention.
There were fears that Charles may begin to exert his rule over New England, which had until this point enjoyed relative independence from the government in London. This tension was particularly high in Connecticut. The colony was, in practice, independent with their own constitution, the Fundamental Orders. However, the colony had never received a Royal Charter. Without this recognition by the crown, their colonial claim was technically illegal. So in 1661, Connecticut's governor, John Winthrop Jr. (son of John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts) set sail for England in the hopes of securing a charter for Connecticut. Until he came back, Connecticut's future was up in the air.
On a theological level, things were not going well either. Church membership had undergone a steady decline, partially due to strict requirements for church membership. Church members had to show evidence of godliness and commitment to the faith, and only those whose parents had been baptised could themselves be baptised. Throughout this time, debates about the Half-way Covenant (a form of partial membership) sprang up across New England. Proponents saw it as a way to continue the church's influence, while more conservative Puritans saw it as a violation of congregationalism and visible sainthood.
In Connecticut, the religious turmoil did not end there. In 1647, Hartford's co-founder and beloved Pastor, Reverend Thomas Hooker, had died from epidemic sickness, the same one that Alse Young may have been hanged for. His death left an open position for the Pastor of Hartford's church, whose role was to guide the congregation in the daily application of the Christian faith. Whoever wanted the job would have to contend with Reverend Samuel Stone, the Teacher of Hartford's church, whose responsibility was over church doctrine. Stone held a powerful position within the community. His actions such as converting Mary Johnson during her witch trial had also earned him a lot of respect.
In the early 1650s, a quarrel broke out in Hartford which threatened to split the church in two. The details of this are too complicated for this post, but the conflict really took off in 1653 when Samuel Stone withdrew the candidacy of his student, Michael Wigglesworth, for the role of Pastor. This prevented a vote by the congregation, infuriating many conservative Puritans. Despite being a moderate Puritan, Stone believed in the authority of the church and that his position as Teacher allowed him to control a whole manner of internal matters, including the candidacy of its leadership. A vocal minority, led by Ruling Elder William Goodwin, felt that Stone had betrayed the ideas of congregationalism upon which Hooker had founded Hartford.
This quarrel went on for several years, spilling over into the courts in Massachusetts. Many Puritan leaders saw the whole event as a disgrace, since religious strife was seen as an act of the devil. The quarrel ended in 1659 with the minority removing themselves from Hartford and settling in Hadley, Massachusetts. This took away many devoted members from Hartford's church, and Samuel Stone was left an embittered man.
Looking at the conditions in Hartford in 1662, it's unsurprising that things would quickly get out of hand. Religious turmoil, both past and ongoing, was fresh in everybody's minds. Combined with the uncertainty of the colony's political future, it was a time of great paranoia for Hartford. It would only take a spark to set it off, which eventually came in the form of a death and a possession.
Elizabeth Kelly
On March 23, 1662, 8-year-old Elizabeth Kelly returned home from the morning church service, accompanied by her neighbour, Judith Ayres. Judith Ayres and her husband, William Ayres, had somewhat of a mixed reputation. Although the Ayreses were rather wealthy landowners, they frequently got into trouble. William had been convicted of stealing multiple times, and both of them had posted multiple bonds to ensure their good behaviour. Additionally, Judith Ayres had to terminate her second child in order to save her life, the emotional trauma from which may explain the unusually close relationship between her and Elizabeth Kelly.
Once they arrived at the Kelly household, Goody Ayres served Elizabeth some broth from a pot hanging over the fire. John and Bethia Kelly, Elizabeth's parents, protested that the broth was too hot, but Elizabeth drank it all anyway. Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth immediately complained of stomach pains. John then gave Elizabeth powdered angelica root, an herb usually used to ward of witchcraft, which seemed to cure her pain. Later that afternoon, Elizabeth went back to town to attend the afternoon church service. She arrived home that evening without any complaints.
That night, while in bed next to her father, Elizabeth Kelly suddenly woke up and began to scream.
"Father! Father! Help me! Help me! Goodwife Ayres is upon me! She chokes me! She kneels on my belly. She will break my bowels. She will make me black and blue! Oh father! Will you not help me!"John tried to calm Elizabeth down, but with little success. She continued again the morning after.
“Goody Ayres torments me! She pricks me with pins! She will kill me! Oh father, set on the great furnace and scald her! Get a broad axe and cut of her head. If you cannot get a broad axe, get the narrow and chop off her head!”Word spread, and some of their neighbours came in to visit Elizabeth the next day, including Rebecca Greensmith and Goody Ayres. When Elizabeth saw Ayres, she asked "Why do you torment me and prick me?" Ayres sat next to Elizabeth and quietly told her that she would bring her a "lace to set upon her dressing" if she stopped speaking against her. Soon after, Elizabeth became calm and fell asleep.
That night, Elizabeth began to scream once more. This time, she did not stop. She cried out against Goody Ayres and asked her father to go to the magistrates to punish her. Elizabeth continued like this for another day and night, until she finally cried:
"Goodwife Ayres chokes me!"Upon saying this, Elizabeth collapsed, dead.
The Beginning of the Hartford Trials
Upon Elizabeth's death, an investigation ensued. Its purpose was to find out if a supernatural crime had been committed. Judith Ayres was a prime suspect, and many people, including John Kelly, were set on proving her guilt.
This started with an examination of the corpse. A common test of witchcraft was to have the suspected witch touch the murdered corpse. If blood appeared where they touched, it was a sign they had killed them through witchcraft. When Goody Ayres was brought before the body, no blood was found wherever she touched. However, after Ayres had left, a great red spot appeared on Elizabeth's cheek next to where she had stood. This was good evidence, but more was needed.
Five days after Elizabeth's death, an autopsy was performed by Bray Rossiter, a physician from a neighbouring town. This was only the second autopsy ever performed in New England, and Rossiter himself seemed to have a rather limited understanding of corpses. The autopsy found that the body was "pliable, without stiffness or contraction", noting that "experience of dead bodies renders such symptoms unusual". It also found that areas of the flesh "had a deep blue tincture." With our modern understanding, we know that these "unusual" findings were the result of the cessation of rigor mortis and the pooling of blood due to gravity. Rossiter, however, took these as signs of an unnatural cause of death.
The trials began soon after, and both William and Judith Ayres were implicated. At the time, Increase Mather wrote that two people in Hartford, possibly the Ayreses, were given a trial by swimming, whereby the victim's hands and legs were tied together before being thrown into water. If the victim floated, it was a sign that they were a witch. When the Ayreses were given this test, they both floated to the surface "after the manner of a buoy." When a skeptical volunteer offered to jump in himself, he was found to sink. It seemed like their fates were sealed. But luckily for the Ayreses, the prison they were held in was not heavily guarded, and the couple were easily broken out by some friends. The Ayreses fled to Rhode Island, leaving almost everything behind, including two sons of 5 and 8 years old.
Unfortunately, this escape only escalated the hysteria in Hartford. Accusations began to fly across the town. Before long, there was another trial for witchcraft. Hartford residents, Mary and Andrew Sanford, were indicted for "familiarity with Satan". Details of the trial are unclear, including the names of the accusers, but we do know that the charges against them included fortune telling, an act that suggested contact with preternatural forces. Mary was found guilty and presumably hanged, while Andrew was acquitted and later moved to Milford where he remarried.
This was far from the end of the Hartford trials. Later that year, a new catalyst emerged which would accelerate the violence into a full-blown witch hunt.
Ann Cole
Ann Cole was the sixteen-year-old daughter of John Cole who, according to historian Richard Ross, was a “prominent member of the conservative Congregationalist minority in the Hartford Church and an enemy of Samuel Stone’s progressive policies.” Their family was beset by many troubles such as the ongoing controversy in the church, a lack of inheritance causing financial issues, and having two male family members who were lame. Additionally, the exodus of many conservative congregationalist church members to Hadley, Massachusetts had had a detrimental effect on Ann's marital prospects.
In the midst of the first trials in Hartford, Ann began having fits. This was promptly investigated by a team of ministers, led by Samuel Stone, possibly eager to prove himself still capable as a spiritual leader. Among them was Reverend John Whiting, who wrote an account of this event. Ann experienced "extremely violent bodily motions," speaking about how "a company of familiars of the evill one ... were contriving how to carry out mischievous designes, against some and especially against her." Whiting continues, "after some time of unintelligible mutterings, the discourse passed into a Dutch tone." Although a Dutch family was living in town, Reverend Stone declared that it was impossible for Ann to imitate a Dutch accent so accurately without being familiar with it herself.
During a "day of prayer" held specially for her, Ann was displayed publicly in the Wyllys mansion with two other afflicted women, who also began having fits. During this extraordinary assembly, Ann accused several residents in Hartford of witchcraft, including Rebecca Greensmith, whose subsequent actions would raise this story to dramatic new heights.
The trial of Rebecca Greensmith
Rebecca, and her husband Nathaniel Greensmith, had very poor reputations in Hartford. Nathaniel was described as "a small wiry and quarrelsome man." He had accumulated a significant amount of property as a farmer, but also had constant run-ins with the law, being previously convicted on multiple counts of thievery, as well as assault and battery. Rebecca Greensmith was described by Whiting as "a lewd, ignorant, considerably aged woman." She was twice widowed, had extramarital relationships with other men, and was a heavy drinker. Before the two were married, Rebecca was afraid of Nathaniel having heard "so much of him." The marriage was almost certainly unhappy.
The timing of events in this next part are a bit fuzzy, and although I think I've got it right, I can't say so with full confidence. My sources can't agree on the timing either.
By the time Rebecca was accused by Ann Cole, she was already imprisoned "upon suspicion of witchcraft," as a result of the previous panic. Hartford had good reasons for suspecting Greensmith, since she had visited the home of Elizabeth Kelly during her illness, and she was friends with Goody Ayres. Both Rebecca and her husband were indicted and were made to attend the hearing.
During the proceedings, Nathaniel maintained his innocence. But shockingly, when Rebecca heard the accusations made against her by Ann Cole, she confessed her guilt on all charges, and more. Rebecca claimed that although she had not yet made a covenant with devil, she had promised to have several meetings with him, including a "merry meeting" at Christmas. Upon hearing this, the aging Reverend Samuel Stone, who was present in court, proclaimed the "exceeding heinousness and hazard of that dreadful sin," pointing out that the devil loved Christmas (the holiday was banned in the colonies). Nathaniel was allowed to go home, while Rebecca had to stay in prison. The court was to reconvene in a few weeks, and both of them had to attend.
As an aside, Farmington resident Mary Barnes was also indicted for witchcraft during this chaos along with her husband, Thomas, who would be acquitted. We know tragically little about Mary, despite her being the last witch executed in Connecticut. We do know that she was an illiterate servant, she was previously accused of adultery, and she was not a member of the Farmington church. Her unsavoury reputation probably helped the court reach their decision to convict.
Back in Hartford, Nathaniel Greensmith visited Rebecca in prison and tried to persuade her not to implicate him, even bringing up the wellbeing of her children. He allegedly said something to the effect of:
"Now thou hast confest against thyself, let me alone and say nothing of me, and I will be good unto thy children."This attempt did not work. Instead, Rebecca doubled down and expanded her story. When Reverends Whiting and Haynes interviewed her in prison, she told them that the devil appeared to her as a deer or a fawn, and that she would meet him in the company of other witches and familiars who took the form of various creatures. She also claimed that "the devil had frequent use of her body with much seeming (but indeed horrible, hellish) delight to her."
Rebecca had thoroughly condemned herself, but that was not all. Possibly out of anger, or revenge, or "out of love to my husbands soule", she accused Nathaniel of being a witch. During the trial, Rebecca testified that her husband possessed unusual strength despite "being a man of little body and weake to my apprhension." She shared stories about familiars following him around, such as "a red creature" and "two creatures like dogs" which he said were foxes.
But Rebecca did not stop at testifying against her husband. She began implicating many others who had been mentioned in Ann Cole's mutterings:
"I also testify that, I being in the wood at a meeting, there was with me Goody [Elizabeth] Seager, Goodwife Sanford and Goodwife Ayres; and at another time there was a meeting under a tree in the green by our house, & there was there James Wakeley, Peter Grants wife, Goodwife Ayres & Henry Palmer's wife (Katherine) of Wethersfield, & Goody Seager, & there we danced, & had a bottle of sack. It was in the night, & something like a cat called me out to the meeting, & I was in Mr. Varlett's orchard with Mrs. Judith Varlett & she told me that she was much troubled with the Marshall Jonathan Gilbert, & cried & she said if it lay in her power she would do him a mischief, or what hurt she could."For Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith, and Mary Barnes, no further investigation was needed. The three condemned witches were all hung on the same day in January 1663. They would be the last witches executed in Connecticut, and the last in New England until the events at Salem in 1692. But for those who Rebecca Greensmith had accused, this would not be the end of their ordeal.
Next Part
2023.12.03 18:06 E_streak The entire history of the Connecticut Witch Trials because why not (Part 1)
(Full Length: 12,000 words)
I just wanted to make a Wittebanes fanfic, now I've done something unhinged.
Out of all the things I could dedicate my time to, I was certainly not expecting this. For one, the history here is not only obscure, but specifically about Connecticut: a small state in a big country which I don't live in. I was originally researching for a Wittebanes prequel story (which I intend to continue) and initially wanted to summarise this history for myself. But after engrossing myself in these events, I've found that it was way too interesting not to share.
This post is mostly aimed at those wanting to write a Wittebanes prequel themselves. As a history nerd, my ideal historically inspired story would be as true to reality as possible, with every detail of setting, perspectives and culture rendered fairly. But not all historically inspired stories have to be this way. If someone comes away with inspiration for a character, or a clearer idea of the setting, or just an interesting factoid, it would have been worth writing this.
I believe that the Connecticut Witch Trials are a severely underrated event in history. It's a deeper look into the conditions and mindsets that can lead to hysteria. It also presents a microcosm 1600s American history, a period which often gets skipped over in the cultural zeitgeist. Although today it stands in the shadow of the Salem trials, the events in Connecticut reveal a much more complex reality than what pop culture suggests. It was much more than angry pilgrims hanging midwives.
I also want to acknowledge the many wonderful historians who put so much work piecing all of these events together. Much of the evidence lies among piles of letters, court histories, journal entries and genealogical connections, which all had to be collected and arranged to form a cohesive story. Without their work, previous and ongoing, some of these people's stories may have been lost forever.
I've blabbed on long enough, let's begin.
Part 2
Part 3
Contents:
In Europe and England
The early modern period (around 1500 - 1800) was a time of great religious turmoil across Europe. The major conflict was between the Catholic Church and several Protestant groups. In addition to the ridiculous amount of bloodshed from religious wars, both sides burned (or hanged) their fair share of witches. During this period around 30,000 - 60,000 people, mostly women, were executed as witches. This was thanks, in no small part, to Heinrich Kramer's contribution to the world, the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century rant disguised as religious treatise about why women are dumb and weak and how using torture to extract confessions is perfectly fine.
Narrowing our scope to Stuart Era England, one of the big religious feuds here was between the Anglicans and the Puritans. Unlike other protestant groups that wanted nothing to do with Catholicism, the Anglican church walked a middle ground, keeping some traditions while getting rid of others. This did not sit well with the Puritans, who hated Catholics more than anything. The Puritans believed in living a pure life dedicated to God, and from their point of view, the Anglican Church's reforms did not go far enough. In their communities, they pushed others to adopt their way of life by getting rid of anything they considered sinful. Religious artworks? Idolatry! Christmas? Not in the bible! Ban it! Alcohol? Hmm... I suppose we could let that one sli... Wait, are those people toasting to each other's health? Heathens! Infidels! Yea, the very Devil himself!
Fast-forwarding through some history, after King James I finished cracking down on Catholicism (they tried to blow him up), he began cracking down on Puritan extremism within his congregation. After suspending some Puritan priests and resisting their proposed reforms, the Puritans felt persecuted by the king. In 1620, some Puritans set off on the Mayflower to found Plymouth colony, but we are not concerned about them. In 1625, Charles I ascended the throne, which kicked off an era of political turmoil that eventually led to the 1641 English Civil War. In 1630, amid these unfavourable conditions, a fleet of 1000 Puritan colonists led by John Winthrop set off for the New World. They had a goal of founding a faraway utopic paradise of reformed Christianity. It is these colonists, and those who followed, whom we are concerned with.
For some closure, the Civil War ended for Charles I in 1649 when he briefly became the shortest monarch in Europe. Upon Charles's execution, Oliver Cromwell, a staunch Puritan, took power. Cromwell's reign as Lord Protector was just as oppressive, if not more so, when compared to the monarchy. In England, there was no theatre, no gaming, no pubs, no sports, and no fun. Beyond England, they fought wars against the Dutch, and inflicted genocide against the Irish. After Cromwell died in 1658, Charles II was hastily restored as King (of bling). Upon ascension in 1660, Charles reversed the Puritan reforms and executed the regicides, including Cromwell posthumously (whose head went on a cross-country tour for 300 years). It was the end for Puritanism in England, but the beginning of our story.
In America
Winthrop's fleet arrived at Salem in 1630, part of the already existing Massachusetts Bay Colony. This was followed by a huge wave of Puritan settlers as part of the Great Migration, among them some key players in our story, including Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Roger Ludlow. Their quest to build a "City upon a Hill" began here. However, trouble quickly brewed for the settlers.
The Puritans aimed to live a life of purity, but what a pure life looked like was different from person to person. To quote Atun-Shei Productions, "Puritans were not a monolith." In fact, the early American colonists proved to be incredibly factional. Big debates about doctrine broke out on a regular basis, whose substance may seem trivial to us, but would sometimes lead to government-stopping crises. Such was the case with Anne Hutchinson and the Free Grace Controversy, which caused political turmoil from 1636 to 1638, ending in Hutchinson's exile to Rhode Island. Exile was a common punishment for religious dissidents, but this often led to new settlements further into native territory.
Of course we can't talk about the colonies without acknowledging those who were there first. Relations between the English and native Indians quickly turned sour as the settlers aggressively expanded their territory through often dubious land purchases. In 1636, tensions exploded into the Pequot War, a brutal conflict which ended with the utter decimation of the Pequot tribe. The level of violence with which the English waged war horrified the Indians, including those who had allied with the English. Following this, relations between European settlers and the natives remained tense and both sides became increasingly suspicious of the other. This would culminate in 1675 with the outbreak of King Philip's War, the deadliest conflict per capita in American history.
There is so much history here to talk about, but the most important lesson is this: early American colonial life was incredibly stressful on nearly all levels. Imagine what that was like for the average colonist: war brewing back home, political and religious turmoil, an ever-looming threat of native attacks, and not to mention the difficulty of uprooting your entire life and having to fend for yourself in an unknown land. Using the word "afraid" here would be an understatement. This fact must be perfectly understood, since it is fear that fuels mass hysteria.
Establishing Connecticut
Around the time that Connecticut was settled, colonists were not just divided by religious differences, but also by cultural differences. Groups and congregations came from many different parts of England, and not all of them were friendly with each other. Naturally, many groups desired to split from the others and establish their own towns.
The first three settlements of Connecticut Colony were: Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.
Wethersfield is the oldest town, settled in 1634, by a small party of ten men. Honestly, there's not much to say about this town's founding. However, Wethersfield would be the home of a few important accused witches.
Windsor was founded next, in 1635. This town was settled by three competing groups from different parts of England, one from Plymouth colony, one from London which was led by the Stiles family, and one from Dorchester which was led by Roger Ludlow. After the Plymouth party retracted their claim and left, the Stiles party and Ludlow's party just had to live with each other, causing some tension. Windsor is where the witch hysteria would start here in 1647.
Hartford was founded in 1636 by a party of religious dissidents, led by Reverends Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone. Hooker was dissatisfied with the limitation of voting rights to freemen, AKA non-commoners. After being granted permission by John Winthrop, Hooker and Stone moved their congregation to Hartford. It was there, in 1638, that the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was ratified by all three towns. This document is considered by some to be the world's first constitution for a self-governing people. Despite pioneering modern democracy, Hartford would later be the site of the infamous 1662 Hartford witch trials.
In 1642, the Capital Laws of Connecticut were put into place, a list of twelve capital crimes punishable by death. The second entry on that list, below idolatry, was the statement:
Belief in Witchcraft:
If there is one thing to be clear on, it is this.
The Puritans, like nearly everyone in the Christian world, believed in magic. They believed in dark magic, and that the devil spread his evil influence through human agents, called witches. Witches were believed to be responsible for calamities such as disease, foul weather, and crop failure. Witches supposedly had familiars (supernatural companions) and could project their spirit to torment others. Everyone was mystified by it, including King James I who wrote a treatise on Daemonologie, and even oversaw the deadly witch trials in Scotland himself.
Another crucial aspect to note is that during this time, religion and science were two sides of the same coin. People weren't afraid of science, in fact, people believed that studying God's creation was an important part of religious life. However, rigorous scientific methodology had a long way to go, and where science failed to explain, religious doctrine was treated as an equally good source for answers.
Not all magic was treated as the work of the devil, either. White magic, practiced by cunning folk, was a benevolent subset of magic whose purpose was to heal ailments, ward off curses, and discover black witches. In England, cunning folk were a normal part of society. Cunning folk offered comfort and explanations in people's stressful lives, and this reputation often made them immune to the witch hunts. If a white witch was put on trial for witchcraft, the local community would petition for their freedom. This resulted in very few executions of cunning folk during the English witch hunts.
The Puritan clergy, meanwhile, saw white magic as an affront to God. In their view, cunning folk were just as guilty of corrupting their soul as black witches, and even more so by encouraging others to do the same. In New England, Puritan ministers often preached against this healing magic. Practicing white magic could arouse suspicion of more devious magic, though it is unclear to what degree this affected the trials in Connecticut.
However, not every Puritan thought this way. While they all believed in magic, they were not equally as ruthless against it. During the Connecticut Witch Trials, there were people like Roger Ludlow and Samuel Stone who were actively involved in finding witches. But on the other side, there were people like John Winthrop Jr. who believed in witchcraft but were skeptical of its harms and were in favour of rational explanations.
Witch Hunts Elsewhere
As mentioned in earlier sections, the witch hunts in Europe were much bloodier events compared to those in New England. In addition to theological texts like Malleus Maleficarum and Daemonologie, legal handbooks like A Guide to Grand-Jury Men and The Countrey Justice codified witch trial procedures into a set of guidelines, which certainly influenced witch-finding practices in New England. These texts recommended the use of body searches to find a witch's mark: a blemish thought to be the place where the devil or a familiar suckled on a witch's skin when making a covenant.
Throughout these trials, women made up the vast majority of the accused. It was common belief at the time that women were the mentally and spiritually weaker sex an were much more susceptible to the devil's temptations. King James I wrote in Daemonologie:
In 1647, Hopkins published The Discovery of Witches, where he outlined his witch-hunting methods. While Hopkins would die that year, along with the witch hunt that he had created, it was in that same year that New England hanged its first witch. Soon, Hopkins' techniques would be put into practice in Connecticut, and much later in Salem.
A Holy Mission
The Puritans had a strong belief about their mission to America: They were expecting to usher in the second coming of Christ. This sentiment may seem strange, but understanding this will better contextualise why such extreme action was taken against witches in New England.
Amid the English civil war and subsequent overthrow of the monarchy, it seemed apparent to the ministers of New England that the end-times were coming. The colonists believed that they were on the front lines of a new Holy War against Satan and his followers. They believed it was their duty to frustrate the Devil and deplete his forces. This was done by converting many native Indians over to Christianity and being constantly on their guard against heresies and temptation amongst the congregation.
The Puritans' location on the other side of the world played a large role too. They believed that they were in the devil's territory, and that the Indians were his evil agents. This drove fear on two levels: fear of physical attack, and fear of spiritual corruption. Paranoia about fellow colonists associating with the Indians eventually led to fears of spreading witchcraft. The colonists believed that it was only through conversion and religious commitment that they could avoid corruption.
It was the Puritans' destiny to overcome the devil's influence and to establish God's church in his lands. This was apparent when epidemic disease began to devastate the Indian tribes. Many Puritans took it as a sign that God was on their side, and that by "sweeping away great multitudes of the Natives by the small Pox", God was making "room for us there."
Of course, the Puritans were not so self-reflective when disease spread back to them in 1647.
First, an accusation was made against someone in town. This was usually done, not by a designated witch hunter (not even Matthew Hopkins did this), but by fellow residents. In Connecticut, there were a set of guidelines for what counted as a proper accusation:
Once enough evidence was collected, it was sent to the Grand Court in Hartford. If the evidence was deemed sufficient, a grand jury was summoned for indictment. If indicted, the accused would be summoned, and a witchcraft trial would begin. A typical example of an indictment went like this:
The condemned witch would then be brought into a public place, where a minister will deliver a sermon to teach a lesson to the crowd. There, the witch would die, usually after a long period of strangulation. The body would then be cut down and buried in an unmarked grave.
Next Part
submitted by E_streak to TheOwlHouse [link] [comments]
I just wanted to make a Wittebanes fanfic, now I've done something unhinged.
Out of all the things I could dedicate my time to, I was certainly not expecting this. For one, the history here is not only obscure, but specifically about Connecticut: a small state in a big country which I don't live in. I was originally researching for a Wittebanes prequel story (which I intend to continue) and initially wanted to summarise this history for myself. But after engrossing myself in these events, I've found that it was way too interesting not to share.
This post is mostly aimed at those wanting to write a Wittebanes prequel themselves. As a history nerd, my ideal historically inspired story would be as true to reality as possible, with every detail of setting, perspectives and culture rendered fairly. But not all historically inspired stories have to be this way. If someone comes away with inspiration for a character, or a clearer idea of the setting, or just an interesting factoid, it would have been worth writing this.
I believe that the Connecticut Witch Trials are a severely underrated event in history. It's a deeper look into the conditions and mindsets that can lead to hysteria. It also presents a microcosm 1600s American history, a period which often gets skipped over in the cultural zeitgeist. Although today it stands in the shadow of the Salem trials, the events in Connecticut reveal a much more complex reality than what pop culture suggests. It was much more than angry pilgrims hanging midwives.
I also want to acknowledge the many wonderful historians who put so much work piecing all of these events together. Much of the evidence lies among piles of letters, court histories, journal entries and genealogical connections, which all had to be collected and arranged to form a cohesive story. Without their work, previous and ongoing, some of these people's stories may have been lost forever.
I've blabbed on long enough, let's begin.
Part 2
Part 3
Contents:
- Historical Background
- In Europe and England
- In America
- Establishing Connecticut
- Causes of the Trials
- Belief in Witchcraft
- Witch Hunts Elsewhere
- A Holy Mission
- The Basic Process
- 1647 - 1654: The Early Witch Trials
- Alse (Alice) Young
- Mary Johnson
- Joanne and John Carrington
- Chaos in Fairfield
- Lydia Gilbert
- 1662 - 1663: The Hartford Witch Panic
- Background
- Elizabeth Kelly
- The Beginning of the Hartford Trials
- Ann Cole
- The Trial of Rebecca Greensmith
- Level Heads
- John Winthrop Jr.
- Elizabeth Seager
- Katherine Harrison
- Gershom Bulkeley
- Sources
Historical Background
This section is not about the Connecticut Trials themselves, but it covers everything that came to influence it. This information here will give you the gist of the historical setting, but if 20 years of backstory to a backstory doesn't interest you, skip to the next section.
In Europe and England
The early modern period (around 1500 - 1800) was a time of great religious turmoil across Europe. The major conflict was between the Catholic Church and several Protestant groups. In addition to the ridiculous amount of bloodshed from religious wars, both sides burned (or hanged) their fair share of witches. During this period around 30,000 - 60,000 people, mostly women, were executed as witches. This was thanks, in no small part, to Heinrich Kramer's contribution to the world, the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century rant disguised as religious treatise about why women are dumb and weak and how using torture to extract confessions is perfectly fine.
Narrowing our scope to Stuart Era England, one of the big religious feuds here was between the Anglicans and the Puritans. Unlike other protestant groups that wanted nothing to do with Catholicism, the Anglican church walked a middle ground, keeping some traditions while getting rid of others. This did not sit well with the Puritans, who hated Catholics more than anything. The Puritans believed in living a pure life dedicated to God, and from their point of view, the Anglican Church's reforms did not go far enough. In their communities, they pushed others to adopt their way of life by getting rid of anything they considered sinful. Religious artworks? Idolatry! Christmas? Not in the bible! Ban it! Alcohol? Hmm... I suppose we could let that one sli... Wait, are those people toasting to each other's health? Heathens! Infidels! Yea, the very Devil himself!
Fast-forwarding through some history, after King James I finished cracking down on Catholicism (they tried to blow him up), he began cracking down on Puritan extremism within his congregation. After suspending some Puritan priests and resisting their proposed reforms, the Puritans felt persecuted by the king. In 1620, some Puritans set off on the Mayflower to found Plymouth colony, but we are not concerned about them. In 1625, Charles I ascended the throne, which kicked off an era of political turmoil that eventually led to the 1641 English Civil War. In 1630, amid these unfavourable conditions, a fleet of 1000 Puritan colonists led by John Winthrop set off for the New World. They had a goal of founding a faraway utopic paradise of reformed Christianity. It is these colonists, and those who followed, whom we are concerned with.
For some closure, the Civil War ended for Charles I in 1649 when he briefly became the shortest monarch in Europe. Upon Charles's execution, Oliver Cromwell, a staunch Puritan, took power. Cromwell's reign as Lord Protector was just as oppressive, if not more so, when compared to the monarchy. In England, there was no theatre, no gaming, no pubs, no sports, and no fun. Beyond England, they fought wars against the Dutch, and inflicted genocide against the Irish. After Cromwell died in 1658, Charles II was hastily restored as King (of bling). Upon ascension in 1660, Charles reversed the Puritan reforms and executed the regicides, including Cromwell posthumously (whose head went on a cross-country tour for 300 years). It was the end for Puritanism in England, but the beginning of our story.
In America
Winthrop's fleet arrived at Salem in 1630, part of the already existing Massachusetts Bay Colony. This was followed by a huge wave of Puritan settlers as part of the Great Migration, among them some key players in our story, including Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Roger Ludlow. Their quest to build a "City upon a Hill" began here. However, trouble quickly brewed for the settlers.
The Puritans aimed to live a life of purity, but what a pure life looked like was different from person to person. To quote Atun-Shei Productions, "Puritans were not a monolith." In fact, the early American colonists proved to be incredibly factional. Big debates about doctrine broke out on a regular basis, whose substance may seem trivial to us, but would sometimes lead to government-stopping crises. Such was the case with Anne Hutchinson and the Free Grace Controversy, which caused political turmoil from 1636 to 1638, ending in Hutchinson's exile to Rhode Island. Exile was a common punishment for religious dissidents, but this often led to new settlements further into native territory.
Of course we can't talk about the colonies without acknowledging those who were there first. Relations between the English and native Indians quickly turned sour as the settlers aggressively expanded their territory through often dubious land purchases. In 1636, tensions exploded into the Pequot War, a brutal conflict which ended with the utter decimation of the Pequot tribe. The level of violence with which the English waged war horrified the Indians, including those who had allied with the English. Following this, relations between European settlers and the natives remained tense and both sides became increasingly suspicious of the other. This would culminate in 1675 with the outbreak of King Philip's War, the deadliest conflict per capita in American history.
There is so much history here to talk about, but the most important lesson is this: early American colonial life was incredibly stressful on nearly all levels. Imagine what that was like for the average colonist: war brewing back home, political and religious turmoil, an ever-looming threat of native attacks, and not to mention the difficulty of uprooting your entire life and having to fend for yourself in an unknown land. Using the word "afraid" here would be an understatement. This fact must be perfectly understood, since it is fear that fuels mass hysteria.
Establishing Connecticut
Around the time that Connecticut was settled, colonists were not just divided by religious differences, but also by cultural differences. Groups and congregations came from many different parts of England, and not all of them were friendly with each other. Naturally, many groups desired to split from the others and establish their own towns.
The first three settlements of Connecticut Colony were: Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.
Wethersfield is the oldest town, settled in 1634, by a small party of ten men. Honestly, there's not much to say about this town's founding. However, Wethersfield would be the home of a few important accused witches.
Windsor was founded next, in 1635. This town was settled by three competing groups from different parts of England, one from Plymouth colony, one from London which was led by the Stiles family, and one from Dorchester which was led by Roger Ludlow. After the Plymouth party retracted their claim and left, the Stiles party and Ludlow's party just had to live with each other, causing some tension. Windsor is where the witch hysteria would start here in 1647.
Hartford was founded in 1636 by a party of religious dissidents, led by Reverends Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone. Hooker was dissatisfied with the limitation of voting rights to freemen, AKA non-commoners. After being granted permission by John Winthrop, Hooker and Stone moved their congregation to Hartford. It was there, in 1638, that the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was ratified by all three towns. This document is considered by some to be the world's first constitution for a self-governing people. Despite pioneering modern democracy, Hartford would later be the site of the infamous 1662 Hartford witch trials.
In 1642, the Capital Laws of Connecticut were put into place, a list of twelve capital crimes punishable by death. The second entry on that list, below idolatry, was the statement:
If any man or woman be a witch (that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit), they shall be put to death.This law cited the infamous line from the Book of Exodus as its justification:
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.The stage is now set for the first and statistically deadliest witch trials in America. 37 trials would take place, and 11 innocent people would hang. If you were made to stand trial, especially during the early years, the chance of receiving a death sentence was higher than anywhere else in America.
Causes of the Trials
This section discusses the contemporary attitudes and beliefs of Puritan New England, and how they contributed to the eventual hysteria in Connecticut. This will hopefully give you an idea for the different perspectives which you could explore, which could inform motives or characterisation.
Belief in Witchcraft:
If there is one thing to be clear on, it is this.
The Puritans, like nearly everyone in the Christian world, believed in magic. They believed in dark magic, and that the devil spread his evil influence through human agents, called witches. Witches were believed to be responsible for calamities such as disease, foul weather, and crop failure. Witches supposedly had familiars (supernatural companions) and could project their spirit to torment others. Everyone was mystified by it, including King James I who wrote a treatise on Daemonologie, and even oversaw the deadly witch trials in Scotland himself.
Another crucial aspect to note is that during this time, religion and science were two sides of the same coin. People weren't afraid of science, in fact, people believed that studying God's creation was an important part of religious life. However, rigorous scientific methodology had a long way to go, and where science failed to explain, religious doctrine was treated as an equally good source for answers.
Not all magic was treated as the work of the devil, either. White magic, practiced by cunning folk, was a benevolent subset of magic whose purpose was to heal ailments, ward off curses, and discover black witches. In England, cunning folk were a normal part of society. Cunning folk offered comfort and explanations in people's stressful lives, and this reputation often made them immune to the witch hunts. If a white witch was put on trial for witchcraft, the local community would petition for their freedom. This resulted in very few executions of cunning folk during the English witch hunts.
The Puritan clergy, meanwhile, saw white magic as an affront to God. In their view, cunning folk were just as guilty of corrupting their soul as black witches, and even more so by encouraging others to do the same. In New England, Puritan ministers often preached against this healing magic. Practicing white magic could arouse suspicion of more devious magic, though it is unclear to what degree this affected the trials in Connecticut.
However, not every Puritan thought this way. While they all believed in magic, they were not equally as ruthless against it. During the Connecticut Witch Trials, there were people like Roger Ludlow and Samuel Stone who were actively involved in finding witches. But on the other side, there were people like John Winthrop Jr. who believed in witchcraft but were skeptical of its harms and were in favour of rational explanations.
Witch Hunts Elsewhere
As mentioned in earlier sections, the witch hunts in Europe were much bloodier events compared to those in New England. In addition to theological texts like Malleus Maleficarum and Daemonologie, legal handbooks like A Guide to Grand-Jury Men and The Countrey Justice codified witch trial procedures into a set of guidelines, which certainly influenced witch-finding practices in New England. These texts recommended the use of body searches to find a witch's mark: a blemish thought to be the place where the devil or a familiar suckled on a witch's skin when making a covenant.
Throughout these trials, women made up the vast majority of the accused. It was common belief at the time that women were the mentally and spiritually weaker sex an were much more susceptible to the devil's temptations. King James I wrote in Daemonologie:
"What can be the cause that there are twenty women given to that craft, where there is one man?"The greatest influence on the New England trials, especially in Salem, came from the infamous Matthew Hopkins. In his self-proclaimed role as Witchfinder General, he presided over a reign of terror across East Anglia, and was responsible for the deaths of around 300 people in three years. Disgustingly, his services were done for profit, possibly accumulating £1000 by the end of his career. His methods were ruthlessly efficient, employing tortures such as sleep deprivation, pricking, and swimming witches to forcibly extract confessions.
"The reason is easy, for as that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be entrapped in these grosse snares of the Devil, as was over-well proved to be true, by the Serpent's deceiving of Eve at the beginning, which makes him the homelier with that sex [since then]."
In 1647, Hopkins published The Discovery of Witches, where he outlined his witch-hunting methods. While Hopkins would die that year, along with the witch hunt that he had created, it was in that same year that New England hanged its first witch. Soon, Hopkins' techniques would be put into practice in Connecticut, and much later in Salem.
A Holy Mission
The Puritans had a strong belief about their mission to America: They were expecting to usher in the second coming of Christ. This sentiment may seem strange, but understanding this will better contextualise why such extreme action was taken against witches in New England.
Amid the English civil war and subsequent overthrow of the monarchy, it seemed apparent to the ministers of New England that the end-times were coming. The colonists believed that they were on the front lines of a new Holy War against Satan and his followers. They believed it was their duty to frustrate the Devil and deplete his forces. This was done by converting many native Indians over to Christianity and being constantly on their guard against heresies and temptation amongst the congregation.
The Puritans' location on the other side of the world played a large role too. They believed that they were in the devil's territory, and that the Indians were his evil agents. This drove fear on two levels: fear of physical attack, and fear of spiritual corruption. Paranoia about fellow colonists associating with the Indians eventually led to fears of spreading witchcraft. The colonists believed that it was only through conversion and religious commitment that they could avoid corruption.
It was the Puritans' destiny to overcome the devil's influence and to establish God's church in his lands. This was apparent when epidemic disease began to devastate the Indian tribes. Many Puritans took it as a sign that God was on their side, and that by "sweeping away great multitudes of the Natives by the small Pox", God was making "room for us there."
Of course, the Puritans were not so self-reflective when disease spread back to them in 1647.
The Basic Process
Unlike Salem, the Connecticut Witch Trials are not very well documented. There is going to be a disparity of information known about each victim. However, each trial usually followed the same pattern. The Connecticut Trials were particularly stringent on following due process. To avoid repeating myself over and over, I will lay the basic pattern down here.First, an accusation was made against someone in town. This was usually done, not by a designated witch hunter (not even Matthew Hopkins did this), but by fellow residents. In Connecticut, there were a set of guidelines for what counted as a proper accusation:
Grounds for the Examination of a Witch
- Notorious defamation by a Common report of the people is a ground for suspicion.
- A further ground for strict examination is if a fellow witch give testimony in his examination, or death, that such a person is a witch. But this is not sufficient for conviction or condemnation.
- If after cursing there follows death or at least mischief to the party.
- If after quarrelling or threatening, a present mischief doth follow for parties devilishly deposed after cursing do use threatenings and that also is a great presumption against them.
- If the party suspected be the son or daughter, the servant or familiar friend, near neighbors or old companions of a known or convicted witch, this also is a presumption for witchcraft
- If the party suspected have Devils marks…[and] no evident reason can be given for such mark.
- Lastly, if the party examined be unconstant and contrary to himself in his answers.
Once enough evidence was collected, it was sent to the Grand Court in Hartford. If the evidence was deemed sufficient, a grand jury was summoned for indictment. If indicted, the accused would be summoned, and a witchcraft trial would begin. A typical example of an indictment went like this:
Oftentimes in a trial, the accused witch would have to represent themselves in court without an attorney. When all the evidence was examined, the jury would deliver its verdict. If found guilty, the accused was sentenced. For the crime of witchcraft, a typical sentence was death by hanging.... thou art indicted ... that not having the feare of God before thine eyes thou hast entertained familiarity with Sathan the great enemy of God and mankind and by his helpe hast done works above the Course of Nature for which both according to the lawes of God and the established law of this Common wealth thou deservest to dye.
The condemned witch would then be brought into a public place, where a minister will deliver a sermon to teach a lesson to the crowd. There, the witch would die, usually after a long period of strangulation. The body would then be cut down and buried in an unmarked grave.
Next Part
2022.12.20 03:53 magat3ars Give your hot takes on music. I'll go first
- Kanye's music did not peak with MDBTF. Donda and Jesus is king are great albums. Donda more so tho. JIC has like a few good songs.
- Artists shouldn't be mad for having tiktok listeners. This has been a thing ever since the start of the internet. People hear a catchy tune or phrase, and that's all they know of the song. Now you have metrics for that second hand listening. You should use the tool that tiktok is. I hate seeing people complain then realise they fumbled and try to post hoc cater to tik Tok.
- 2014-18 was the best time for music. It felt like there was an explosion of sounds that have finally settled into more mature sounds. It felt like a new type of understanding of music was created. I will say that things have gotten a little less fun in the music scene. That level of quality back then wasn't kept up by most artists.
- it is fair to judge someone for the artist they listen to. I still listen to Kanye for example. My problem is that people don't want to go the full mile and introspect when their artist does fucked shit.
- Listening to drill music that directly and explicitly brings up assassination victims is weird for anyone to enjoy that. This is double weird for people using someone's musical ability for why they shouldn't face jail time. It makes me hope some people will experience gang related death in their family to understand.
- Female rappers are outshing male rappers right now. Sza is an artist that should be studied by other women entering RnB/hip hop. She is borderline perfect in not having to act like a man in her music. Nicki Minaj is a good example of a grandmother of music similar to Beyonce.
- Too many musicians now can't make their own music without needing a team behind them. The team behind musicians get too little credit while the musician gets way too much.
- Having a ghost writer is okay. People need to own up to it if they have one.
- Puritans for music are the dumbest people ever. It's kinda sad seeing people's brain shut off for a whole genre or person.
2022.09.16 10:44 Nanananabatperson Finding Common Ground with Wildly Different Styles
My husband and I have wildly different naming styles. We are looking for names to have fun during fertility treatments. I love names and have a list going. I’d love to find some names we’d like to actually consider and have a serious contender in boys, girls and neutral.
The problem is, we have very different styles. I love fun “hippy” names (Sunflower, Dandelion, Sunshine), puritanical style names (True, Reverie, Patience, Calamity, Mercy), angel names (Gabriel, Carmichael, Kabriel), uncommon names (Coral, Deirdre, Corabelle, Emil), and a couple very trendy names (Faelyn).
My husband wants names that are recognized as a name, are not overly religiously affiliated (we are atheists), are not super popular (we both have names where we have always had a couple others in our school and both names only got more popular) and are intuitive to spell.
The name we love, but for reasons that will soon become apparent, cannot use; Calcifer Cole.
Name we would use; Annabella Whim nn Anna (Aww-nah). This is especially meaningful because they would be an IVF baby with a planned c-section.
Names we like but are not our top contender and would like more suggestions like: - Huxley - Alistair - Arlo (Because of the musician but hard to get over that my husband grew up with a cat of that name) - Max - Jackie - Beatrix - Jaime - Wilfred - Louise (We love Bobs Burgers and Louise is our favorite character) - Electra - Cecilia (My grandmothers name, but it would be drama with my husbands family if we didn’t use one of his grandmas names too and I don’t like them) - Seriphina (We love His Dark Materials and it would be an “honor” name to my mom because it’s her favorite name)
I would especially like more off the wall names that we could use as middle names. Our last name starts with “C”, is long and is not intuitive to spell or pronounce.
submitted by Nanananabatperson to namenerds [link] [comments]
The problem is, we have very different styles. I love fun “hippy” names (Sunflower, Dandelion, Sunshine), puritanical style names (True, Reverie, Patience, Calamity, Mercy), angel names (Gabriel, Carmichael, Kabriel), uncommon names (Coral, Deirdre, Corabelle, Emil), and a couple very trendy names (Faelyn).
My husband wants names that are recognized as a name, are not overly religiously affiliated (we are atheists), are not super popular (we both have names where we have always had a couple others in our school and both names only got more popular) and are intuitive to spell.
The name we love, but for reasons that will soon become apparent, cannot use; Calcifer Cole.
Name we would use; Annabella Whim nn Anna (Aww-nah). This is especially meaningful because they would be an IVF baby with a planned c-section.
Names we like but are not our top contender and would like more suggestions like: - Huxley - Alistair - Arlo (Because of the musician but hard to get over that my husband grew up with a cat of that name) - Max - Jackie - Beatrix - Jaime - Wilfred - Louise (We love Bobs Burgers and Louise is our favorite character) - Electra - Cecilia (My grandmothers name, but it would be drama with my husbands family if we didn’t use one of his grandmas names too and I don’t like them) - Seriphina (We love His Dark Materials and it would be an “honor” name to my mom because it’s her favorite name)
I would especially like more off the wall names that we could use as middle names. Our last name starts with “C”, is long and is not intuitive to spell or pronounce.
2022.04.18 18:26 Lord__Laverniere Top 5 Reasons to NOT become a Male Feminist: Lessons from Joss Whedon
 | Message me the secret passcode: Millionaire to access more content. submitted by Lord__Laverniere to Crimsonpill [link] [comments] Introduction: Joss Whedon has become the "poster boy" for both why you shouldn't become a male feminist and for why you should be cautious of ever joining left-wing groups. The first one because by being an advocate makes you a target. The second one is because we see Left-wing groups are run on emotions, not rationality. As Axel Kaiser writes, " the excessive emotionality of the younger generations nowadays lacks normative frameworks capable of orienting their lives beyond their mere subjectivity." By joining a highly emotional group you become at risk of the group turning on you. It happened to Joss, it even happened to JK Rowling! 1- You won't hold the Moral High Ground The first group of guys who join the male feminist movement is guys who feel they are holding the moral high ground over other guys. These guys believe that they are better than other men because they acknowledge past injustices towards women. The mistake they make is that they equate feminism with historical injustice towards women. However, these couldn't be further from the truth modern feminism is about female superiority not about equality. Lauren Southern, "Feminism is not a synonym for equality...feminists are creating a world reverse sexism." 2-You won't Get Laid The second group of guys who join the feminist cause is guys who believe that by seeking female approval through feminists that they will get laid. However, the opposite is the case most likely if you become a male feminist you will be friend-zoned. At the same time, even if you do manage to get laid it will be used against you later. We have seen how many female journalists use the fact that Whedon could hook up with the women around him as a tool to damage his reputation. Kai Cole(Ex-Wife writes): "Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong[having consensual sex with his actresses], he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals." His wife accuses him of cheating. However, for many feminist journalists him hooking up with any actress is simply wrong in principle since he is in a position of power. For these Puritan Feminists even if Whedon was single he should never even date anyone in his workplace. 3-Your actions will be scrutinized even more so than those of other guys Many of these left-wingers put Joss Whedon on a pedestal. Instead of seeing him as a regular guy. For instance, Kai Cole writes "He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with." So Whedon is a deceiver and horrible person since he wanted to have sex, a normal and natural need, with the attractive actresses that surrounded him? I believe Whedon should have been more open with his wife and pushed for an open marriage. However, that's a discussion for another time. At the same time, this "pedestalizing people" is not a healthy way of seeing the world. However, this is the binary view that these feminists have either you are one of their "good guys" or you are a "misogynist." 4-The feminists will turn on you at the drop of a hat A few years ago, Joss Whedon was the "darling" of many of these feminists and he could do no wrong. Journalist Ashley writes, "We’re talking about a critically acclaimed storyteller who has long benefited from this notion that his stories are somehow more feminist and empowering to women than most." Most feminists had a very clear vision of Whedon. However, all it took was a couple of tweets from some disgruntled co-workers for the mob to come out and punish Whedon. This man has spent his whole life trying to live by the principles of this feminist movement and that's the pay he gets? 5-You will have no loyalty from your left-wing/feminist friends "Once an icon of Hollywood feminism, is now an outcast accused of misogyny"- Lila Shapiro. This last point is the one that makes me reject on a primal level left wing movements. Most of them have no loyalty to their friends or mentors. Whedon used to be the boss of many of these actresses, he gave them a job and made them famous. Yet there is no sense of loyalty at all towards him. Many of the Buffy co-stars instead of defending him joining in the mob to demonize him and make him an outcast. I don't think anyone deserves this type of "witchhunt." Compare that with Japanese culture I heard that when many mangakas hear their senpai(mentor) is accused of wrongdoing they keep silent. Because their Sempai is innocent, "No." But out of respect for their mentor. I've seen this in other non-Puritan or non-far left cultures as well. People in other cultures much rather let others solve their affairs in private. Heck even in American culture we have a guy like Quincy Jones when about former associates or friends accused of wrongdoing he refused to talk about the topic out of respect. Conclusion: I watched Buffy and liked some of the episodes they even influenced some of my graphic novels. I personally never resonated with Whedon, I saw him like I see Morrisey a bit too self-absorbent. However, I felt bad for the guy having your reputation ruined despite all the years of activism, being outcasted by your friends and co-workers where you can't find work, and now having to lock by yourself at your house with only your wife. Yet none of his Hollywood or Feminists friends dared to stand up to the mob and defend him. I would only tell them, "He was one of yours and you let him fall." https://preview.redd.it/6u7r6r1bdbu81.jpg?width=1250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f2da0d48918594a4588a055cb57ad5cd8681582 |
2022.03.01 01:56 chazeichazy [FS][USA] yeezy/sacai/stussy/cole buxton/visvim/AND MORE
Tagged and timestamped pictures paypal invoice only
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2022.02.23 15:57 The_King_of_Okay Elden Ring - Review Thread
Game Title: Elden Ring
Release Date: 25/02/2022
Trailers:
Developer: FromSoftware Inc.
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Review Aggregator:
Metacritic - 97 average - 100% positive - 47 reviews
OpenCritic - 96 average - 100% recommended - 116 reviews
Areajugones - Cristian M. Villa - Spanish - 10 / 10
Ars Technica - Kyle Orland - Unscored
Attack of the Fanboy - William Schwartz - Unscored
But Why Tho? - Arron Kluz - 9 / 10
CGMagazine - Preston Dozsa - 9.5 / 10
Cerealkillerz - Gabriel Bogdan - German - 9.5 / 10
Checkpoint Gaming - Elliot Attard - 9.5 / 10
Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - Recommended
Cultured Vultures - Mike Worby - 10 / 10
Daily Mirror - Eugene Sowah - 5 / 5
Daily Star - Tom Hutchison - 5 / 5
Destructoid - Chris Carter - 10 / 10
Digital Chumps - Alex Tudor - 10 / 10
Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 4 / 5
Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 5 / 5
EGM - Mollie L Patterson - Unscored
Easy Allies - Brad Ellis - 9.5 / 10
Enternity.gr - Konstantinos Kalkanis - Greek - 9 / 10
Eurogamer - Aoife Wilson - Essential
Eurogamer.pt - Jorge Loureiro - Portuguese - Recommended
Fextralife - Fexelea - 10 / 10
GGRecon - George Yang - 9 / 10
Game Informer - Daniel Tack - 10 / 10
Game Rant - Pam K. Ferdinand - 5 / 5
Game Revolution - Jason Faulkner - 10 / 10
GameMAG - Russian - 10 / 10
GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 10 / 10
GameSpot - Tamoor Hussain - 10 / 10
Gamepur - Aidan O'Brien - 10 / 10
GamesRadar+ - Joel Franey - 5 / 5
Gaming Nexus - Henry Yu - 10 / 10
GamingTrend - David Flynn, Richard Allen - Unscored
Geek Culture - Jake Su - 9.6 / 10
Guardian - Simon Parkin - 5 / 5
Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 5 / 5
Hey Poor Player - Jon Davis - 5 / 5
Hobby Consolas - Álvaro Alonso - Spanish - 98 / 100
IGN - Mitchell Saltzman - 10 / 10
Impulsegamer - Nathan Misa - 4.8 / 5
Infinite Start - Mark Fajardo - 9.5 / 10
Inverse - Joseph Yaden - 9 / 10
JVL - Kikitoès - French - 20 / 20
Kakuchopurei - Jonathan Leo - 100 / 100
M3 - Billy Ekblom - Swedish - 5 / 5
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 9 / 10
Niche Gamer - NECRO XIII - 10 / 10
One More Game - Ricki Buzon - Buy
PC Gamer - Tyler Colp - 90 / 100
PCGamesN - Jordan Forward - 10 / 10
PPE.pl - Wojciech Gruszczyk - Polish - 10 / 10
PSX Brasil - Francisco Maia - Portuguese - 95 / 100
Polygon - Michael McWhertor - Unscored
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson - Unscored
Press Start - Harry Kalogirou - 9.5 / 10
Push Square - Liam Croft - Unscored
RPG Site - Bryan Vitale - 9 / 10
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Ed Thorn - Unscored
SECTOR.sk - Oto Schultz - Slovak - 10 / 10
Screen Rant - Christopher Teuton - 5 / 5
Seasoned Gaming - Ainsley Bowden - 10 / 10
Shacknews - Sam Chandler - 9 / 10
Sirus Gaming - Adrian Morales - 9.5 / 10
Skill Up - Ralph Panebianco - Unscored
Spaziogames - Domenico Musicò - Italian - 9.3 / 10
Stevivor - Luke Lawrie - Unscored
TechRaptor - William Worrall - 9 / 10
TheSixthAxis - Jason Coles - 10 / 10
Too Much Gaming - Carlos Hernandez - Unscored
Total Gaming Network - Shawn Zipay - 5 / 5
TrustedReviews - Alastair Stevenson - 4.5 / 5
Twinfinite - Zhiqing Wan - 5 / 5
VG247 - Sherif Saed - 5 / 5
VGC - Jordan Middler - 5 / 5
VideoGamer - Josh Wise - 9 / 10
Washington Post - Gene Park - Unscored
Wccftech - 10 / 10
WellPlayed - Jordan Garcia - 10 / 10
Windows Central - Miles Dompier - 5 / 5
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 9.5 / 10
Xbox Achievements - Matt Lorrigan - 90%
XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 9.8 / 10
submitted by The_King_of_Okay to PS5 [link] [comments]
Release Date: 25/02/2022
Trailers:
Developer: FromSoftware Inc.
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Review Aggregator:
Metacritic - 97 average - 100% positive - 47 reviews
OpenCritic - 96 average - 100% recommended - 116 reviews
Critic Reviews
ACG - Jeremy Penter - BuyElden Ring is a resounding step up from today's soul-like standards. FromSoftware thus gestates a video game like no other has created, in which a gigantic and absorbing universe will surprise players again and again despite the dozens of hours they accumulate. Elden Ring is, without a doubt, one of the great candidates to become the GOTY of 2022.
I can appreciate that Elden Ring doesn't want to hold a player's hand and gently guide them to the next point of interest, as so many other games do. But that lack of guidance often seems to slip into a willingness to let a player wander aimlessly if they're not careful. Players who use guides or rely on the in-game hints from other players may not feel this issue so acutely, but aimlessness has been a major feature of my time with the game so far.
Elden Ring is an absolute must-play game for 2022, but set aside some time and some patience.
Even with its few issues, Elden Ring is an absolute triumph that will surely please all of the many players eager to get their hands on it. From Software’s track record with the genre has been incredible to see, especially as so many competitors have tried their hands at it with very few finding success. The studio is truly the master of soulsborne games, and Elden Ring proves that conclusively.
Elden Ring is an epic. With a beautifully designed open world, FromSoftware takes the Souls formula to new heights and crafts a journey that needs to be played.
Elden Ring surpasses all expectations, eliminates all doubts that we had and surprises more than any other soulsborne game so far. If you can live with rare repetitive bossfights and enemy appearances due to the open world design, you'll get the most extensive and exciting game FromSoftware has created so far.
The hype behind Elden Ring was always going to be a challenge to match, yet the game succeeds in almost every way. This detailed and exciting world is full of wondrous moments and brutal fights as the excellent Souls gameplay finds itself being utilised in a freshly open-world format. The variety of ways you can approach combat and the sheer volume of viable tools you can use to take down gruesome and frightening foes makes for an experience that never gets old. A game unwavering in its vision, Elden Ring stands out as a monumental 2022 release.
Elden Ring is unabashedly a FromSoft title and without a doubt was worth the wait. It provides a challenge; it gives us a vivid world that feels like a dream and challenges us at every turn.
An uncompromising vision of wonder and terror, Elden Ring is the ultimate dark fantasy odyssey. It will ask much of players who tackle its challenges but the rewards of seeing your adventure through more than make up for the effort.
Elden Ring is a beautiful but brutal game that stays true to its Souls roots, I will say that it's not for the faint-hearted as completing quests is equally as difficult as the dungeons and combat sequences. However, FromSoftware has added another great game to their already impressive catalogue. Elden Ring is certainly one of this years must-have titles as it's an experience like nothing else.
It has been equal parts a pleasure and hell to play Elden Ring. Because this is an amazing game and the developers have built a mind-boggling but nightmarish world to live and fight in.
10s aren't perfect, since nothing is, but they come as close as you could get in a given genre. The new leader to beat in its sector, we're talking pure ecstasy.
Elden Ring is a masterpiece. From its expertly crafted open-world design that rewards the player for taking the chance to explore to its riveting lore, FromSoftware has delivered what can only be described as a deliberate and thoughtful experience. While some of its visual stylings are starting to show its age already, Elden Ring's gameplay is the result of years of fine-tuning to be as rewarding as it is challenging. Many wondered if FromSoftware could put the level of detail into an open world that they have with their previous games. They've achieved that, and so much more.
While technical frustrations hold back its full potential. Elden Ring astonishes with fantastic open-world design and consistently rewarding exploration.
With Elden Ring, we're in masterpiece territory.
Any gripes I have at this point, though, are very minor in the grand scheme of things. Every time I think I might be growing tired of FromSoftware’s modern-era releases, the studio does something to rekindle my interest again—and Elden Ring has me feeling like the Bed of Chaos. Given my current knowledge of and expectations for what still lies ahead, I’ve probably got at least another 40 hours until I see the end credits. Could something happen in that time to make me change my feelings on the game? Absolutely. For now, though, I will be shocked if Elden Ring does not end up being one of my favorite games of the year—if not my #1 spot, just like Dark Souls once was.
Elden Ring is an unforgettable journey that masterfully weaves in its excellent combat with an expertly crafted world, resulting in one of the best open-world games around.
Rise, Tarnished! Elden Ring sets new standards and it's a truly memorable experience.
Grandiose, mysterious, but now a touch more welcoming, Elden Ring tweaks the FromSoft formula to open up its world.
If you love the Souls formula, you're going to be delirious with Elden Ring. It's a complex, challenging RPG, and with a lot of content that will seem inexhaustible to you.
Elden Ring is FromSoftware's Magnum Opus, and it's hard to imagine them making a better game. The only negatives are performance related, which can by and large be overlooked. Elden Ring delivers on a scale that few games ever have, and likely ever will again. A day one buy for RPG and open world fans. Don't miss out on this once in a decade experience!
The Lands Between is filled with visually stunning locations and deadly enemies to ensure that the perilous journey to become the Elden Lord is at least pretty to look at. While Elden Ring stumbles a bit in some areas, it still has all the hallmarks of what makes FromSoftware’s games so enticing: it’s fun, challenging, and rewarding.
Elden Ring represents a truly amazing combination of various game elements that all come together to create something fascinating, special, and unforgettable. Elden Ring isn’t just the best game this year; it’s one of the best games ever made.
More than an open-world Dark Souls, FromSoftware's Elden Ring offers a new experience that will still feel familiar and satisfying to fans.
Games like Elden Ring only come once or twice in a generation and raise the bar on what the medium can offer.
Elden Ring is the true triumph that FromSoftware was striving for all those years. Complete and utter triumph.
Combining the deep and challenging combat FromSoftware is known for with a vast and varied world that’s always a pleasure to explore, Elden Ring is quite simply incredible.
Elden Ring takes the shards of what came before and forges them into something that will go down in history as one of the all-time greats: a triumph in design and creativity, and an open-world game that distinguishes itself for what it doesn't do as much as what it does.
Elden Ring is just about everything that a player could want from a Soulsborne game with the scale turned up to 11. The areas in between dungeons, NPCs, and monsters all feel perfectly natural for the world, and allow FromSoftware environmental storytelling to shine, something that many open-world games fail at. When you are deep in the bowels of a castle or dungeon, you realize that FromSoftware’s excellent level design is still alive and well.
Elden Ring is both a refinement and evolution of the Dark Souls formula, presenting an expansive world that's as hostile as it is inviting. Despite the occasional excess, suffering has never been as much fun as this.
FromSoftware effortlessly immerses you into the beautiful world of The Lands Between, with challenging enemies, secret treasures, and deep lore tucked away into every corner. This is, without a doubt, FromSoftware's best project yet, showcasing a culmination of all their previous games. I can't wait to jump back in The Lands Between… See you there, fellow Tarnished.
This level of freedom has never been seen in a Souls game before and thankfully, it works (mostly).
An almost neverending treasure trove of amazing combat experiences interspersed with an inviting world full of surprises, Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s best game ever for its fans, and that is no mean feat.
This is a massive world, astonishingly rendered and seemingly limitless in its creative diversity
Elden Ring is one of the best games in years, with a breathtaking vast world to explore, and one of the most satisfying combat systems in an RPG. This is the accumulation of FromSoftware's work over the last thirteen years and an evolution on its inspiring formula.
If FromSoftware was The Fellowship of The Ring, then Elden Ring is Mt Doom; the terminus of an epic journey spanning over a decade. It consolidates all the acclaimed Japanese studio's ideas into one cohesive and brilliant package. Its art design, lore, and world design are arguably the studio's most inspired work to date. And considering these are the folks that created Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, this is high praise indeed. Elden Ring's open-world design is almost puritan in its purpose, reflecting the single-mindedness behind all the previous Souls games.
FromSoftware signs a title that, more than a new IP, looks like a swan song; the culmination after 13 years perfecting a genre. The ideas and learning of his latest works converge within the richest and most exquisitely designed open world that our feet have ever trodden. Elden Ring is a madness that seems impossible to beat.
Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path.
A must play for action-RPG fans looking for deep combat systems and an expansive open-world that truly rewards exploration.
What makes Elden Ring work is a deep understanding of both what players like about the games and what makes the setting different. It should immediately feel different, yet the same, making for a wonderful experience. Some might be put off by the more accessible nature, at least initially, though it does a good job of offering this without taking away from what makes the experience special. You’ll still struggle, die, make another mistake, die, get to the boss and then die again. Just instead of putting people off, it encourages using the awareness to your advantage. For these reasons, along with the wonderful cutscenes that touch on a fascinating narrative and delightful scenery, it’s easy to recommend Elden Ring.
This isn’t just Dark Souls with an open world tacked on. Instead, developer FromSoftware weaves its familiar formula into a massive playground so expertly that we can’t help but wonder how we ever played Dark Souls without it.
The game leaves no respite to the player who is constantly solicited, whether to contemplate a truly fantastic world, in every sense of the word, face a tough challenge, explore and think for himself. And it's this melting pot of exhilarating emotions that makes Elden Ring more than a great game, it's a true masterpiece.
Elden Ring is a triumph in game design. I respect and like Elden Ring and From Software for sticking to its guns but also adding in much-welcome changes and additions to make it more “accessible”.
Elden Ring takes everything fans love about the Soulsborne phenomenon and applies it to an open world. A wonderful, fascinating and incomparably beautiful world that connects a stranglehold on the player from the first moment – completely without falling. No gamer, no matter what you think of the previous games, should miss this.
A masterful blend of Dark Souls and Zelda: Breath Of The Wild that makes high demands of its players and yet still remains surprisingly accessible and adaptable.
Anyone looking to get into the Souls games and ride the wave of hype can do so fairly easily this time around with Elden Ring.
The Lands Between is vast and full of danger at every turn but heavily encourages exploration, offering handsome rewards for those who choose to face the dangers head-on. Capped off by a beautiful open-world brimming with mind-blowing monster and level design, Elden Ring easily rises to the hype and exceeds expectations.
An open world action RPG from FromSoftware that reaches new heights, but spends too much time in the familiar.
A supercut of FromSoft's very best work, transported to a totally new space. Elden Ring is not only a masterpiece by its developer's lofty standards, but in packing so much density into the Lands Between, it lights the path ahead for open-world games in general.
Elden Ring is the "ultimate form of Dark Souls". From Software has created the final boss and throws you a gauntlet. Will you take it? You should and as soon as possible, because enthusiasts of the production of this studio will be delighted.
With Elden Ring, From Software de-graces an ideal model in open-world game design.
Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s most accessible, and difficult, game yet
It appears there may be an endless number of things to do in Elden Ring and that's fine by me. I never want it to end.
While it feels like the impact of Breath of the Wild is waning as the open world genre starts to stagnate again, Elden Ring stands out as not only an achievement in FromSoftware's hall of fame, but also as an open-world RPG. Elden Ring is without a doubt, FromSoft's most ambitious undertaking yet, and like Dark Souls before it, I believe it will leave a permanent mark on both the open-world genre and the games industry in general.
Elden Ring feels like the definitive FromSoftware game.
Elden Ring deftly refines and boldly reimagines FromSoftware's tried and true formula.
Elden Ring is an action-RPG with an open world that's not only incredibly rich, but encouraging too. This game will be the talk of the Blighttown for years to come.
Elden Ring is the embodiment of From Software's best work yet. Top-notch quality of another huge soulslike adventure persists, especially in the cryptically epic story cowritten by George R. R. Martin and in the ingeniously vast and visually stunning world of Lands Between that sets the new standard for open world games. And of course, you can expect a lot of dying, rolling, and rage-quitting. Elden Ring is a must play for every fan, but it also makes so many good steps towards accessibility for greater audience.
Elden Ring is a nearly perfect game.
Elden Ring is not only the best game From Software has ever developed, it stands firmly alongside the greatest fantasy-RPGs of all-time.
Simply put, Elden Ring is Miyazaki and FromSoftware’s magnum opus.
Elden Ring feels like a culmination of everything that FromSoftware has created in the past 13 years. Refining, reworking, and incorporating the best parts of their whole catalog into one complete package. The Lands Between is one of the most extraordinary open worlds I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It’s a world that you can’t help but lose yourself in for hours at a time thanks to its classic RPG sense of exploration and curiosity. This is the cherry on top for a team that has been firing on all cylinders for over a decade. Elden Ring is a triumph.
Elden Ring is a superb take on the soulslike genre, an astonishing evolution and a decisive step forward for From Software's scale of ambition. Elden Ring is a dream come true for every fan of Miyazaki's works.
At this point I’ve put over 70 hours into Elden Ring and haven’t finished it yet; nevertheless, I’m completely blown away by how impressive it is.
Elden Ring takes the best elements of all past FromSoftware games in recent memory and mashes them together. While it's not inviting to newcomers, this is certainly the definitive FromSoft experience.
Elden Ring is the game Souls fans have been waiting for. From the open world design, to riding into battle on Torrent's back, and the dark narrative woven through the world, this is a clear Game of the Year frontrunner that will have us all ensnared for a long time to come.
Considering how well From Software incorporated the Souls formula into this captivating open world, the hype currently revolving around this action-RPG is justified. If you’re excited for the release of Elden Ring, you have nothing to worry about here.
FromSoftware's largest and most ambitious title is also its best yet.
After spending 50-plus hours playing it, I can confirm Elden Ring is the most developed and welcoming Souls-series game ever made, with the added narrative and open world making Elden Ring feel far more accessible to From Software newcomers.
Is this the best FromSoft action RPG ever made? For now, perhaps. It’s definitely up there with Bloodborne. But given the company’s track record, I’d no longer be surprised if they come back in another six years with a new IP that surpasses all expectations yet again.
What ultimately matters, however, is that Elden Ring succeeds at almost every goal it sets out to achieve. It’s the culmination of years of refinement of FromSoftware’s formula. Mechanically, and thematically, this is a game making a statement: that you can buck industry tendencies even as you adopt their trends.
Elden Ring is a fantastic game that can still deliver the unmatched thrill of defeating a tough boss after an hours-long battle. Those who worship at the church of Souls-like will find a game that’s basically everything they ever wanted.
There are no other dynamics quite like it in games; they acquaint us with an array of miseries and charge us money for the privilege.
“Elden Ring” is a game about discovering and pushing the limits of possibility. It dares you, over and over, to keep pushing, making this unlike any other adventure I’ve experienced. It would be understatement to say “Elden Ring” has exceeded my expectations. After 40 hours — and with so much more to go — I don’t even know what I expect from it anymore. Its sheer scale is humbling. In terms of square footage, “Elden Ring” may not be the largest game ever made, but no other experience has made me feel quite as small.
Elden Ring is not only the best action RPG developed by From Software but one of the best open-world titles ever made. A masterclass of game design, Elden Ring isn't just a game but an epic dark fantasy journey that no one will be able to forget for a very long time.
Backed by an incredible and rewarding open-world design, Elden Ring is a masterclass in every facet that it brings to the table. Without a doubt, this is FromSoftware’s magnum opus.
Elden Ring is a masterclass in open-world game design. FromSoftware has poetically fashioned a gorgeously haunting universe that begs to be explored. It's a quintessential action RPG and an obvious contender for game of the year.
Elden Ring is exactly the game people were hoping it would be. It's the biggest FromSoft Soulslike to date, with a ton of polish and a bucketload of content. It won't change your mind if you don't enjoy the genre, but Elden Ring accomplishes what it had set out to do. Not every new feature hits, and it sometimes felt a touch too familiar, but when the biggest complaint I can think of is, "It feels like some of the best games ever made," that is a sign of its quality. Elden Ring is the game we've all been waiting for.
Elden Ring offers up a gorgeous open world that is enticing and exciting to explore, along with excellent combat variety, amazing bosses to fight, and intricate dungeons to tackle. It might feel a little familiar, but this could well be FromSoftware’s best game to date.
Elden Ring is a masterpiece of a title, with only a few minor issues. The co-op summon system is a pain, and mounted combat doesn’t always feel the best. Other than that this game is staggeringly good in every single area. It does for open-world games what people claimed Breath of the Wild did. Every part of the experience is elevated by an insane attention to detail. Few games have ever left me feeling so enthralled for the entirety of my playtime. Whether you’re going it solo or with a friend Elden Ring is one guaranteed to be one hell of a time.
2022.02.23 15:03 PankoKing Eldenring Review Megathread (Potential Spoilers)
Hey Tarnished!
Due to the soon to be massive outpouring of reviews after the embargo is released, we're going to try to consolidate all the reviews into one thread. Please try to avoid spamming new ones and please read through comments before commenting.
Thank you and little over 1 day before we get what we've been craving so long!!!
Reviews are out!
Platforms:
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 97 average - 100% recommended - 80 reviews
Attack of the Fanboy - William Schwartz - Unscored
But Why Tho? - Arron Kluz - 9 / 10
CGMagazine - Preston Dozsa - 9.5 / 10
Cerealkillerz - Gabriel Bogdan - German - 9.5 / 10
Checkpoint Gaming - Elliot Attard - 9.5 / 10
Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - Recommended
Cultured Vultures - Mike Worby - 10 / 10
Daily Mirror - Eugene Sowah - 5 / 5
Destructoid - Chris Carter - 10 / 10
Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 4 / 5
Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 5 / 5
EGM - Mollie L Patterson - Unscored
Easy Allies - Brad Ellis - 9.5 / 10
Enternity.gr - Konstantinos Kalkanis - Greek - 9 / 10
Eurogamer - Aoife Wilson - Essential
Eurogamer.pt - Jorge Loureiro - Portuguese - Recommended
Fextralife - Fexelea - 10 / 10
GGRecon - George Yang - 9 / 10
Game Informer - Daniel Tack - 10 / 10
Game Rant - Pam K. Ferdinand - 5 / 5
Game Revolution - Jason Faulkner - 10 / 10
GameMAG - Russian - 10 / 10
GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 10 / 10
Gamepur - Aidan O'Brien - 10 / 10
GamesHub - Edmond Tran - 5 / 5
GamesRadar+ - Joel Franey - 5 / 5
Gaming Nexus - Henry Yu - 10 / 10
GamingTrend - David Flynn, Richard Allen - Unscored
Geek Culture - Jake Su - 9.6 / 10
Guardian - Simon Parkin - 5 / 5
Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 5 / 5
Hey Poor Player - Jon Davis - 5 / 5
Hobby Consolas - Álvaro Alonso - Spanish - 98 / 100
IGN - Mitchell Saltzman - 10 / 10
Impulsegamer - Nathan Misa - 4.8 / 5
Infinite Start - Mark Fajardo - 9.5 / 10
Inverse - Joseph Yaden - 9 / 10
Kakuchopurei - Jonathan Leo - 100 / 100
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 9 / 10
MonsterVine - Diego Escala - 4 / 5
Niche Gamer - NECRO XIII - 10 / 10
One More Game - Ricki Buzon - Buy
PC Gamer - Tyler Colp - 90 / 100
PCGamesN - Jordan Forward - 10 / 10
PSX Brasil - Francisco Maia - Portuguese - 95 / 100
Polygon - Michael McWhertor - Unscored
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson - Unscored
Press Start - Harry Kalogirou - 9.5 / 10
Prima Games - Jesse Vitelli - 9.5 / 10
Push Square - Liam Croft - Unscored
RPG Fan - Bob Richardson - Unscored
RPG Site - Bryan Vitale - 9 / 10
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Ed Thorn - Unscored
SECTOR.sk - Oto Schultz - Slovak - 10 / 10
Screen Rant - Christopher Teuton - 5 / 5
Seasoned Gaming - Ainsley Bowden - 10 / 10
Shacknews - Sam Chandler - 9 / 10
Sirus Gaming - Adrian Morales - 9.5 / 10
Spaziogames - Domenico Musicò - Italian - 9.3 / 10
Stevivor - Luke Lawrie - Unscored
TechRaptor - William Worrall - 9 / 10
The Outerhaven Productions - Keith Mitchell - 5 / 5
TheSixthAxis - Jason Coles - 10 / 10
Too Much Gaming - Carlos Hernandez - Unscored
Total Gaming Network - Shawn Zipay - 5 / 5
TrustedReviews - Alastair Stevenson - 4.5 / 5
Twinfinite - Zhiqing Wan - 5 / 5
VG247 - Sherif Saed - 5 / 5
VGC - Jordan Middler - 5 / 5
VideoGamer - Josh Wise - 9 / 10
Washington Post - Gene Park - Unscored
Wccftech - 10 / 10
We Got This Covered - David Morgan - 5 / 5
WellPlayed - Jordan Garcia - 10 / 10
Windows Central - Miles Dompier - 5 / 5
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 9.5 / 10
Xbox Achievements - Matt Lorrigan - 90%
XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 9.8 / 10
submitted by PankoKing to Eldenring [link] [comments]
Due to the soon to be massive outpouring of reviews after the embargo is released, we're going to try to consolidate all the reviews into one thread. Please try to avoid spamming new ones and please read through comments before commenting.
Thank you and little over 1 day before we get what we've been craving so long!!!
Game Information
Game Title: Elden RingPlatforms:
- PC (Feb 25, 2022)
- Xbox Series X/S (Feb 25, 2022)
- PlayStation 5 (Feb 25, 2022)
- Xbox One (Feb 25, 2022)
- PlayStation 4 (Feb 25, 2022)
- ELDEN RING – Rise, Tarnished Official Launch Trailer
- ELDEN RING – Overview Trailer
- ELDEN RING - Story Trailer
- ELDEN RING – Official Gameplay Trailer
- ELDEN RING - E3 ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER XBOX ONE, PS4, & PC
Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 97 average - 100% recommended - 80 reviews
Critic Reviews
Ars Technica - Kyle Orland - UnscoredI can appreciate that Elden Ring doesn't want to hold a player's hand and gently guide them to the next point of interest, as so many other games do. But that lack of guidance often seems to slip into a willingness to let a player wander aimlessly if they're not careful. Players who use guides or rely on the in-game hints from other players may not feel this issue so acutely, but aimlessness has been a major feature of my time with the game so far.
Elden Ring is an absolute must-play game for 2022, but set aside some time and some patience.
Even with its few issues, Elden Ring is an absolute triumph that will surely please all of the many players eager to get their hands on it. From Software’s track record with the genre has been incredible to see, especially as so many competitors have tried their hands at it with very few finding success. The studio is truly the master of soulsborne games, and Elden Ring proves that conclusively.
Elden Ring is an epic. With a beautifully designed open world, FromSoftware takes the Souls formula to new heights and crafts a journey that needs to be played.
Elden Ring surpasses all expectations, eliminates all doubts that we had and surprises more than any other soulsborne game so far. If you can live with rare repetitive bossfights and enemy appearances due to the open world design, you'll get the most extensive and exciting game FromSoftware has created so far.
The hype behind Elden Ring was always going to be a challenge to match, yet the game succeeds in almost every way. This detailed and exciting world is full of wondrous moments and brutal fights as the excellent Souls gameplay finds itself being utilised in a freshly open-world format. The variety of ways you can approach combat and the sheer volume of viable tools you can use to take down gruesome and frightening foes makes for an experience that never gets old. A game unwavering in its vision, Elden Ring stands out as a monumental 2022 release.
Elden Ring is unabashedly a FromSoft title and without a doubt was worth the wait. It provides a challenge; it gives us a vivid world that feels like a dream and challenges us at every turn.
An uncompromising vision of wonder and terror, Elden Ring is the ultimate dark fantasy odyssey. It will ask much of players who tackle its challenges but the rewards of seeing your adventure through more than make up for the effort.
Elden Ring is a beautiful but brutal game that stays true to its Souls roots, I will say that it's not for the faint-hearted as completing quests is equally as difficult as the dungeons and combat sequences. However, FromSoftware has added another great game to their already impressive catalogue. Elden Ring is certainly one of this years must-have titles as it's an experience like nothing else.
10s aren't perfect, since nothing is, but they come as close as you could get in a given genre. The new leader to beat in its sector, we're talking pure ecstasy.
While technical frustrations hold back its full potential. Elden Ring astonishes with fantastic open-world design and consistently rewarding exploration.
With Elden Ring, we're in masterpiece territory.
Any gripes I have at this point, though, are very minor in the grand scheme of things. Every time I think I might be growing tired of FromSoftware’s modern-era releases, the studio does something to rekindle my interest again—and Elden Ring has me feeling like the Bed of Chaos. Given my current knowledge of and expectations for what still lies ahead, I’ve probably got at least another 40 hours until I see the end credits. Could something happen in that time to make me change my feelings on the game? Absolutely. For now, though, I will be shocked if Elden Ring does not end up being one of my favorite games of the year—if not my #1 spot, just like Dark Souls once was.
Elden Ring is an unforgettable journey that masterfully weaves in its excellent combat with an expertly crafted world, resulting in one of the best open-world games around.
Rise, Tarnished! Elden Ring sets new standards and it's a truly memorable experience.
Grandiose, mysterious, but now a touch more welcoming, Elden Ring tweaks the FromSoft formula to open up its world.
If you love the Souls formula, you're going to be delirious with Elden Ring. It's a complex, challenging RPG, and with a lot of content that will seem inexhaustible to you.
Elden Ring is FromSoftware's Magnum Opus, and it's hard to imagine them making a better game. The only negatives are performance related, which can by and large be overlooked. Elden Ring delivers on a scale that few games ever have, and likely ever will again. A day one buy for RPG and open world fans. Don't miss out on this once in a decade experience!
It may sound reductive, but Elden Ring is a fourth mainline Dark Souls title in all but name. The game’s open-world structure feels very organic - there aren’t lists of activities with checkboxes that players need to cross off. The Lands Between is filled with visually stunning locations and deadly enemies to ensure that the perilous journey to become the Elden Lord is at least pretty to look at. While Elden Ring stumbles a bit in some areas, it still has all the hallmarks of what makes FromSoftware’s games so enticing: it’s fun, challenging, and rewarding.
Elden Ring represents a truly amazing combination of various game elements that all come together to create something fascinating, special, and unforgettable. Elden Ring isn’t just the best game this year; it’s one of the best games ever made.
More than an open-world Dark Souls, FromSoftware's Elden Ring offers a new experience that will still feel familiar and satisfying to fans.
Games like Elden Ring only come once or twice in a generation and raise the bar on what the medium can offer.
Elden Ring is the true triumph that FromSoftware was striving for all those years. Complete and utter triumph.
Combining the deep and challenging combat FromSoftware is known for with a vast and varied world that’s always a pleasure to explore, Elden Ring is quite simply incredible.
Elden Ring is just about everything that a player could want from a Soulsborne game with the scale turned up to 11. The areas in between dungeons, NPCs, and monsters all feel perfectly natural for the world, and allow FromSoftware environmental storytelling to shine, something that many open-world games fail at. When you are deep in the bowels of a castle or dungeon, you realize that FromSoftware’s excellent level design is still alive and well.
Elden Ring is an exceptional, accomplished work that realises a fantasy world of solemnity, beauty, and menacing uncertainty you can’t help but lose yourself in.
Elden Ring is both a refinement and evolution of the Dark Souls formula, presenting an expansive world that's as hostile as it is inviting. Despite the occasional excess, suffering has never been as much fun as this.
FromSoftware effortlessly immerses you into the beautiful world of The Lands Between, with challenging enemies, secret treasures, and deep lore tucked away into every corner. This is, without a doubt, FromSoftware's best project yet, showcasing a culmination of all their previous games. I can't wait to jump back in The Lands Between… See you there, fellow Tarnished.
This level of freedom has never been seen in a Souls game before and thankfully, it works (mostly).
An almost neverending treasure trove of amazing combat experiences interspersed with an inviting world full of surprises, Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s best game ever for its fans, and that is no mean feat.
This is a massive world, astonishingly rendered and seemingly limitless in its creative diversity
Elden Ring is one of the best games in years, with a breathtaking vast world to explore, and one of the most satisfying combat systems in an RPG. This is the accumulation of FromSoftware's work over the last thirteen years and an evolution on its inspiring formula.
If FromSoftware was The Fellowship of The Ring, then Elden Ring is Mt Doom; the terminus of an epic journey spanning over a decade. It consolidates all the acclaimed Japanese studio's ideas into one cohesive and brilliant package. Its art design, lore, and world design are arguably the studio's most inspired work to date. And considering these are the folks that created Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, this is high praise indeed. Elden Ring's open-world design is almost puritan in its purpose, reflecting the single-mindedness behind all the previous Souls games.
FromSoftware signs a title that, more than a new IP, looks like a swan song; the culmination after 13 years perfecting a genre. The ideas and learning of his latest works converge within the richest and most exquisitely designed open world that our feet have ever trodden. Elden Ring is a madness that seems impossible to beat.
Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path.
A must play for action-RPG fans looking for deep combat systems and an expansive open-world that truly rewards exploration.
What makes Elden Ring work is a deep understanding of both what players like about the games and what makes the setting different. It should immediately feel different, yet the same, making for a wonderful experience. Some might be put off by the more accessible nature, at least initially, though it does a good job of offering this without taking away from what makes the experience special. You’ll still struggle, die, make another mistake, die, get to the boss and then die again. Just instead of putting people off, it encourages using the awareness to your advantage. For these reasons, along with the wonderful cutscenes that touch on a fascinating narrative and delightful scenery, it’s easy to recommend Elden Ring.
This isn’t just Dark Souls with an open world tacked on. Instead, developer FromSoftware weaves its familiar formula into a massive playground so expertly that we can’t help but wonder how we ever played Dark Souls without it.
Elden Ring is a triumph in game design. I respect and like Elden Ring and From Software for sticking to its guns but also adding in much-welcome changes and additions to make it more “accessible”.
A masterful blend of Dark Souls and Zelda: Breath Of The Wild that makes high demands of its players and yet still remains surprisingly accessible and adaptable.
Elden Ring feels like the culmination of everything FromSoftware has been building upon with each of their games. Unfortunately, some severe performance issues hamper what’s easily one of their best games yet.
Anyone looking to get into the Souls games and ride the wave of hype can do so fairly easily this time around with Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is the logical evolution in the trademark souls formula, borrowing the best features from previous titles and blending them into a finely-tuned mix of intense combat and high-pressure precision. While veterans will surely enjoy the punishment that comes with it, newcomers are treated to what could arguably be one of FromSoftware's more approachable titles to get into.
The Lands Between is vast and full of danger at every turn but heavily encourages exploration, offering handsome rewards for those who choose to face the dangers head-on. Capped off by a beautiful open-world brimming with mind-blowing monster and level design, Elden Ring easily rises to the hype and exceeds expectations.
An open world action RPG from FromSoftware that reaches new heights, but spends too much time in the familiar.
A supercut of FromSoft's very best work, transported to a totally new space. Elden Ring is not only a masterpiece by its developer's lofty standards, but in packing so much density into the Lands Between, it lights the path ahead for open-world games in general.
With Elden Ring, From Software de-graces an ideal model in open-world game design.
Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s most accessible, and difficult, game yet
It appears there may be an endless number of things to do in Elden Ring and that's fine by me. I never want it to end.
While it feels like the impact of Breath of the Wild is waning as the open world genre starts to stagnate again, Elden Ring stands out as not only an achievement in FromSoftware's hall of fame, but also as an open-world RPG. Elden Ring is without a doubt, FromSoft's most ambitious undertaking yet, and like Dark Souls before it, I believe it will leave a permanent mark on both the open-world genre and the games industry in general.
Plot threads will pull you all over, mysteries lie just beyond reach, and getting to them is half the battle. Elden Ring promotes exploration and a sense of place. Each enemy, item, and piece of scenery is placed with purpose.
Elden Ring feels like the definitive FromSoftware game.
It's the best Dark Souls game to date.
Elden Ring deftly refines and boldly reimagines FromSoftware's tried and true formula.
Elden Ring is an action-RPG with an open world that's not only incredibly rich, but encouraging too. This game will be the talk of the Blighttown for years to come.
Elden Ring is the embodiment of From Software's best work yet. Top-notch quality of another huge soulslike adventure persists, especially in the cryptically epic story cowritten by George R. R. Martin and in the ingeniously vast and visually stunning world of Lands Between that sets the new standard for open world games. And of course, you can expect a lot of dying, rolling, and rage-quitting. Elden Ring is a must play for every fan, but it also makes so many good steps towards accessibility for greater audience.
Elden Ring is a nearly perfect game.
Elden Ring is not only the best game From Software has ever developed, it stands firmly alongside the greatest fantasy-RPGs of all-time.
Simply put, Elden Ring is Miyazaki and FromSoftware’s magnum opus.
Elden Ring feels like a culmination of everything that FromSoftware has created in the past 13 years. Refining, reworking, and incorporating the best parts of their whole catalog into one complete package. The Lands Between is one of the most extraordinary open worlds I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It’s a world that you can’t help but lose yourself in for hours at a time thanks to its classic RPG sense of exploration and curiosity. This is the cherry on top for a team that has been firing on all cylinders for over a decade. Elden Ring is a triumph.
Elden Ring is a superb take on the soulslike genre, an astonishing evolution and a decisive step forward for From Software's scale of ambition. Elden Ring is a dream come true for every fan of Miyazaki's works.
At this point I’ve put over 70 hours into Elden Ring and haven’t finished it yet; nevertheless, I’m completely blown away by how impressive it is.
Elden Ring takes the best elements of all past FromSoftware games in recent memory and mashes them together. While it's not inviting to newcomers, this is certainly the definitive FromSoft experience.
Elden Ring Review - Elden Ring is the perfect mixture of the Soulslike genre and open-world games. It's simply that good. Fromsoftware has taken everything it has learned, from both the Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro games, and combined with a vast and amazing open world, and it works better than it probably should.
Elden Ring is the game Souls fans have been waiting for. From the open world design, to riding into battle on Torrent's back, and the dark narrative woven through the world, this is a clear Game of the Year frontrunner that will have us all ensnared for a long time to come.
Considering how well From Software incorporated the Souls formula into this captivating open world, the hype currently revolving around this action-RPG is justified. If you’re excited for the release of Elden Ring, you have nothing to worry about here.
FromSoftware's largest and most ambitious title is also its best yet.
After spending 50-plus hours playing it, I can confirm Elden Ring is the most developed and welcoming Souls-series game ever made, with the added narrative and open world making Elden Ring feel far more accessible to From Software newcomers.
Is this the best FromSoft action RPG ever made? For now, perhaps. It’s definitely up there with Bloodborne. But given the company’s track record, I’d no longer be surprised if they come back in another six years with a new IP that surpasses all expectations yet again.
What ultimately matters, however, is that Elden Ring succeeds at almost every goal it sets out to achieve. It’s the culmination of years of refinement of FromSoftware’s formula. Mechanically, and thematically, this is a game making a statement: that you can buck industry tendencies even as you adopt their trends.
Elden Ring is a fantastic game that can still deliver the unmatched thrill of defeating a tough boss after an hours-long battle. Those who worship at the church of Souls-like will find a game that’s basically everything they ever wanted.
There are no other dynamics quite like it in games; they acquaint us with an array of miseries and charge us money for the privilege.
“Elden Ring” is a game about discovering and pushing the limits of possibility. It dares you, over and over, to keep pushing, making this unlike any other adventure I’ve experienced. It would be understatement to say “Elden Ring” has exceeded my expectations. After 40 hours — and with so much more to go — I don’t even know what I expect from it anymore. Its sheer scale is humbling. In terms of square footage, “Elden Ring” may not be the largest game ever made, but no other experience has made me feel quite as small.
Elden Ring is not only the best action RPG developed by From Software but one of the best open-world titles ever made. A masterclass of game design, Elden Ring isn't just a game but an epic dark fantasy journey that no one will be able to forget for a very long time.
Elden Ring is a marvel with scope and diversity of mind-boggling proportions. At the risk of hyperbole, it has dethroned Bloodborne as my favorite game of all time. It's all I've been able to think about since I got my hands on it, and the only thing I want to do now is play it with the rest of you.
Backed by an incredible and rewarding open-world design, Elden Ring is a masterclass in every facet that it brings to the table. Without a doubt, this is FromSoftware’s magnum opus.
Elden Ring is a masterclass in open-world game design. FromSoftware has poetically fashioned a gorgeously haunting universe that begs to be explored. It's a quintessential action RPG and an obvious contender for game of the year.
Elden Ring is exactly the game people were hoping it would be. It's the biggest FromSoft Soulslike to date, with a ton of polish and a bucketload of content. It won't change your mind if you don't enjoy the genre, but Elden Ring accomplishes what it had set out to do. Not every new feature hits, and it sometimes felt a touch too familiar, but when the biggest complaint I can think of is, "It feels like some of the best games ever made," that is a sign of its quality. Elden Ring is the game we've all been waiting for.
Elden Ring offers up a gorgeous open world that is enticing and exciting to explore, along with excellent combat variety, amazing bosses to fight, and intricate dungeons to tackle. It might feel a little familiar, but this could well be FromSoftware’s best game to date.
Elden Ring is a masterpiece of a title, with only a few minor issues. The co-op summon system is a pain, and mounted combat doesn’t always feel the best. Other than that this game is staggeringly good in every single area. It does for open-world games what people claimed Breath of the Wild did. Every part of the experience is elevated by an insane attention to detail. Few games have ever left me feeling so enthralled for the entirety of my playtime. Whether you’re going it solo or with a friend Elden Ring is one guaranteed to be one hell of a time.
- From OpenCritic
Number 1 Game of all time on Opencritic
2021.06.01 17:03 UnsealedMTG Is romance losing some of the unapologetic celebration of sexual desire (esp., but far from exclusively, female sexual desire)?
This is inspired in part by this weeks episode of the Fated Mates podcast (https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2021/5/25/s0340-tangled-lies-by-anne-stuart) and in part by my own observations on /romancebooks
Somewhat echoing thoughts in the podcast, I'm perceiving individuals and the community starting to apologize more for enjoying and having interest in sex in books. I see a few manifestations of that:
A) the non-representational art covers. And not just THAT they are non-representational, that they are non-representational in a...sexually non threatening way? I mean, compare the cover to 50 Shades to The Hating Game. Neither has a half naked man on the cover, but one of those covers says "sex" and the other eminently does not. We've talked about the covers before and I don't want to focus extensively on that, but it feels worth noting
B) just less sex in traditionally-published contemporary romances. I'm kind of taking the Fated Mates crew on their word at this, though the main trad published romance I've been reading lately has been Alyssa Cole (who I LOVE) and those do feel a bit like they have less sex in them. Of course, indie and self-pubbed works don't have that issue on the whole, but traditional publishing still has a bigger reach in bookstores and libraries so what happens there does matter
C) closest to home, and the thing that most inspired me to take to here is...it feels like people in places like /romancebooks are apologizing more for even talking about sex stuff? I'm totally conscious that this could be recency illusion and a false trend, and I know that some of that internalized Puritanism has always been a part of the community. But my perception is that in the last few months it's become way more common for people to preface any post about sex with an apology, a comment about how the mods can remove if it's too sexual, etc. etc.
I don't want to shame anyone for feeling shame--this is a society-level issue. But even a year ago romance spaces felt more to me like an oasis from shame around sexual desire and fantasy and exploration.
Maybe some of what is happening is that more new people are coming in and still getting used to a space where expressions of sexual desire, fantasy, and exploration are embraced in a way they are not elsewhere in the culture, and those people will feel freer as they settle in.
I hope that's it. Because having a space for people to be free to talk about enjoyment of sex in books and sexuality in general outside a pretty narrow version of cis straight male sexual desire (a version that I can comment can be even pretty stifling to straight cis men, so I only imagine how stifling it is to everyone else) is something that drew me to romance communities in the first place. I'd hate for us to lose that, even partially.
submitted by UnsealedMTG to romancelandia [link] [comments]
Somewhat echoing thoughts in the podcast, I'm perceiving individuals and the community starting to apologize more for enjoying and having interest in sex in books. I see a few manifestations of that:
A) the non-representational art covers. And not just THAT they are non-representational, that they are non-representational in a...sexually non threatening way? I mean, compare the cover to 50 Shades to The Hating Game. Neither has a half naked man on the cover, but one of those covers says "sex" and the other eminently does not. We've talked about the covers before and I don't want to focus extensively on that, but it feels worth noting
B) just less sex in traditionally-published contemporary romances. I'm kind of taking the Fated Mates crew on their word at this, though the main trad published romance I've been reading lately has been Alyssa Cole (who I LOVE) and those do feel a bit like they have less sex in them. Of course, indie and self-pubbed works don't have that issue on the whole, but traditional publishing still has a bigger reach in bookstores and libraries so what happens there does matter
C) closest to home, and the thing that most inspired me to take to here is...it feels like people in places like /romancebooks are apologizing more for even talking about sex stuff? I'm totally conscious that this could be recency illusion and a false trend, and I know that some of that internalized Puritanism has always been a part of the community. But my perception is that in the last few months it's become way more common for people to preface any post about sex with an apology, a comment about how the mods can remove if it's too sexual, etc. etc.
I don't want to shame anyone for feeling shame--this is a society-level issue. But even a year ago romance spaces felt more to me like an oasis from shame around sexual desire and fantasy and exploration.
Maybe some of what is happening is that more new people are coming in and still getting used to a space where expressions of sexual desire, fantasy, and exploration are embraced in a way they are not elsewhere in the culture, and those people will feel freer as they settle in.
I hope that's it. Because having a space for people to be free to talk about enjoyment of sex in books and sexuality in general outside a pretty narrow version of cis straight male sexual desire (a version that I can comment can be even pretty stifling to straight cis men, so I only imagine how stifling it is to everyone else) is something that drew me to romance communities in the first place. I'd hate for us to lose that, even partially.
2021.04.05 02:02 cryptidyouth Wondering if I have a particular name style
I'm nowhere near having kids, and yet browsing name sites literally on the daily. And then I look at my name list and ehhh wonder what I'm thinking.
Girls: Lillian/"Lillie", Josephine/"Joy" or "Fia", Joy and Fia also as standalones, Evangeline/"Evie" or "Genie", Parker, Taylor, Lake, Lucy, Lacey, Noble (as a middle), Cleo, Faye, Laurel, Edie/Edith, Rennie/Renee, Mamie, Emmy or Emmie Rachel, Rosalie, Patience, Tace (puritan name meaning silence, thinking Tacy as nn), Miranda, Quinn, SkylaSkye, Leonie
Boys: Tobias, Aidan, Cameron, Aaron, Wyatt, Cole, Jack, Julian/"Jules", Connor, Adam, Hunter, Hector, Seymou"Sam" (my grandfather's name), Miles, Archer, Luke, Spencer, Edison, Henry, Leo, Lance
For girls, I guess my style is nicknamey but safe? And for boys, also safe and accidentally a bit irish? But what do you guys think?
submitted by cryptidyouth to namenerds [link] [comments]
Girls: Lillian/"Lillie", Josephine/"Joy" or "Fia", Joy and Fia also as standalones, Evangeline/"Evie" or "Genie", Parker, Taylor, Lake, Lucy, Lacey, Noble (as a middle), Cleo, Faye, Laurel, Edie/Edith, Rennie/Renee, Mamie, Emmy or Emmie Rachel, Rosalie, Patience, Tace (puritan name meaning silence, thinking Tacy as nn), Miranda, Quinn, SkylaSkye, Leonie
Boys: Tobias, Aidan, Cameron, Aaron, Wyatt, Cole, Jack, Julian/"Jules", Connor, Adam, Hunter, Hector, Seymou"Sam" (my grandfather's name), Miles, Archer, Luke, Spencer, Edison, Henry, Leo, Lance
For girls, I guess my style is nicknamey but safe? And for boys, also safe and accidentally a bit irish? But what do you guys think?
2021.02.23 19:15 Khyrindor Looking for solid book recommendations
I'm compiling a list of good books. Commentaries, Biographies, teaching/preaching help, devotionals...
Here's my list so far:
•Tim Keller and DA Carson "Worship by the Book" •John Stott "Knowing God" •DA Carson "Exegetical Fallacies" •DA Carson "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" •David Murray "Jesus on Every Page" •GK Beale "The Temple and the Church's Mission" •Daniel Estes "Hear, My Son" •Mark Meynell "What Angels Long to Read" •DA Carson "The God who is There" •DA Carson "Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament" •David Murray "Reset" •Christopher Wright "Knowing Jesus" •Andrew Murray "Humility: the Beauty of Holiness" •Greg _____ "Tactics" •John MacArthur "None Other" •Dane Ortlund "Gentle and Lowly" •John Owen "Overcoming Sin and Temptation" JI Packer "18 Words: The Most Important Words you will ever Know" •Peter Adams "Hearing Gods word" •Orlund "Children are wet Cement" •Warfield "the emotional life of our Lord" •Bruce Waltke and Derek Kidner, 2 commentaries on Proverbs [I have the small one actually] •Ed. Carl Truman and Brandon Crowe "The Essential Trinity" •Fred Saunders "The Deep Things of God" 2nd edition •"5 theological orations" Gregory •John Bunyan "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" •Ed Wells "The Banquet of the Grave" [For these I'm missing a few authors' names] •Coles "Therefore I have hope" •crossway "21 servants" •"The hiding place" •Roger Steer "A man in christ" Hudson Taylor •"We died before we came here" •"The secret heart of an unlikely convert" •Darlene Dablarose "Evidence Not seen" •Dr Helen Rosavere "Give us a mountain and he gave us a valley" •Andrew Sach "Dig Deeper" •Daniel Fuller "The Unity of the Bible" •Justo Gonzalez "The Story of Christianity"
I would love to get more into the Puritans but I don't know where to start. Need stuff that's well-written, solid, and helpful. Biographies and older books are especially welcome. What are your must-reads?
submitted by Khyrindor to Reformed [link] [comments]
Here's my list so far:
•Tim Keller and DA Carson "Worship by the Book" •John Stott "Knowing God" •DA Carson "Exegetical Fallacies" •DA Carson "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" •David Murray "Jesus on Every Page" •GK Beale "The Temple and the Church's Mission" •Daniel Estes "Hear, My Son" •Mark Meynell "What Angels Long to Read" •DA Carson "The God who is There" •DA Carson "Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament" •David Murray "Reset" •Christopher Wright "Knowing Jesus" •Andrew Murray "Humility: the Beauty of Holiness" •Greg _____ "Tactics" •John MacArthur "None Other" •Dane Ortlund "Gentle and Lowly" •John Owen "Overcoming Sin and Temptation" JI Packer "18 Words: The Most Important Words you will ever Know" •Peter Adams "Hearing Gods word" •Orlund "Children are wet Cement" •Warfield "the emotional life of our Lord" •Bruce Waltke and Derek Kidner, 2 commentaries on Proverbs [I have the small one actually] •Ed. Carl Truman and Brandon Crowe "The Essential Trinity" •Fred Saunders "The Deep Things of God" 2nd edition •"5 theological orations" Gregory •John Bunyan "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" •Ed Wells "The Banquet of the Grave" [For these I'm missing a few authors' names] •Coles "Therefore I have hope" •crossway "21 servants" •"The hiding place" •Roger Steer "A man in christ" Hudson Taylor •"We died before we came here" •"The secret heart of an unlikely convert" •Darlene Dablarose "Evidence Not seen" •Dr Helen Rosavere "Give us a mountain and he gave us a valley" •Andrew Sach "Dig Deeper" •Daniel Fuller "The Unity of the Bible" •Justo Gonzalez "The Story of Christianity"
I would love to get more into the Puritans but I don't know where to start. Need stuff that's well-written, solid, and helpful. Biographies and older books are especially welcome. What are your must-reads?
2020.10.07 21:01 DarkLordFluffyBoots I went through every post on this subreddit and collected all the book recommendations.
The Popes
Pope Leo XIII
• Quod apostolici muneris
• Rerum Novarum
• Graves de communi re
• Diuturnum
• Immortale Dei
• Inscrutable Dei Consilio
Pope Pius XI
• Quadragesimo Anno
• Nova impendet
• Non abbiamo bisogno
• Divini Redemptoris
• Ubi arcano Dei consilio
St. Pope John Paul II the Great
• Laborem exercens
• Centesismus Annus
• Pope Paul VI
• Populorum progression
Pope John XXIII
• Mater et magistra
• Pacem in terries
• Sollicitudo Rei Socialis
Pope Francis
• Evangelii guadium
• Laudato si’
• Frattelli Tutti
St. Pope Gregory the Great
• Pastoral Care
The Saints
St. Basil the Great
• On Social Justice
• Homily on Psalm 14, Against Usury
St. Origen of Alexandria
• On First Principles
• Against Celsus
St. Thomas More
• Utopia
St. John Henry Newman
• Loss and Gain
• Grammar of Assent
• Dream of Gerontius
Saint John Chrysostom
• On Wealth and Poverty
• On Marriage and the Family Life
• On Living Simply
Saint Ambrose
• On Naboth
• On The Duties of the Clergy
• On Widows
• De Tobia
The Distributists
G. K. Chesterton
• Orthodoxy
• Utopia of Usurers
• The Bluff of Big Shops
• The Outline of Sanity
• What’s Wrong with the World
• A Miscellany for Men
• A Short History of England
• How Not to do It
• Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State
• In Defense of Sanity
• A Comic Peasant’s Song
• Democracy and Industrialism
• Sex and Property
• Reflections on a Rotten Apple
• A Misunderstanding about Method
• Saint Francis of Assisi
• What I Saw in America
• Fancies Versus Fads
• The New Witness
Hilaire Belloc
• The Serville State
• The Free Press
• On the Restoration of Property
• Economics for Helen
• Nationalization
• Europe and the Faith
• The Liberal Tradition
• Do We Agree? A Debate Between G. K. Chesterton and Bernard Shaw with Hilaire Belloc in the Chair.
• The Alternative
• Distributist Perspectives: Essays on Economic Justice and Charity
John Medaille
• Towards a Truly Free Market
• The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace
• The Closing of the Commerical Commons
Collections
• The Hound of Distributism
• Beyond Capitalism and Socialism: A New Statement of an Old Ideal
David W. Cooney
• Distributism Basics: An Explanation
Christopher A. Ferrara
• The Church and the Libertarian
• Liberty: The God that Failed
John D. Mueller
• Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element
Father Vincent McNabb
• The Catholic Land Movement: Its Motives
• The Church and the Land
• Nazareth or Social Chaos
• The Catholic Church and Philosophy
Arthur Penty
• Guilds, trades, and agriculture
• A Guildsman’s Interpretation of History
• Post-Industrialism
• Toward a Christian Sociology
• Restoration of the Guild System
• Distribuitsm: A Manifesto
• Communism and the Alternative
• The Guild Alternative
• Post Industrialism
• Guilds and the Social Crisis
• Agriculture and the Unemployed
• The Gauntlet: A Challenge to the Myth of Progress
• The Elements of Domestic Design
• Means and Ends
• Guilds and Versatility
• The Perils of Large Organizations
• The Obstacle of Industrialism
Thomas Storck
• From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond
• An Economics of Justice and Charity
• A Catholic Milieu
• Foundations of a Catholic Political Order
• Capitalism and Economism
E. F. Schumacher
• Small is Beautiful
• A Guide for the Perplexed
• Good Work
• This I Believe
• Two Cents About Buddhist Economics
Heinrich Pesch
• Ethics and the National Economy
• Christian Solidarism
• Liberalism, Socialism, and the Christian Social Order
• Teaching Guide to Economics
• Heinrich Pesch on Solidarist Economics
Ven. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
• Justice and Charity
• Communism and the Conscience of the West
• Freedom Under God
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
• Whence Come Wars
• The Church, Communism, and Democracy
• The Mystical Body of Christ
C. H. Douglas
• Credit Power and Democracy
• Economic Democracy
• Social Credit
• A Mechanical View of Economics
• The Control and Distribution of Production
Dr. Tabias Lanz
• Flee to the Fields: The Founding Fathers of the Catholic Land Movement
Dr. Race Mathews
• Distributism: Past, Present, and Future
• Jobs of Our Own
• Of Labour and Liberty
• Building a Society of Equals
• Health Wars
Dale Ahlquist
• Apostle of Common Sense
Eric Gill • Art in a Changing Civilization
• Work and Leisure
• A Holy Tradition of Working
• Work and Property
• Work and Culture
• Chrisitanity and the Machine Age
Bill Kaufmann
• Every Man A King
• America First!: Its History, Politics, and Culture
• With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America
• Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette: A Mostly Affectionate Account of a Small Town’s Fight to Survive
• Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists
• Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism and Middle American Anti-Imperialism
• Bye Bye, Miss American Empire
Peter Maurin
• Easy Essays
Herbert Agar
• The Land of the Free
• Who Owns America?
Patrick Deneen
• Why Liberalism Failed
• The Odyssey of Political Theory
• Democratic Faith
• Conserving America? Thoughts on Present Discontents
Joseph Pearce
• Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love
• Small is Still Beautiful
• Beauteous Truth
Dorothy Day
• The Long Loneliness
• Loaves and Fishes
• Dorothy Day: Selected Writings
• The Reckless Way of Love
• On Pilgrimage
• The Dorothy Day Book
• The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day
Cecil Chesterton
• G. K. Chesterton: A Criticism
• The Party System
• The Party and the People: A Criticism of Recent Elections and Their Consequences
• Gladstonian Ghosts
• The People’s Drink
• Debate Between George Sylvester Viereck and Cecil Chesterton
Hilary Pepler
• The Care Committee. The Child & The Parent
• The Devil’s Devices, or Control Versus Service
• The Law the Lawyers Know About
John Forrest Sharpe
• Distributist Perspectives: Volume 1
• Distributist Perspectives: Volume 2
• Neo-Conned! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq
• Neo-Conned!: Just War Principles: A Condemnation of the War in Iraq
Levi Russell
• Usury and Interest: Correcting Modern Errors
• A Family Wage Prioritizes Conservative Values and Would Solve Coronavirus Childcare Dilemmas
• Our Overcentralized Food Supply Chain is Breaking Down
The Capitalists
Wilhelm Ropke
• A Humane Economy
• The Social Crisis of Our Time
• Crises and Cycles
• The German Question
Henry George
• Progress and Poverty
• Our Land Policy
• Protection or Free Trade
• Shortest Road to the Single Tax
• Social Problems
• The Condition of Labor: An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII; With Encyclopedial Letter of Pope Leo XIII, On the Condition of Labo
r
Elinor Ostrom
• Governing the Commons
Louis Kelso
• The New Capitalists
• Democracy and Economic Power
• The Capitalist Manifesto
• Two Factor Theory. The Economics of Reality
Adam Smith
• Theory of Moral Sentiments
• Wealth of Nations
John Kenneth Galbraith
• American Capitalism
• The Affluent Society
• The New Industrial State
• The Great Crash, 1929
• Economics and the Public Purpose
• The Culture of Contentment
Nicolaus Tideman
• Land and Taxation
Michael Hudson
• ...and Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year
• J is For Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception
• Killing the Host
• The Bubble and Beyond
• Urbanization and Land Ownership in the Ancient Near East
The Socialists
John Stuart Mill
• Principles of Political Economy
Karl Polanyi
• The Great Transformation
• Socialist Accounting
Thorstein Veblen
• The Theory of The Leisure Class
• Conspicuous Consumption
• The Engineers and the Price System
• The Theory of Business Enterprise
Victor Hugo
• Les Miserables
Guy Debord
• The Society of the Spectacle
Frantz Fanon
• The Wretched of the Earth
• Black Skin, White Masks
R. H. Tawney
• Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
• Acquisitive Society
Richard D. Wolff
• Understanding Marxism
George Orwell
• Homage to Catalonia
• 1984
G. D. H. Cole
• Guild Socialism Restated
S. G. Hobson
• National Guilds: An Inquiry Into the Wage System and the Way Out
Derek Wall
• Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals
Fred L. Block
• Origins of International Economic Disorder: Study of the United States International Monetary Policy From WW II to the Present
• The Ruling Class Does Not Rule
• The Vampire State and Other Myths and Fallacies About the U. S. Economy
• Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse
• The Mean Season: The Attack on the Welfare State
• Revising State Theory: Essays In Politics and Postindustrialism
• Capitalism Without Class Power • The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polyani’s Critique
• Capitalism: Future of Illusion
Thomas Sankara
• Thomas Sankara Speaks: the Burkina Faso Revolution
• We are the Heirs of the World’s Revolutions
• Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle
Alfred Richard Orage
• An Alphabet on Economics
William Morris
• L’Age de Ersatz
• How We Live and How We Might Live
• L’Art et L’Artisant
• Art and Labor
• La civilisation et le travail
• On Machinery
• Monopoly: How Labour is Robbed
• Useful Work Vs. Useless Toil
• Art and Industry in the Fourteenth Century
• News from Nowhere
The Mutualists
Kevin Carson
• The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand
• Libertarian Theory of Organization
• Studies in a Mutualist Political Economy
• Desktop Regulatory State
Wendell Berry
• Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community
• Art of the Commonplace
• Bringing it to the Table
• Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
• The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays, Cultural and Agricultural
• Meeting the Expectations of the Land: Essays in Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship
• Home Economics
• What are People For?
Karl Hess
• Community Technology
• Common Sense Strategy for Survivalists
• Capitalism for Kids
Colin Ward
• Autonomy, Solidarity, and Possibility: The Colin Ward Reader
• Sociable Cities: The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard
• Havens and Springboards
• New Town, Home Town: The Lessons of Experience
• Freedom to Go: After the Motor Age
• Welcome, Thinner City: Urban Survival in the 1990s
• The Child in the Country
• Goodnight Campers!
• When We Build Again: Let’s Have Housing that Works!
• Arcadia For All: The Legacy of a Makeshift Landscape
• The Child in the City
• Streetwork: The Exploding School
• Work
• Housing: An Anarchist Approach
• Talking Green
• Cotters and Squatters
• Reflected in Water
• Talking to Architects
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
• What is Property?
Benjamin Tucker
• Instead of a book by a man to busy to write one; a fragmentary exposition on philosophical anarchism
• Liberty: Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order
• Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of B. R. Tucker
• State Socialism and Anarchism and Other Essays
The Anarchists
Shane Claiborne
• The Irresistible Revolution
Peter Kroptkin
• Fields, Factories, and Workshops
• Conquest of Bread
• Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution
• The State: Its Historic Role
Jacques Ellul
• The Technological Society
• The Meaning of the City
• Money and Power
• The Political Illusion
Simone Weil
• Need for Roots
Paul Goodman
• Communitas
• Growing Up Absurd
• Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals
• Community of Scholars
• Compulsory Miseducation
• People or Personnel
• Like a Conquered Province
Murray Bookchin
• Ecology of Freedom
• Our Synthetic Environment
• The Next Revolution
• Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchsim
• Post-Scarcity Anarchism
• Urbanization Without Cities
• From Urbanization to Cities
• The Modern Crisis
• Limits of the City
Leopold Kohr
• Small is Beautiful
• Inner City: From Mud to Marble
• Development Without Aid: The Translucent Society
• Overdeveloped Nations: Diseconomies of Scale
• Breakdown of Nations
• Disunion Now
David Graeber
• Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value
• The Debt: The First 5000 Years
• Utopia of Rules
• Bullshit Jobs
Leo Tolstoy
• What is to be Done?
• The Kingdom of God is Within You
• A Confession
• Resurrection
William Batchelder Greene
• Mutual Banking
Ammon Hennacy
• The Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist
• Book of Ammon
• The One-Man Revolution in America
The Libertarians
David Beito
• From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services
Albert Jay Nock
• Our Enemy, the State
Ross Fitzgerald
• The Pope’s Battalions
Thomas Woods
• The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy
The Liberals
Orestes Brownson
• The American Republic
Thomas Paine
• Rights of Man
• Agrarian Justice
Etienne Borne
• A Philosophy of Work
Andrew Yang
• The War on Normal People
Robert Reich
• The System: Who Rigged it and How to Fix It
• Supercapitalism
Thomas Piketty
• Capital in the Twenty First Century
• Capital and Ideology
• Why Save the Bankers?
• Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times
• Top Incomes in France in the Twentieth Century
Matt Taibbi
• Hate Inc.
• The Great Derangment
• Griftopia
• The Divide
• Insane Clown President
• I Can’t Breathe
Thorold Rogers
• Six Centuries of Work and Labor
Huey Long
• Every Man A King
• My First Days in the White House&
nbsp;
Louis Brandeis
• Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It
Alexis de Tocqueville
• Democracy in America
• The Old Regime and Revolution
Jean-Paul Marat
• A Philosophical Essay on Man
• The Chains of Slavery
Edmund Burke
• A Vindication of Natural Society
• Thoughts on the Cause of Our Present Discontents
• Reflections on the Revolution in France
Theodore Roosevelt
• Essays on Practical Politics
• American Problems
• The New Nationalism
• The Conservation of Womanhood and Childhood
• Progressive Principles
• History as Literature and Other Essays
• Realizable Ideals
• Fear God and Take Your Own Part
The Philosophers
John F. Kavanaugh
• Following Christ in a Conusmer Society
• Who Count as Persons?: Human Identity and the Ethics of Killing
• Faces of Poverty: Faces of Christ
John Rawls
• Collected Papers
• Theory of Justice
• Political Liberalism
Laozi
• Tao Te Ching
Zhuang Zhou
• Zhuangzi
St. Thomas Aquinas
• Summa Theologiae: Second Part of the Second Part: Questions 66, 77, 78
Aristotle
• Politics
• Nicomachean Ethics
Xenophon
• Oeconomicus
George Bataille
• Visions of Excess
• The Accursed Share
Gary Chartier
• Anarchy and the Legal Order
• Economic Justice and Natural Law
Marcus Aurelius
• Meditations
Seneca
• Letters from a Stoic
Plato
• Republic
• Crito
• Euthyphro
• Phaedo
• Timaeus
• Critias
Henry David Thoreau
• Walden
Martin Heidegger
• The Question Concerning Technology
Ludwig Klages
• Cosmogonic Reflections
• Biocentric Worldview
Owen Barfield
• Saving the Appearances
Byung-Chul Han
• The Burnout Society
• The Transparency Society
• Pyschopolitics
Ananda Coomaraswamy
• Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
• The Village Community and Modern Progress
Rama P. Coomaraswamy
• The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Alasdair MacIntyre
• After Virtue
Epictetus
• Enchiridion
Musonius Rufus
• Lectures and Sayings
Jacques Maritain
• Freedom in the Modern World
• Temporal Regime and Liberty
• Things that are Not Ceasar’s
• Integral Humanism
Emmanual Mounier
• La Revolution Personnaliste et Communautaire
• A Personalist Manifesto
• De la Propriete Capitaliste a la Propriete Humaine
James Schall
• Another Kind of Learning
• Reason, Revelation, and the Foundation of Political Philosophy
• Human Dignity and Human Numbers
• Christianity and Politics
• Church, State, and Society in the Thought of John Paul II
• The Politics of Heaven and Hell
• Religion, Wealth, and Poverty
• At the Limits of Political Philosophy
• Roman Catholic Political Philosophy
• The Modern Age
• The Mind that is Catholic
• Ethics and Economics
Romano Guardini
• The Church and the Catholic
• The End of the Modern World
Mortimer Adler
• What Man Has Made of Man
• How to Think About God
• How to Read a Book
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The Conduct of Life
Cicero
• De Officiis
Ivan Illich
• Deshcooling Society
• Tools for Conviviality
• Medical Nemesis
• Blasphemy: A Radical Critique of Our Technological Culture
• Energy and Equity
• The Right to Useful Unemployment
• Toward a History of Needs
• Shadow Work
• Gender
• ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind
• In the Mirror of the Past
• The Corruption of Christianity
• Beyond Economics and Ecology
Arthur F. Utz
• Freedom and the Bonding of Property
• Ethics and Politics. Current Basic Questions of Social, Economic, and Legal Philosophy
• Between Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Marxism
• The Social Order
Michael Foucault
• Society Must be Defended
• Security, Territory, Population
• The Birth of Biopolitics
Giorgio Agamben
• The Man Without Content
• Infancy and History: The Destruction of Experience
• The Coming Community
• Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life
• Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive.
• State of Exception
• The Highest Poverty
Roger Scruton
• The Politics of Culture and Other Essays
• The Meaning of Conservatism
• A Dictionary of Political Thought
• Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left
• How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case For an Environmental Conservatism
• Green Philosophy
• The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures
• The Soul of the World
• How to be a Conservative
• On Human Nature
Ferdinand Tonnies
• Community and Society
• The Present Problem of the Social Structure
• On Public Opinion
• On Social Ideas and Ideologies
• Classification of Sociology. Journal of the Complete Political Science/ Institutional and Theoretical Economics
Ibn Khaldun
• Muqaddimah
Georg Simmel
• The Philosophy of Money
• The Metropolis and Mental Life
William James
• Is Life Worth Living?
• The Will to Believe
Edmund Husserl
• Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy: Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Philosophy and the Crisis of the European Man
• The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philososphy
Blanc de Saint-Bonnet
• L'Unité Spirituelle
• De la Douleur
• La Restauration Francaise
• L'Affaiblissement de la Raison
• Politique Réelle
• L'Infaillibilité
• La Raison. Philosophie Fondamentale
• La Légitimité
• La Loi Électorale et les Deux Chambres
• Le XVIIIe Siècle
• Le Socialisme et la Société
• L'Amour et la Chute
Jose Ortega y Gasset
• Meditations on Hunting
• Revolt of the Masses
• Some Lessons in Metaphysics
• History as a System and Other Essays Towards a Philosophy of History
• Mission of the University
• Man & People
• Historical Reason
Immanuel Kant
• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
• Metaphysics of Morals
Erik von Kneuhnelt-Leddin
• The Menace of the Herd
• Liberty or Equality
• The Timeless Christian
Descartes
• Meditations on the First Philosophy
Kenneth Minogue
• The Serville Mind
The Agrarians
Twelve Southerners
• I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition
Barbara Kingsolver
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Wes Jackson
• Becoming Native to this Place
• New Roots for Agriculture
• Nature as a Measure
Carleen Madigan
• The Backyard Homestead
Ben Falk
• The Resilient Farm and Homestead
Brett L. Markham
• Mini Farming
Masanobu Fukuoka
• The One-Straw Revolution
• The Natural Way of Farming
• The Road Back to Nature
• Sowing Seeds in the Desert
The Editors of Storey Publishing's Country Wisdom Bulletins
• Country, Wisdom, and Know-How
Suzanne Ashworth
• Seed to Seed
Ralph Borsodi
• The Flight from the City
• The Distribution Age
• This Ugly Civilization
• Prosperity and Security: A Study in Realistic Economics
Colin Tudge
• Six Steps Back to the Land: Why We Need Small Mixed Farms and Millions More Farmers
• Feeding People is Easy
• So Shall We Reap
• The Engineer in the Garden
Richard Williamson
• The Rural Solution: Modern Catholic Voices on Going Back to the Land
H. J. Massingham
• Prophesy of Famine: A Warning and a Remedy
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
• Manifesto on Rural Life
The Traditionalists
Daniel Schwindt
• Catholic Social Teaching: A New Synthesis
• The Case Against the Modern World
• There Must Be More Than This
Rod Dreher
• The Benedict Option
• Crunchy Cons
Raido • A Handbook of Traditional Living
Rene Guenon
• Saving Quantity and a Sign of the Times
• Crisis of the Modern World
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
• The Essential Frithjof
Andras Laszlo
• Solum Ipsum
Jean Borella
• Guenonian Esoterism and Christian Mystery
L. Brent Bozell Jr.
• The Best of Triumph
• The Warren Revolution
Arnold Lunn
• The Flight From Reason
• Difficulties
• Is Christianity True?
Pierre Guillaume Frederic le Play
• The Organization of Labor in Accordance with Custom and the Law of the Decalogue • Household Economy
• Frederic le Play on Family, Work, and Social Change&
nbsp; • Social Reform in France
Karl Ludwig von Haller
• Restoration of the Science of the State
Thomas Molnar
• Bernanos: His Political Thought and Prophecy
• The Decline of the Intellectual
• Utopia, the Perennial Heresy
• God and the Knowledge of Reality
• Authority and Its Enemies
• Return to Philosophy
Pat Buchanan
• The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice are being Sacrificed to the gods of Global Economy
• Conservative Votes, Liberal Victories
Russell Kirk
• The Conservative Mind
• The Essential Russell Kirk
Richard Weaver
• Ideas Have Consequences
• The Ethics of Rhetoric
Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Poor Folk • Crime and Punishment
• The Idiot
• The Brothers Karamazov
Louis de Bonald
• The True and Only Wealth of Nations: Essays on Family, Society, and Economy
• Catholic Political Thought 1789 -1848
• Critics of the Enlightenment (Christopher Olaf)
• On Divorce
Joseph de Maistre
• Catholic Political Thought
• The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Soveirgnty, Religion, and Enlightenment
• The Works of Joseph de Maistre (Richard Lebrun)
Charles A. Coulombe
• Puritan’s Empire
• Everyman Today Call Rome
• Desire & Deception
Donoso Cortes
• Essay on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism, Considered in their Fundamental Principles
• Readings in Political Theory
• Selected Works of Juan Donoso Cortes (Jefferey P. Johnson)
Thomas Flemming
• The Politics of Human Nature
• The Morality of Everyday Life
Father Dennis Fahey
• Money Manipulation and the Social Order
• The Church and Farming
• Mental Prayer According to the Teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Charles Maurras
• L’avenir de l’intelligence
• Pour un reveil francais
Atila Sinke Guimarães
• War, Just War
• We Resist You to the Face
• Restoring the Family
• Catholic Manual of Civility
Architecture and Urban Design
Christopher Alexander
• The Timeless Way of Building
• Pattern Language
• The Oregon Experiment
Charles L. Marohn Jr.
• Strong Towns
Lewis Mumford
• The City in History
• Techniques and Civilization
• The Culture of Cities
• The Condition of Man
• The Myth of the Machine
• Faith For Living
• Renewal of Life
• The Conduct of Life
Ebenezer Howard
• Garden Cities of Tomorrow
Dennis Hardy
• Alternative Communities in Nineteenth Century England
• From Garden Cities to New Towns
• Utopian England: Community Experiments
• Poundbury: The Town the Charles Built
• Cities that Don’t Cost the Earth
• The Urban Sea: Cities of the Mediterranean
Leon Krier
• The Idea of Reconstruction
• Critique of Zoning
• Town and Country
• Critique of the Megastructural City
• Critique of Industrialization
• Urban Components
• The City Within a City – Les Quartiers
• The Size of a City
• Critique of Modernisms
• Organic Versus Mechanical Composition
• Names and Nicknames
• Building and Architecture
• The Reconstruction of a European City
• What is an Urban Quartier? Form and Legislation
John Ruskin
• Unto This Last
• Seven Lamps of Archietecture
• Stones of Venice
• Fors Clavigera
Jane Jacobs
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Patrick Geddes
• City Development, A Report to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust
• The Masque of Learning
• Cities in Evolution
Jaqueline Tyrwhitt
• Patrick Geddes in India
• Human Identity in the Urban Environment
• Making a Garden on a Greek Hillside
• Society and Environment: A Historical Review
Environmentalism
Bill Mollison
• Introduction to Permaculture
• The Permaculture Book of Ferment and Human Tradition
William Cronon
• Uncommon Ground
Timothy Morton
• Dark Ecology
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
• Spiritual Ecology
Edward O. Wilson
• Biophilia
Charles Eisenstein
• The Ascent of Humanity
• Climate
• Sacred Economics
David Holmgren
• Permaculture
Toby Hemenway
• Gaia’s Garden
• The Permaculture City
Stephen Buhner
• Plant Intelligence and Imaginal Realms
Frank Bergon
• The Wilderness Reader
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer
• Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening
Paul Hawken
• Natural Capitalism
• Drawdown
• Blessed Unrest
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• The Next Economy
John Jeavons
• Grow Biointensive: A Beginner’s Guide
• How to Grow More Vegetables
• The Sustainable Vegetable Garden
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• Lazy-Bed Gardening
David Flemin
g • Lean Logic
• Surviving the Future
James A. Corbett
• A Sanctuary for All Life
• Goatwalking
Amory Lovins
• Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken
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• Small is Profitable
• Reinventing Fire
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Kirkpatrick Sale
• Human Scale
• Dwellers in the Land
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• After Eden
• Human Scale Revisited
Survivalism
Lewis Dartnell
• The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch
Ellen Zachos
• Backyard Foraging
Daisy Luther
• The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide
Department of the Army
• The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants
Peter A. Dykeman and Thomas Elias
• Edible Wild Plants
H. Ward Silver
• Ham Radio for Dummies
Iroquois Society
William N. Fenton
• The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy
Sara Henry Stites
• Economics of the Iroquois
Barbara Alice Mann
• The Second Epoch of Time: The Great Law Keeping
John A. Noon
• Law and Government of the Grand River Iroquois
Lewis Henry Morgan
• League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee or Iroquois
Timothy J. Shannon
• Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier
Barbara Graymont
• The Iroquois
Simon Spurrier
• The Culled
Robert A. Goldstein
• French-Iroquois Diplomatic and Military Relations 1609-1701
Bruce E. Johansen
• The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History
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Antony F.C. Wallace
• The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
Frank Speck
• Iroquois: A Study in Cultural Evolution
William R. Kenan
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Deep Ecology
Bill McKibben
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Peter Zapffe
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Arne Naess
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Peter Reed
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Derrick Jensen
• Myth of Human Supremacy
Pentti Linkola
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Dave Foreman
• Take back Conservation
Fritjof Capra
• The Web of Life
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Pope Leo XIII
• Quod apostolici muneris
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• Graves de communi re
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Pope Pius XI
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St. Pope John Paul II the Great
• Laborem exercens
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The Saints
St. Basil the Great
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St. Thomas More
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Saint John Chrysostom
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Saint Ambrose
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G. K. Chesterton
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Hilaire Belloc
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John Medaille
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John D. Mueller
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Heinrich Pesch
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Bill Kaufmann
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r
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Louis Kelso
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Adam Smith
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John Stuart Mill
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Thorstein Veblen
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Victor Hugo
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Guy Debord
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Frantz Fanon
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R. H. Tawney
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Richard D. Wolff
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George Orwell
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G. D. H. Cole
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S. G. Hobson
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Derek Wall
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Fred L. Block
• Origins of International Economic Disorder: Study of the United States International Monetary Policy From WW II to the Present
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• Capitalism Without Class Power • The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polyani’s Critique
• Capitalism: Future of Illusion
Thomas Sankara
• Thomas Sankara Speaks: the Burkina Faso Revolution
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Alfred Richard Orage
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William Morris
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The Mutualists
Kevin Carson
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Wendell Berry
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Karl Hess
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Colin Ward
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• Work
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Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
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Benjamin Tucker
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• State Socialism and Anarchism and Other Essays
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Shane Claiborne
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Peter Kroptkin
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• The State: Its Historic Role
Jacques Ellul
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• The Meaning of the City
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Simone Weil
• Need for Roots
Paul Goodman
• Communitas
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• Community of Scholars
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Murray Bookchin
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• The Modern Crisis
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Leopold Kohr
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David Graeber
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Leo Tolstoy
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William Batchelder Greene
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Ammon Hennacy
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The Libertarians
David Beito
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Albert Jay Nock
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Ross Fitzgerald
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Thomas Woods
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Orestes Brownson
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Thomas Paine
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Etienne Borne
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Andrew Yang
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Robert Reich
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Thomas Piketty
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Matt Taibbi
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Thorold Rogers
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Huey Long
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nbsp;
Louis Brandeis
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Alexis de Tocqueville
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Jean-Paul Marat
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Edmund Burke
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Theodore Roosevelt
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The Philosophers
John F. Kavanaugh
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John Rawls
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Laozi
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Zhuang Zhou
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Aristotle
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Xenophon
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Seneca
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Henry David Thoreau
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Martin Heidegger
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Epictetus
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Musonius Rufus
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Jacques Maritain
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Emmanual Mounier
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James Schall
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Mortimer Adler
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Cicero
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Ivan Illich
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Michael Foucault
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Roger Scruton
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Ben Falk
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Colin Tudge
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Richard Williamson
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Daniel Schwindt
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Rod Dreher
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Rene Guenon
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Seyyed Hossein Nasr
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Andras Laszlo
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Jean Borella
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Arnold Lunn
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nbsp; • Social Reform in France
Karl Ludwig von Haller
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Thomas Molnar
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Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Thomas Flemming
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Father Dennis Fahey
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Charles Maurras
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• Names and Nicknames
• Building and Architecture
• The Reconstruction of a European City
• What is an Urban Quartier? Form and Legislation
John Ruskin
• Unto This Last
• Seven Lamps of Archietecture
• Stones of Venice
• Fors Clavigera
Jane Jacobs
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Patrick Geddes
• City Development, A Report to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust
• The Masque of Learning
• Cities in Evolution
Jaqueline Tyrwhitt
• Patrick Geddes in India
• Human Identity in the Urban Environment
• Making a Garden on a Greek Hillside
• Society and Environment: A Historical Review
Environmentalism
Bill Mollison
• Introduction to Permaculture
• The Permaculture Book of Ferment and Human Tradition
William Cronon
• Uncommon Ground
Timothy Morton
• Dark Ecology
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
• Spiritual Ecology
Edward O. Wilson
• Biophilia
Charles Eisenstein
• The Ascent of Humanity
• Climate
• Sacred Economics
David Holmgren
• Permaculture
Toby Hemenway
• Gaia’s Garden
• The Permaculture City
Stephen Buhner
• Plant Intelligence and Imaginal Realms
Frank Bergon
• The Wilderness Reader
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer
• Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening
Paul Hawken
• Natural Capitalism
• Drawdown
• Blessed Unrest
• Ecology of Commerce
• The Next Economy
John Jeavons
• Grow Biointensive: A Beginner’s Guide
• How to Grow More Vegetables
• The Sustainable Vegetable Garden
• The Backyard Homestead
• Lazy-Bed Gardening
David Flemin
g • Lean Logic
• Surviving the Future
James A. Corbett
• A Sanctuary for All Life
• Goatwalking
Amory Lovins
• Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken
• Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
• Small is Profitable
• Reinventing Fire
• Winning the Oil Endgame
Kirkpatrick Sale
• Human Scale
• Dwellers in the Land
• Rebels Against the Future
• After Eden
• Human Scale Revisited
Survivalism
Lewis Dartnell
• The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch
Ellen Zachos
• Backyard Foraging
Daisy Luther
• The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide
Department of the Army
• The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants
Peter A. Dykeman and Thomas Elias
• Edible Wild Plants
H. Ward Silver
• Ham Radio for Dummies
Iroquois Society
William N. Fenton
• The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy
Sara Henry Stites
• Economics of the Iroquois
Barbara Alice Mann
• The Second Epoch of Time: The Great Law Keeping
John A. Noon
• Law and Government of the Grand River Iroquois
Lewis Henry Morgan
• League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee or Iroquois
Timothy J. Shannon
• Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier
Barbara Graymont
• The Iroquois
Simon Spurrier
• The Culled
Robert A. Goldstein
• French-Iroquois Diplomatic and Military Relations 1609-1701
Bruce E. Johansen
• The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History
• Forgotten Founders
Antony F.C. Wallace
• The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
Frank Speck
• Iroquois: A Study in Cultural Evolution
William R. Kenan
• The Indian Peoples of Eastern America: A Documentary History of the Sexes
Deep Ecology
Bill McKibben
• Deep Economy
• The End of Nature
Peter Zapffe
• The Last Messiah
Arne Naess
• Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle
• Selected Works of Arne Naess (Harold Glasser)
Peter Reed
• Wisdom in the Open Air
Derrick Jensen
• Myth of Human Supremacy
Pentti Linkola
• Can Life Prevail?
Dave Foreman
• Take back Conservation
Fritjof Capra
• The Web of Life
• The Tao of Physics
2020.08.27 03:20 has_got_this The Barn - Part 4
Part 1 - The Barn
Part 2 - Tara's Room
Part 3 - The Pit
Part 4 - Aidan
So much has happened in the last week that I haven’t had a chance to provide any updates on Gary’s research. He couldn’t find much on the barn’s history and, in fact, we don’t think it was ever actually used as a barn. It was likely a store house to keep the harvested vegetables over the winter. The sunlight kept the crop from freezing, which explains why it had so many windows.
We know that the farm, itself, was started around 1822 by a tanner named Daniel Bradford. It was passed from generation to generation, and we believe one of the Bradfords built the harvest storage house in the early 1900s. Pieces of the farm were sold off until Richard and Amanda Keller purchased the remaining eighteen acres from Bertha Bradford in 1963. The Kellers were living in the farm house when Derrick disappeared, but they were quickly ruled out as suspects. As transplants from Wisconsin, they don’t have any historical attachment to the area so we doubt they are connected to our paranormal experiences either. And while the Bradford family can trace their lineage to the earliest settlers, we still don’t know how Daniel Bradford ended up in our town.
Gary then broadened his search geographically and focused on the town itself. We live in Lexington which is northwest of Cambridge and dates back to the very beginning of US History, 150 years before the Revolutionary War. It was first used as farmland for the Puritans settlers that had emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay area in the 1630s. It was even called the “Cambridge Farms” or just “the Farms.”
Back then there was little need for personal correspondences between colonists but they did correspond with their families back in England. There were two letters of interest, both from the mid-1650s. One was from a young colonial farmer named Randolph Carter to his father back in England, and the other was from an Englishman named Edward Seeley to his son in America. The younger Carter and the Seeley had landed in Massachusetts during the 1630s and there are records indicating that they were given parcels of land in the Cambridge Farms.
Most of Carter's letter was dedicated to talking about the new land, asking about family, and requesting supplies, but one paragraph stood out. He wrote:
"...Two of the Wilson girls have vanished. They were sent to gather eggs and never returned. There is no indication of a struggle with a wild beast and they are of an age to take the utmost precaution in this regard. The Deacon believes it to be the work of the devil and we should avail each of ourselves to confront this evil which I fear is still mixt amongst us."
Seeley’s letter also spoke about family, itemized supplies he was sending, and offered general advice as any father would to a son. One paragraph seemed to reference the same incident as Carter’s letter:
"...I am cheered to receive news from the Glendale that the villain responsible for absconding with the Wilson children has been met with just punishment. I knew Isaac Cole to have an odd temperament but for his grandson to commit such a defilement is beyond repentance. I do pray his departure will mark the end of the dismayedness among the congregation. We must seek solace in that our dear cousins Elizabeth and Abigail will find everlasting peace in the Lord’s Heavenly Kingdom."
Maybe you’ll recognize the name Abigail from my tunnel incident. It was the name the scary ghost in the back called out to the much scarier ghost next to me. When I told Gary about it, he immediately thought of those two letters.
Of course we both had hoped that Isaac Cole’s grandson was named Timothy. No such luck. There was enough historical references to conclude that there was no Timothy Cole in America at that time. It’s still the best historical lead we have so Gary is continuing to pursue it.
On a different front, Gary was able to convince the University’s archeology department and the Lexington Historical Society to co-sponsor an exploratory dig at what we are privately calling Abigail’s Tunnel. A grad student is scheduled to come out tomorrow. Unfortunately for us, there is no logical reason to dig at the locations of the other lights.
Meanwhile, our son arrived over the weekend. Aidan heard what had happened to me but we didn’t share any of the paranormal details at the time. There was just no way to ease him into all of that, so Gary, Tara, and I sat him down like it was some sort of intervention. It didn’t go well.
I get it. It’s hard accepting a complete rewrite of one’s perception of reality. He spent the following day cycling through every rational explanation he could imagine, from carbon monoxide leaks to sleep paralysis to insisting he was being pranked. When he finally realized that we were serious, he was willing to accept that we believe it but I can tell he feels alienated.
Gary really wanted to check out what’s underneath the other lights and Aidan was willing to grab a shovel and kick up some dirt with his old man. At first we were both hesitant to involve him any further but we were also relieved that he was willing to engage with us, regardless of our respective beliefs. Isn’t that what we should all do for family? How could we discourage it?
Gary documented what happened:
We spent the first fifteen minutes lining up the location and marking the perimeter with tape. Aidan and I made small talk as we started digging a shallow trench from east to west. Without any warning I found myself flat on my back. I can only assume I was knocked unconscious. As I sat up I saw something that I would have considered impossible a few weeks ago. Aidan was floating a few inches from the ground, as if laying on a bed of thin air. After a few seconds he dropped and woke up. Neither of us seemed injured so we headed back to the house. I was more concerned about our well-being at the time, but it didn’t take long for me to notice he was exhibiting strange behavior. He pulled up a piece of dry grass and chewed on the end of it, but quickly became dissatisfied with it and tossed it on the ground. He answered my questions with “yes sir” and “no sir” and was surveying his surroundings with a great deal of intrigue.
Our first thought was that he was possessed by something or someone but he began acting normal within the hour. But since then he’s been acting funny on and off. Just weird mannerisms and odd looking smiles. He even stares at Tara in a very non-brotherly way. We’re going to keep our eye on it but we are starting to grow concerned.
submitted by has_got_this to nosleep [link] [comments]
Part 2 - Tara's Room
Part 3 - The Pit
Part 4 - Aidan
So much has happened in the last week that I haven’t had a chance to provide any updates on Gary’s research. He couldn’t find much on the barn’s history and, in fact, we don’t think it was ever actually used as a barn. It was likely a store house to keep the harvested vegetables over the winter. The sunlight kept the crop from freezing, which explains why it had so many windows.
We know that the farm, itself, was started around 1822 by a tanner named Daniel Bradford. It was passed from generation to generation, and we believe one of the Bradfords built the harvest storage house in the early 1900s. Pieces of the farm were sold off until Richard and Amanda Keller purchased the remaining eighteen acres from Bertha Bradford in 1963. The Kellers were living in the farm house when Derrick disappeared, but they were quickly ruled out as suspects. As transplants from Wisconsin, they don’t have any historical attachment to the area so we doubt they are connected to our paranormal experiences either. And while the Bradford family can trace their lineage to the earliest settlers, we still don’t know how Daniel Bradford ended up in our town.
Gary then broadened his search geographically and focused on the town itself. We live in Lexington which is northwest of Cambridge and dates back to the very beginning of US History, 150 years before the Revolutionary War. It was first used as farmland for the Puritans settlers that had emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay area in the 1630s. It was even called the “Cambridge Farms” or just “the Farms.”
Back then there was little need for personal correspondences between colonists but they did correspond with their families back in England. There were two letters of interest, both from the mid-1650s. One was from a young colonial farmer named Randolph Carter to his father back in England, and the other was from an Englishman named Edward Seeley to his son in America. The younger Carter and the Seeley had landed in Massachusetts during the 1630s and there are records indicating that they were given parcels of land in the Cambridge Farms.
Most of Carter's letter was dedicated to talking about the new land, asking about family, and requesting supplies, but one paragraph stood out. He wrote:
"...Two of the Wilson girls have vanished. They were sent to gather eggs and never returned. There is no indication of a struggle with a wild beast and they are of an age to take the utmost precaution in this regard. The Deacon believes it to be the work of the devil and we should avail each of ourselves to confront this evil which I fear is still mixt amongst us."
Seeley’s letter also spoke about family, itemized supplies he was sending, and offered general advice as any father would to a son. One paragraph seemed to reference the same incident as Carter’s letter:
"...I am cheered to receive news from the Glendale that the villain responsible for absconding with the Wilson children has been met with just punishment. I knew Isaac Cole to have an odd temperament but for his grandson to commit such a defilement is beyond repentance. I do pray his departure will mark the end of the dismayedness among the congregation. We must seek solace in that our dear cousins Elizabeth and Abigail will find everlasting peace in the Lord’s Heavenly Kingdom."
Maybe you’ll recognize the name Abigail from my tunnel incident. It was the name the scary ghost in the back called out to the much scarier ghost next to me. When I told Gary about it, he immediately thought of those two letters.
Of course we both had hoped that Isaac Cole’s grandson was named Timothy. No such luck. There was enough historical references to conclude that there was no Timothy Cole in America at that time. It’s still the best historical lead we have so Gary is continuing to pursue it.
On a different front, Gary was able to convince the University’s archeology department and the Lexington Historical Society to co-sponsor an exploratory dig at what we are privately calling Abigail’s Tunnel. A grad student is scheduled to come out tomorrow. Unfortunately for us, there is no logical reason to dig at the locations of the other lights.
Meanwhile, our son arrived over the weekend. Aidan heard what had happened to me but we didn’t share any of the paranormal details at the time. There was just no way to ease him into all of that, so Gary, Tara, and I sat him down like it was some sort of intervention. It didn’t go well.
I get it. It’s hard accepting a complete rewrite of one’s perception of reality. He spent the following day cycling through every rational explanation he could imagine, from carbon monoxide leaks to sleep paralysis to insisting he was being pranked. When he finally realized that we were serious, he was willing to accept that we believe it but I can tell he feels alienated.
Gary really wanted to check out what’s underneath the other lights and Aidan was willing to grab a shovel and kick up some dirt with his old man. At first we were both hesitant to involve him any further but we were also relieved that he was willing to engage with us, regardless of our respective beliefs. Isn’t that what we should all do for family? How could we discourage it?
Gary documented what happened:
We spent the first fifteen minutes lining up the location and marking the perimeter with tape. Aidan and I made small talk as we started digging a shallow trench from east to west. Without any warning I found myself flat on my back. I can only assume I was knocked unconscious. As I sat up I saw something that I would have considered impossible a few weeks ago. Aidan was floating a few inches from the ground, as if laying on a bed of thin air. After a few seconds he dropped and woke up. Neither of us seemed injured so we headed back to the house. I was more concerned about our well-being at the time, but it didn’t take long for me to notice he was exhibiting strange behavior. He pulled up a piece of dry grass and chewed on the end of it, but quickly became dissatisfied with it and tossed it on the ground. He answered my questions with “yes sir” and “no sir” and was surveying his surroundings with a great deal of intrigue.
Our first thought was that he was possessed by something or someone but he began acting normal within the hour. But since then he’s been acting funny on and off. Just weird mannerisms and odd looking smiles. He even stares at Tara in a very non-brotherly way. We’re going to keep our eye on it but we are starting to grow concerned.
2020.06.19 19:55 packbring All the Rough and Rowdy Ways lyrics, copied from Genuis.com. Enjoy.
I Contain Multitudes
Today, and tomorrow, and yesterday, too
The flowers are dyin' like all things do
Follow me close, I’m going to Bally-na-Lee
I'll lose my mind if you don't come with me
I fuss with my hair, and I fight blood feuds
I contain multitudes
Got a tell-tale heart like Mr. Poe
Got skeletons in the walls of people you know
I’ll drink to the truth and the things we said
I'll drink to the man that shares your bed
I paint landscapes, and I paint nudes
I contain multitudes
A red Cadillac and a black mustache
Rings on my fingers that sparkle and flash
Tell me, what's next? What shall we do?
Half my soul, baby, belongs to you
I rollick and I frolic with all the young dudes
I contain multitudes
I'm just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones
And them British bad boys, The Rolling Stones
I go right to the edge, I go right to the end
I go right where all things lost are made good again
I sing the songs of experience like William Blake
I have no apologies to make
Everything's flowing all at the same time
I live on a boulevard of crime
I drive fast cars, and I eat fast foods
I contain multitudes
Pink pedal-pushers, red blue jeans
All the pretty maids, and all the old queens
All the old queens from all my past lives
I carry four pistols and two large knives
I'm a man of contradictions, I'm a man of many moods
I contain multitudes
You greedy old wolf, I'll show you my heart
But not all of it, only the hateful part
I’ll sell you down the river, I’ll put a price on your head
What more can I tell you? I sleep with life and death in the same bed
Get lost, madame, get up off my knee
Keep your mouth away from me
I'll keep the path open, the path in my mind
I’ll see to it that there's no love left behind
I'll play Beethoven's sonatas, and Chopin’s preludes
I contain multitudes
False Prophet
[Verse 1]
Another day that don't end
Another ship goin' out
Another day of anger, bitterness, and doubt
I know how it happened
I saw it begin
I opened my heart to the world and the world came in
[Verse 2]
Hello, Mary Lou
Hello, Miss Pearl
My fleet-footed guides from the underworld
No stars in the sky shine brighter than you
You girls mean business and I do too
[Verse 3]
Well, I'm the enemy of treason
An enemy of strife
I'm the enemy of the unlived meaningless life
I ain't no false prophet
I just know what I know
I go where only the lonely can go
[Verse 4]
I'm first among equals
Second to none
The last of the best
You can bury the rest
Bury 'em naked with their silver and gold
Put 'em six feet under and I pray for their souls
[Verse 5]
What are you lookin' at?
There's nothing to see
Just a cool breeze that's encircling me
Let's go for a walk in the garden
So far and so wide
We can sit in the shade by the fountain-side
[Verse 6]
I search the world over
For the Holy Grail
I sing songs of love
I sing songs of betrayal
Don't care what I drink
I don't care what I eat
I climb the mountains with swords on my bare feet
[Verse 7]
You don't know me, darlin'
You never would guess
I'm nothing like my ghostly appearance would suggest
I ain't no false prophet
I just said what I said
I'm just here to bring vengeance on somebody's head
[Verse 8]
Put out your hand
There's nothing to hold
Open your mouth
I'll stuff it with gold
Oh, you poor devil, look up if you will
The city of God is there on the hill
[Verse 9]
Hello, stranger
Hello and goodbye
You ruled the land
But so do I
You lusty old mule
You got a poisoned brain
I'll marry you to a ball and chain
[Verse 10]
You know, darlin'
The kind of life that I live
When your smile meets my smile
Something's got to give
I ain't no false prophet
No, I'm nobody's bride
Can't remember when I was born
And I forgot when I died
My Own Version of You
All through the summers, into January
I've been visiting morgues and monasteries
Looking for the necessary body parts
Limbs and livers and brains and hearts
I'll bring someone to life, is what I wanna do
I wanna create my own version of you
Well, it must be the winter of my discontent
I wish you'd've taken me with you wherever you went
They talk all night and they talk all day
Not for a minute do I believe anything they say
I'm gon' bring someone to life, someone I've never seen
You know what I mean, you know exactly what I mean
I'll take the Scarface Pacino and The Godfather Brando
Mix it up in a tank and get a robot commando
If I do it upright and put the head on straight
I'll be saved by the creature that I create
I'll get blood from a cactus, gunpowder from ice
I don't gamble with cards and I don't shoot no dice
Can you look at my face with your sightless eyes?
Can you cross your heart and hope to die?
I'll bring someone to life, someone for real
Someone who feels the way that I feel
I study Sanskrit and Arabic to improve my mind
I wanna do things for the benefit of all mankind
I say to the willow tree, "Don't weep for me"
I'm saying to hell to all things that I used to be
Well, I get into trouble, then I hit the wall
No place to turn, no place at all
I'll pick a number between a-one and two
And I ask myself, "What would Julius Caesar do?"
I will bring someone to life in more ways than one
Don't matter how long it takes, it'll be done when it's done
I'm gonna make you play the piano like Leon Russell
Like Liberace, like St. John the Apostle
I'll play every number that I can play
I'll see you maybe on Judgment Day
After midnight, if you still wanna meet
I'll be at the Black Horse Tavern on Armageddon Street
Two doors down, not that far a walk
I'll hear your footsteps, you won't have to knock
I'll bring someone to life, balance the scales
I'm not gonna get involved any insignificant details
You can bring it to St. Peter
You can bring it to Jerome
You can bring it all the way over
Bring it all the way home
Bring it to the corner where the children play
You can bring it to me on a silver tray
I'll bring someone to life, spare no expense
Do it with decency and common sense
Can you tell me what it means, to be or not to be?
You won't get away with fooling me
Can you help me walk that moonlight mile?
Can you give me the blessings of your smile?
I'll bring someone to life, use all of my powers
Do it in the dark, in the wee, small hours
I can see the history of the whole human race
It's all right there, it's carved into your face
Should I break it all down? Should I fall on my knees?
Is there light at the end of the tunnel, can you tell me, please?
Stand over there by the cypress tree
Where the Trojan women and children were sold into slavery
Long before the first Crusade
Way back before England or America were made
Step right into the burning hell
Where some of the best-known enemies of mankind dwell
Mr. Freud with his dreams, Mr. Marx with his ax
See the raw hide lash rip the skin from their backs
Got the right spirit, you can feel it, you can hear it
You've got what they call the immortal spirit
You can feel it all night, you can feel it in the morn'
It creeps in your body the day you were born
One strike of lightning is all that I need
And a blast of electricity that runs at top speed
Shimmy your ribs, I'll stick in the knife
Gonna jumpstart my creation to life
I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years
Do it with laughter and do it with tears
I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
I'm sittin' on my terrace, lost in the stars
Listening to the sounds of the sad guitars
Been thinking it all over and I've thought it all through
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
I saw the first fall of snow
I saw the flowers come and go
I don't think that anyone ever else ever knew
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
I'm giving myself to you, I am
From Salt Lake City to Birmingham
From East L.A. to San Antone
I don't think I can bear to live my life alone
My eye is like a shooting star
It looks at nothin' here or there, looks at nothin' near or far
No one ever told me, it's just something I knew
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
If I had the wings of a snow white dove
I'd preach the gospel, the gospel of love
A love so real, a love so true
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Take me out traveling, you're a traveling man
Show me something I don't understand
I'm not what I was, things aren't what they were
I'll go far away from home with her
I traveled a long road of despair
I met no other traveler there
Lot of people gone, lot of people I knew
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Well, my heart's like a river, a river that sings
Just takes me a while to realize things
I've seen the sunrise, I've seen the dawn
I'll lay down beside you when everyone's gone
I've traveled from the mountains to the sea
I hope that the gods go easy with me
I knew you'd say yes, I'm saying it too
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Black Rider
[Verse 1]
Black rider, black rider, you've been living too hard
Been up all night, have to stay on your guard
The path that you're walking, too narrow to walk
Every step of the way, another stumbling block
The road that you're on, same road that you know
Just not the same as it was a minute ago
[Verse 2]
Black rider, black rider, you've seen it all
You've seen the great world and you've seen the small
You fell into the fire and you're eating the flame
Better seal up your lips if you wanna stay in the game
Be reasonable, mister, be honest, be fair
Let all of your earthly thoughts be a prayer
[Verse 3]
Black rider, black rider, all dressed in black
I'm walking away, you try to make me look back
My heart is at rest, I'd like to keep it that way
I don't wanna fight, at least not today
Go home to your wife, stop visiting mine
One of these days I'll forget to be kind
[Verse 4]
Black rider, black rider, tell me when, tell me how
If there ever was a time, then let it be now
Let me go through, open the door
My soul is distressed, my mind is at war
Don't hug me, don't flatter me, don't turn on the charm
I'll take a sword and hack off your arm
[Verse 5]
Black rider, black rider, hold it right there
The size of your cock will get you nowhere
I'll suffer in silence, I'll not make a sound
Maybe I'll take the high moral ground
Some enchanted evening I'll sing you a song
Black rider, black rider, you've been on the job too long
Goodbye Jimmy Reed
[Verse 1]
I live on a street named after a Saint
Women in the churches wear powder and paint
Where the Jews, and Catholics, and the Muslims all pray
I can tell they're Proddie from a mile away
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed
Give me that old time religion, it's just what I need
[Verse 2]
For thine is kingdom, the power, the glory
Go tell it on the mountain, go tell the real story
Tell it in that straightforward, puritanical tone
In the mystic hours when a person's alone
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, godspeed
Thump on the Bible, proclaim a creed
[Verse 3]
You won't amount to much, the people all said
'Cause I didn't play guitar behind my head
Never pandered, never acted proud
Never took off my shoes, throw 'em in the crowd
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, goodnight
Put a jewel in your crown and I put out the lights
[Verse 4]
They threw everything at me, everything in the book
I had nothing to fight with but a butcher's hook
They had no pity, they never lend a hand
I can't sing a song that I don't understand
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, good luck
I can't play the record 'cause my needle got stuck
[Verse 5]
Transparent woman in a transparent dress
Suits you well, I must confess
I'll break open your grapes, I'll suck out the juice
I need you like my head needs a noose
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye and so long
I thought I could resist her but I was so wrong
[Verse 6]
God be with you, brother dear
If you don't mind me asking what brings you here?
Oh, nothing much, I'm just looking for the man
Need to see where he's lying in this lost land
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, and everything within ya
Can't you hear me calling from down in Virginia?
Mother of Muses
Mother of Muses sing for me
Sing of the mountains and the deep dark sea
Sing of the lakes and the nymphs of the forest
Sing your hearts out, all your women of the chorus
Sing of honor and fate and glory be
Mother of Muses sing for me
Mother of Muses sing for my heart
Sing of a love too soon to depart
Sing of the heroes who stood alone
Whose names are engraved on tablets of stone
Who struggled with pain so the world could go free
Mother of Muses sing for me
Sing of Sherman, Montgomery, and Scott
And of Zhukov, and Patton, and the battles they fought
Who cleared the path for Presley to sing
Who carved the path for Martin Luther King
Who did what they did and they went on their way
Man, I could tell their stories all day
I'm falling in love with Calliope
She don't belong to anyone, why not give her to me?
She's speaking to me, speaking with her eyes
I've grown so tired of chasing lies
Mother of Muses, wherever you are
I've already outlived my life by far
Mother of Muses, unleash your wrath
Things I can't see, they're blocking my path
Show me your wisdom, tell me my fate
Put me upright, make me walk straight
Forge my identity from the inside out
You know what I'm talking about
Take me to the river, release your charms
Let me lay down a while in your sweet, loving arms
Wake me, shake me, free me from sin
Make me invisible, like the wind
Got a mind that ramble, got a mind that roam
I'm travelin' light and I'm a-slow coming home
Crossing the Rubicon
[Verse 1]
I crossed the Rubicon on the 14th day
Of the most dangerous month of the year
At the worst time, at the worst place
That's all I seem to hear
I got up early
So I can greet the goddess of the dawn
I've painted my wagon, abandoned all hope
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 2]
Well, the Rubicon is a red river
Goin' gently as she flows
Redder than your ruby lips
And the blood that flows from the rose
Three miles north of purgatory
One step from the great beyond
I prayed to the cross, I kissed the girls
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 3]
What are these dark days I see?
In this world so badly bent
I cannot redeem the time
The time so idly spent
How much longer can it last?
How long can it go on?
I embrace my love, put down my hair
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 4]
I can feel the bones beneath my skin
And they're tremblin' with rage
I'll make your wife a widow
You'll never see old age
Show me one good man in sight
That the sun shines down upon
I pawned my watch, I paid my debts
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 5]
Put my hide up on a hill
Where some happiness I'll find
If I survive, then let me love
Let the hour be mine
Take the high road, take the low
Take any one you're on
I poured the cup, I passed it along
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 6]
Well, you defiled the most lovely flowers
In all her womanhood
Others can be tolerant
Others can be good
I'll cut you up with a crooked knife
Lord, and I'll miss you when you're gone
I stood between Heaven and Earth
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 7]
You won't find any happiness here
No happiness or joy
Go back to the gutter, try your luck
Find you some nice pretty boy
Tell me how many men I need
And who can I count upon
I strapped my belt, I buttoned my coat
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 8]
I feel the holy spirit inside
See the light that freedom gives
I believe it's in the reach of
Every man who lives
Keep as far away as possible
It's darkest 'fore the dawn (Oh Lord)
I turned the key, I broke it off
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 9]
Mona, baby, are you still in my mind?
I truly believe that you are
Couldn't be anybody else but you
Who's come with me this far
The killing frost is on the ground
And the autumn leaves are gone
I lit the torch, I looked to the east
And I crossed the Rubicon
Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
[Verse 1]
McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled
Doctor said, "McKinley, death is on the wall
Say it to me, if you got something to confess"
I heard all about it, he was going down slow
I heard it all, the wireless radio
From down in the boondocks way down in Key West
I’m searching for love, for inspiration
On that pirate radio station
Coming out of Luxembourg and Budapest
Radio signal, clear as can be
I'm so deep in love that I can hardly see
Down on the flatlands, way down in Key West
[Chorus 1]
Key West is the place to be
If you're looking for immortality
Stay on the road, follow the highway sign
Key West is fine and fair
If you lost your mind, you will find it there
Key West is on the horizon line
[Verse 2]
I was born on the wrong side of the railroad track
Like Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac
Like Louis and Jimmy and Buddy and all the rest
Well, it might not be the thing to do
But I'm sticking with you through and through
Down in the flatlands, way down in Key West
I got both my feet planted square on the ground
Got my right hand high with the thumb down
Such is life, such is happiness
Hibiscus flowers, they grow everywhere here
If you wear one, put it behind your ear
Down in the bottom, way down in Key West
[Chorus 2]
Key West is the place to go
Down by the Gulf of Mexico
Beyond the sea, beyond the shifting sand
Key West is the gateway key
To innocence and purity
Key West, Key West is the enchanted land
[Verse 3]
I've never lived in the land of Oz
Or wasted my time with an unworthy cause
It’s hot down here, and you can't be overdressed
China blossoms of a toxic plant
They can make you dizzy, I'd like to help you but I can't
Down in the flatlands, way down in Key West
Well, the fish tail ponds, and the orchid trees
They can give you that bleeding heart disease
People tell me I ought to try a little tenderness
On Newton Street, Bayview Park
Walking in the shadows after dark
Down under, way down in Key West
I played Gumbo Limbo spirituals
I know all the Hindu rituals
People tell me that I'm truly blessed
Bougainvillea blooming in the summer, in the spring
Winter here is an unknown thing
Down in the flat lands, way down in Key West
[Chorus 3]
Key West is under the sun, under the radar, under the gun
You stay to the left, and then you lean to the right
Feel the sunlight on your skin, and the healing virtues of the wind
Key West, Key West is the land of light
[Verse 4]
Wherever I travel, wherever I roam
I'm not that far from the convent home
I do what I think is right, what I think is best
History Street off of Mallory Square
Truman had his White House there
East bound, West bound, way down in Key West
Twelve years old, they put me in a suit
Forced me to marry a prostitute
There were gold fringes on her wedding dress
That's my story, but not where it ends
She's still cute, and we're still friends
Down on the bottom, way down in Key West
I play both sides against the middle
Trying to pick up that pirate radio signal
I heard the news, I heard your last request
Fly around, my pretty little Miss
I don't love nobody, give me a kiss
Down on the bottom, way down in Key West
[Chorus 4]
Key West is the place to be
If you're looking for immortality
Key West is paradise divine
Key West is fine and fair
If you lost your mind, you'll find it there
Key West is on the horizon line
Murder Most Foul
[Verse 1]
It was a dark day in Dallas, November '63
A day that will live on in infamy
President Kennedy was a-ridin' high
Good day to be livin' and a good day to die
Being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb
He said, "Wait a minute, boys, you know who I am?"
"Of course we do, we know who you are"
Then they blew off his head while he was still in the car
Shot down like a dog in broad daylight
Was a matter of timing and the timing was right
You got unpaid debts, we've come to collect
We're gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect
We'll mock you and shock you and we'll put it in your face
We've already got someone here to take your place
The day they blew out the brains of the king
Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing
It happened so quickly, so quick, by surprise
Right there in front of everyone's eyes
Greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, skillfully done
Wolfman, oh Wolfman, oh Wolfman, howl
Rub-a-dub-dub, it's a murder most foul
[Verse 2]
Hush, little children, you'll understand
The Beatles are comin', they're gonna hold your hand
Slide down the banister, go get your coat
Ferry 'cross the Mersey and go for the throat
There's three bums comin' all dressed in rags
Pick up the pieces and lower the flags
I'm goin' to Woodstock, it's the Aquarian Age
Then I'll go over to Altamont and sit near the stage
Put your head out the window, let the good times roll
There's a party going on behind the Grassy Knoll
Stack up the bricks, pour the cement
Don't say Dallas don't love you, Mr. President
Put your foot in the tank and then step on the gas
Try to make it to the triple underpass
Blackface singer, whiteface clown
Better not show your faces after the sun goes down
Up in the red light district, they've got cop on the beat
Living in a nightmare on Elm Street
When you're down on Deep Ellum, put your money in your shoe
Don't ask what your country can do for you
Cash on the barrelhead, money to burn
Dealey Plaza, make a left-hand turn
I'm going down to the crossroads, gonna flag a ride
The place where faith, hope, and charity died
Shoot him while he runs, boy, shoot him while you can
See if you can shoot the invisible man
Goodbye, Charlie, goodbye, Uncle Sam
Frankly, Miss Scarlett, I don't give a damn
What is the truth, and where did it go?
Ask Oswald and Ruby, they oughta know
"Shut your mouth," said a wise old owl
Business is business, and it's a murder most foul
[Verse 3]
Tommy, can you hear me? I'm the Acid Queen
I'm riding in a long, black Lincoln limousine
Ridin' in the back seat next to my wife
Headed straight on in to the afterlife
I'm leaning to the left, I got my head in her lap
Hold on, I've been led into some kind of a trap
Where we ask no quarter, and no quarter do we give
We're right down the street, from the street where you live
They mutilated his body and they took out his brain
What more could they do? They piled on the pain
But his soul was not there where it was supposed to be at
For the last fifty years they've been searchin' for that
Freedom, oh freedom, freedom over me
I hate to tell you, mister, but only dead men are free
Send me some lovin', then tell me no lie
Throw the gun in the gutter and walk on by
Wake up, little Susie, let's go for a drive
Cross the Trinity River, let's keep hope alive
Turn the radio on, don't touch the dials
Parkland Hospital, only six more miles
You got me dizzy, Miss Lizzy, you filled me with lead
That magic bullet of yours has gone to my head
I'm just a patsy like Patsy Cline
Never shot anyone from in front or behind
I've blood in my eye, got blood in my ear
I'm never gonna make it to the new frontier
Zapruder's film I seen night before
Seen it thirty-three times, maybe more
It's vile and deceitful, it's cruel and it's mean
Ugliest thing that you ever have seen
They killed him once and they killed him twice
Killed him like a human sacrifice
The day that they killed him, someone said to me, "Son
The age of the Antichrist has just only begun"
Air Force One comin' in through the gate
Johnson sworn in at 2:38
Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel
It is what it is, and it's murder most foul
[Verse 4]
What's new, pussycat? What'd I say?
I said the soul of a nation been torn away
And it's beginning to go into a slow decay
And that it's thirty-six hours past Judgment Day
Wolfman Jack, he's speaking in tongues
He's going on and on at the top of his lungs
Play me a song, Mr. Wolfman Jack
Play it for me in my long Cadillac
Play me that "Only the Good Die Young"
Take me to the place Tom Dooley was hung
Play "St. James Infirmary" and the Court of King James
If you want to remember, you better write down the names
Play Etta James, too, play "I'd Rather Go Blind"
Play it for the man with the telepathic mind
Play John Lee Hooker, play "Scratch My Back"
Play it for that strip club owner named Jack
Guitar Slim going down slow
Play it for me and for Marilyn Monroe
[Verse 5]
Play "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Play it for the First Lady, she ain't feeling any good
Play Don Henley, play Glenn Frey
Take it to the limit and let it go by
Play it for Carl Wilson, too
Looking far, far away down Gower Avenue
Play "Tragedy", play "Twilight Time"
Take me back to Tulsa to the scene of the crime
Play another one and "Another One Bites the Dust"
Play "The Old Rugged Cross" and "In God We Trust"
Ride the pink horse down that long, lonesome road
Stand there and wait for his head to explode
Play "Mystery Train" for Mr. Mystery
The man who fell down dead like a rootless tree
Play it for the reverend, play it for the pastor
Play it for the dog that got no master
Play Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz
Play "Blue Sky," play Dickey Betts
Play Art Pepper, Thelonious Monk
Charlie Parker and all that junk
All that junk and "All That Jazz"
Play something for the Birdman of Alcatraz
Play Buster Keaton, play Harold Lloyd
Play Bugsy Siegel, play Pretty Boy Floyd
Play the numbers, play the odds
Play "Cry Me a River" for the Lord of the gods
Play Number nine, play Number six
Play it for Lindsey and Stevie Nicks
Play Nat King Cole, play "Nature Boy"
Play "Down in the Boondocks" for Terry Malloy
Play "It Happened One Night" and "One Night of Sin"
There's twelve million souls that are listening in
Play "Merchant of Venice", play "Merchants of Death"
Play "Stella by Starlight" for Lady Macbeth
Don't worry, Mr. President, help's on the way
Your brothers are comin', there'll be hell to pay
Brothers? What brothers? What's this about hell?
Tell them, "We're waiting, keep coming," we'll get them as well
Love Field is where his plane touched down
But it never did get back up off the ground
Was a hard act to follow, second to none
They killed him on the altar of the rising sun
Play "Misty" for me and "That Old Devil Moon"
Play "Anything Goes" and "Memphis in June"
Play "Lonely at the Top" and "Lonely Are the Brave"
Play it for Houdini spinning around in his grave
Play Jelly Roll Morton, play "Lucille"
Play "Deep in a Dream", and play "Driving Wheel"
Play "Moonlight Sonata" in F-sharp
And "A Key to the Highway" for the king on the harp
Play "Marching Through Georgia" and "Dumbarton's Drums"
Play "Darkness" and death will come when it comes
Play "Love Me or Leave Me" by the great Bud Powell
Play "The Blood-Stained Banner", play "Murder Most Foul"
submitted by packbring to bobdylan [link] [comments]
Today, and tomorrow, and yesterday, too
The flowers are dyin' like all things do
Follow me close, I’m going to Bally-na-Lee
I'll lose my mind if you don't come with me
I fuss with my hair, and I fight blood feuds
I contain multitudes
Got a tell-tale heart like Mr. Poe
Got skeletons in the walls of people you know
I’ll drink to the truth and the things we said
I'll drink to the man that shares your bed
I paint landscapes, and I paint nudes
I contain multitudes
A red Cadillac and a black mustache
Rings on my fingers that sparkle and flash
Tell me, what's next? What shall we do?
Half my soul, baby, belongs to you
I rollick and I frolic with all the young dudes
I contain multitudes
I'm just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones
And them British bad boys, The Rolling Stones
I go right to the edge, I go right to the end
I go right where all things lost are made good again
I sing the songs of experience like William Blake
I have no apologies to make
Everything's flowing all at the same time
I live on a boulevard of crime
I drive fast cars, and I eat fast foods
I contain multitudes
Pink pedal-pushers, red blue jeans
All the pretty maids, and all the old queens
All the old queens from all my past lives
I carry four pistols and two large knives
I'm a man of contradictions, I'm a man of many moods
I contain multitudes
You greedy old wolf, I'll show you my heart
But not all of it, only the hateful part
I’ll sell you down the river, I’ll put a price on your head
What more can I tell you? I sleep with life and death in the same bed
Get lost, madame, get up off my knee
Keep your mouth away from me
I'll keep the path open, the path in my mind
I’ll see to it that there's no love left behind
I'll play Beethoven's sonatas, and Chopin’s preludes
I contain multitudes
False Prophet
[Verse 1]
Another day that don't end
Another ship goin' out
Another day of anger, bitterness, and doubt
I know how it happened
I saw it begin
I opened my heart to the world and the world came in
[Verse 2]
Hello, Mary Lou
Hello, Miss Pearl
My fleet-footed guides from the underworld
No stars in the sky shine brighter than you
You girls mean business and I do too
[Verse 3]
Well, I'm the enemy of treason
An enemy of strife
I'm the enemy of the unlived meaningless life
I ain't no false prophet
I just know what I know
I go where only the lonely can go
[Verse 4]
I'm first among equals
Second to none
The last of the best
You can bury the rest
Bury 'em naked with their silver and gold
Put 'em six feet under and I pray for their souls
[Verse 5]
What are you lookin' at?
There's nothing to see
Just a cool breeze that's encircling me
Let's go for a walk in the garden
So far and so wide
We can sit in the shade by the fountain-side
[Verse 6]
I search the world over
For the Holy Grail
I sing songs of love
I sing songs of betrayal
Don't care what I drink
I don't care what I eat
I climb the mountains with swords on my bare feet
[Verse 7]
You don't know me, darlin'
You never would guess
I'm nothing like my ghostly appearance would suggest
I ain't no false prophet
I just said what I said
I'm just here to bring vengeance on somebody's head
[Verse 8]
Put out your hand
There's nothing to hold
Open your mouth
I'll stuff it with gold
Oh, you poor devil, look up if you will
The city of God is there on the hill
[Verse 9]
Hello, stranger
Hello and goodbye
You ruled the land
But so do I
You lusty old mule
You got a poisoned brain
I'll marry you to a ball and chain
[Verse 10]
You know, darlin'
The kind of life that I live
When your smile meets my smile
Something's got to give
I ain't no false prophet
No, I'm nobody's bride
Can't remember when I was born
And I forgot when I died
My Own Version of You
All through the summers, into January
I've been visiting morgues and monasteries
Looking for the necessary body parts
Limbs and livers and brains and hearts
I'll bring someone to life, is what I wanna do
I wanna create my own version of you
Well, it must be the winter of my discontent
I wish you'd've taken me with you wherever you went
They talk all night and they talk all day
Not for a minute do I believe anything they say
I'm gon' bring someone to life, someone I've never seen
You know what I mean, you know exactly what I mean
I'll take the Scarface Pacino and The Godfather Brando
Mix it up in a tank and get a robot commando
If I do it upright and put the head on straight
I'll be saved by the creature that I create
I'll get blood from a cactus, gunpowder from ice
I don't gamble with cards and I don't shoot no dice
Can you look at my face with your sightless eyes?
Can you cross your heart and hope to die?
I'll bring someone to life, someone for real
Someone who feels the way that I feel
I study Sanskrit and Arabic to improve my mind
I wanna do things for the benefit of all mankind
I say to the willow tree, "Don't weep for me"
I'm saying to hell to all things that I used to be
Well, I get into trouble, then I hit the wall
No place to turn, no place at all
I'll pick a number between a-one and two
And I ask myself, "What would Julius Caesar do?"
I will bring someone to life in more ways than one
Don't matter how long it takes, it'll be done when it's done
I'm gonna make you play the piano like Leon Russell
Like Liberace, like St. John the Apostle
I'll play every number that I can play
I'll see you maybe on Judgment Day
After midnight, if you still wanna meet
I'll be at the Black Horse Tavern on Armageddon Street
Two doors down, not that far a walk
I'll hear your footsteps, you won't have to knock
I'll bring someone to life, balance the scales
I'm not gonna get involved any insignificant details
You can bring it to St. Peter
You can bring it to Jerome
You can bring it all the way over
Bring it all the way home
Bring it to the corner where the children play
You can bring it to me on a silver tray
I'll bring someone to life, spare no expense
Do it with decency and common sense
Can you tell me what it means, to be or not to be?
You won't get away with fooling me
Can you help me walk that moonlight mile?
Can you give me the blessings of your smile?
I'll bring someone to life, use all of my powers
Do it in the dark, in the wee, small hours
I can see the history of the whole human race
It's all right there, it's carved into your face
Should I break it all down? Should I fall on my knees?
Is there light at the end of the tunnel, can you tell me, please?
Stand over there by the cypress tree
Where the Trojan women and children were sold into slavery
Long before the first Crusade
Way back before England or America were made
Step right into the burning hell
Where some of the best-known enemies of mankind dwell
Mr. Freud with his dreams, Mr. Marx with his ax
See the raw hide lash rip the skin from their backs
Got the right spirit, you can feel it, you can hear it
You've got what they call the immortal spirit
You can feel it all night, you can feel it in the morn'
It creeps in your body the day you were born
One strike of lightning is all that I need
And a blast of electricity that runs at top speed
Shimmy your ribs, I'll stick in the knife
Gonna jumpstart my creation to life
I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years
Do it with laughter and do it with tears
I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
I'm sittin' on my terrace, lost in the stars
Listening to the sounds of the sad guitars
Been thinking it all over and I've thought it all through
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
I saw the first fall of snow
I saw the flowers come and go
I don't think that anyone ever else ever knew
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
I'm giving myself to you, I am
From Salt Lake City to Birmingham
From East L.A. to San Antone
I don't think I can bear to live my life alone
My eye is like a shooting star
It looks at nothin' here or there, looks at nothin' near or far
No one ever told me, it's just something I knew
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
If I had the wings of a snow white dove
I'd preach the gospel, the gospel of love
A love so real, a love so true
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Take me out traveling, you're a traveling man
Show me something I don't understand
I'm not what I was, things aren't what they were
I'll go far away from home with her
I traveled a long road of despair
I met no other traveler there
Lot of people gone, lot of people I knew
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Well, my heart's like a river, a river that sings
Just takes me a while to realize things
I've seen the sunrise, I've seen the dawn
I'll lay down beside you when everyone's gone
I've traveled from the mountains to the sea
I hope that the gods go easy with me
I knew you'd say yes, I'm saying it too
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Black Rider
[Verse 1]
Black rider, black rider, you've been living too hard
Been up all night, have to stay on your guard
The path that you're walking, too narrow to walk
Every step of the way, another stumbling block
The road that you're on, same road that you know
Just not the same as it was a minute ago
[Verse 2]
Black rider, black rider, you've seen it all
You've seen the great world and you've seen the small
You fell into the fire and you're eating the flame
Better seal up your lips if you wanna stay in the game
Be reasonable, mister, be honest, be fair
Let all of your earthly thoughts be a prayer
[Verse 3]
Black rider, black rider, all dressed in black
I'm walking away, you try to make me look back
My heart is at rest, I'd like to keep it that way
I don't wanna fight, at least not today
Go home to your wife, stop visiting mine
One of these days I'll forget to be kind
[Verse 4]
Black rider, black rider, tell me when, tell me how
If there ever was a time, then let it be now
Let me go through, open the door
My soul is distressed, my mind is at war
Don't hug me, don't flatter me, don't turn on the charm
I'll take a sword and hack off your arm
[Verse 5]
Black rider, black rider, hold it right there
The size of your cock will get you nowhere
I'll suffer in silence, I'll not make a sound
Maybe I'll take the high moral ground
Some enchanted evening I'll sing you a song
Black rider, black rider, you've been on the job too long
Goodbye Jimmy Reed
[Verse 1]
I live on a street named after a Saint
Women in the churches wear powder and paint
Where the Jews, and Catholics, and the Muslims all pray
I can tell they're Proddie from a mile away
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed
Give me that old time religion, it's just what I need
[Verse 2]
For thine is kingdom, the power, the glory
Go tell it on the mountain, go tell the real story
Tell it in that straightforward, puritanical tone
In the mystic hours when a person's alone
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, godspeed
Thump on the Bible, proclaim a creed
[Verse 3]
You won't amount to much, the people all said
'Cause I didn't play guitar behind my head
Never pandered, never acted proud
Never took off my shoes, throw 'em in the crowd
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, goodnight
Put a jewel in your crown and I put out the lights
[Verse 4]
They threw everything at me, everything in the book
I had nothing to fight with but a butcher's hook
They had no pity, they never lend a hand
I can't sing a song that I don't understand
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, good luck
I can't play the record 'cause my needle got stuck
[Verse 5]
Transparent woman in a transparent dress
Suits you well, I must confess
I'll break open your grapes, I'll suck out the juice
I need you like my head needs a noose
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye and so long
I thought I could resist her but I was so wrong
[Verse 6]
God be with you, brother dear
If you don't mind me asking what brings you here?
Oh, nothing much, I'm just looking for the man
Need to see where he's lying in this lost land
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, and everything within ya
Can't you hear me calling from down in Virginia?
Mother of Muses
Mother of Muses sing for me
Sing of the mountains and the deep dark sea
Sing of the lakes and the nymphs of the forest
Sing your hearts out, all your women of the chorus
Sing of honor and fate and glory be
Mother of Muses sing for me
Mother of Muses sing for my heart
Sing of a love too soon to depart
Sing of the heroes who stood alone
Whose names are engraved on tablets of stone
Who struggled with pain so the world could go free
Mother of Muses sing for me
Sing of Sherman, Montgomery, and Scott
And of Zhukov, and Patton, and the battles they fought
Who cleared the path for Presley to sing
Who carved the path for Martin Luther King
Who did what they did and they went on their way
Man, I could tell their stories all day
I'm falling in love with Calliope
She don't belong to anyone, why not give her to me?
She's speaking to me, speaking with her eyes
I've grown so tired of chasing lies
Mother of Muses, wherever you are
I've already outlived my life by far
Mother of Muses, unleash your wrath
Things I can't see, they're blocking my path
Show me your wisdom, tell me my fate
Put me upright, make me walk straight
Forge my identity from the inside out
You know what I'm talking about
Take me to the river, release your charms
Let me lay down a while in your sweet, loving arms
Wake me, shake me, free me from sin
Make me invisible, like the wind
Got a mind that ramble, got a mind that roam
I'm travelin' light and I'm a-slow coming home
Crossing the Rubicon
[Verse 1]
I crossed the Rubicon on the 14th day
Of the most dangerous month of the year
At the worst time, at the worst place
That's all I seem to hear
I got up early
So I can greet the goddess of the dawn
I've painted my wagon, abandoned all hope
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 2]
Well, the Rubicon is a red river
Goin' gently as she flows
Redder than your ruby lips
And the blood that flows from the rose
Three miles north of purgatory
One step from the great beyond
I prayed to the cross, I kissed the girls
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 3]
What are these dark days I see?
In this world so badly bent
I cannot redeem the time
The time so idly spent
How much longer can it last?
How long can it go on?
I embrace my love, put down my hair
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 4]
I can feel the bones beneath my skin
And they're tremblin' with rage
I'll make your wife a widow
You'll never see old age
Show me one good man in sight
That the sun shines down upon
I pawned my watch, I paid my debts
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 5]
Put my hide up on a hill
Where some happiness I'll find
If I survive, then let me love
Let the hour be mine
Take the high road, take the low
Take any one you're on
I poured the cup, I passed it along
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 6]
Well, you defiled the most lovely flowers
In all her womanhood
Others can be tolerant
Others can be good
I'll cut you up with a crooked knife
Lord, and I'll miss you when you're gone
I stood between Heaven and Earth
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 7]
You won't find any happiness here
No happiness or joy
Go back to the gutter, try your luck
Find you some nice pretty boy
Tell me how many men I need
And who can I count upon
I strapped my belt, I buttoned my coat
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 8]
I feel the holy spirit inside
See the light that freedom gives
I believe it's in the reach of
Every man who lives
Keep as far away as possible
It's darkest 'fore the dawn (Oh Lord)
I turned the key, I broke it off
And I crossed the Rubicon
[Verse 9]
Mona, baby, are you still in my mind?
I truly believe that you are
Couldn't be anybody else but you
Who's come with me this far
The killing frost is on the ground
And the autumn leaves are gone
I lit the torch, I looked to the east
And I crossed the Rubicon
Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
[Verse 1]
McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled
Doctor said, "McKinley, death is on the wall
Say it to me, if you got something to confess"
I heard all about it, he was going down slow
I heard it all, the wireless radio
From down in the boondocks way down in Key West
I’m searching for love, for inspiration
On that pirate radio station
Coming out of Luxembourg and Budapest
Radio signal, clear as can be
I'm so deep in love that I can hardly see
Down on the flatlands, way down in Key West
[Chorus 1]
Key West is the place to be
If you're looking for immortality
Stay on the road, follow the highway sign
Key West is fine and fair
If you lost your mind, you will find it there
Key West is on the horizon line
[Verse 2]
I was born on the wrong side of the railroad track
Like Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac
Like Louis and Jimmy and Buddy and all the rest
Well, it might not be the thing to do
But I'm sticking with you through and through
Down in the flatlands, way down in Key West
I got both my feet planted square on the ground
Got my right hand high with the thumb down
Such is life, such is happiness
Hibiscus flowers, they grow everywhere here
If you wear one, put it behind your ear
Down in the bottom, way down in Key West
[Chorus 2]
Key West is the place to go
Down by the Gulf of Mexico
Beyond the sea, beyond the shifting sand
Key West is the gateway key
To innocence and purity
Key West, Key West is the enchanted land
[Verse 3]
I've never lived in the land of Oz
Or wasted my time with an unworthy cause
It’s hot down here, and you can't be overdressed
China blossoms of a toxic plant
They can make you dizzy, I'd like to help you but I can't
Down in the flatlands, way down in Key West
Well, the fish tail ponds, and the orchid trees
They can give you that bleeding heart disease
People tell me I ought to try a little tenderness
On Newton Street, Bayview Park
Walking in the shadows after dark
Down under, way down in Key West
I played Gumbo Limbo spirituals
I know all the Hindu rituals
People tell me that I'm truly blessed
Bougainvillea blooming in the summer, in the spring
Winter here is an unknown thing
Down in the flat lands, way down in Key West
[Chorus 3]
Key West is under the sun, under the radar, under the gun
You stay to the left, and then you lean to the right
Feel the sunlight on your skin, and the healing virtues of the wind
Key West, Key West is the land of light
[Verse 4]
Wherever I travel, wherever I roam
I'm not that far from the convent home
I do what I think is right, what I think is best
History Street off of Mallory Square
Truman had his White House there
East bound, West bound, way down in Key West
Twelve years old, they put me in a suit
Forced me to marry a prostitute
There were gold fringes on her wedding dress
That's my story, but not where it ends
She's still cute, and we're still friends
Down on the bottom, way down in Key West
I play both sides against the middle
Trying to pick up that pirate radio signal
I heard the news, I heard your last request
Fly around, my pretty little Miss
I don't love nobody, give me a kiss
Down on the bottom, way down in Key West
[Chorus 4]
Key West is the place to be
If you're looking for immortality
Key West is paradise divine
Key West is fine and fair
If you lost your mind, you'll find it there
Key West is on the horizon line
Murder Most Foul
[Verse 1]
It was a dark day in Dallas, November '63
A day that will live on in infamy
President Kennedy was a-ridin' high
Good day to be livin' and a good day to die
Being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb
He said, "Wait a minute, boys, you know who I am?"
"Of course we do, we know who you are"
Then they blew off his head while he was still in the car
Shot down like a dog in broad daylight
Was a matter of timing and the timing was right
You got unpaid debts, we've come to collect
We're gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect
We'll mock you and shock you and we'll put it in your face
We've already got someone here to take your place
The day they blew out the brains of the king
Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing
It happened so quickly, so quick, by surprise
Right there in front of everyone's eyes
Greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, skillfully done
Wolfman, oh Wolfman, oh Wolfman, howl
Rub-a-dub-dub, it's a murder most foul
[Verse 2]
Hush, little children, you'll understand
The Beatles are comin', they're gonna hold your hand
Slide down the banister, go get your coat
Ferry 'cross the Mersey and go for the throat
There's three bums comin' all dressed in rags
Pick up the pieces and lower the flags
I'm goin' to Woodstock, it's the Aquarian Age
Then I'll go over to Altamont and sit near the stage
Put your head out the window, let the good times roll
There's a party going on behind the Grassy Knoll
Stack up the bricks, pour the cement
Don't say Dallas don't love you, Mr. President
Put your foot in the tank and then step on the gas
Try to make it to the triple underpass
Blackface singer, whiteface clown
Better not show your faces after the sun goes down
Up in the red light district, they've got cop on the beat
Living in a nightmare on Elm Street
When you're down on Deep Ellum, put your money in your shoe
Don't ask what your country can do for you
Cash on the barrelhead, money to burn
Dealey Plaza, make a left-hand turn
I'm going down to the crossroads, gonna flag a ride
The place where faith, hope, and charity died
Shoot him while he runs, boy, shoot him while you can
See if you can shoot the invisible man
Goodbye, Charlie, goodbye, Uncle Sam
Frankly, Miss Scarlett, I don't give a damn
What is the truth, and where did it go?
Ask Oswald and Ruby, they oughta know
"Shut your mouth," said a wise old owl
Business is business, and it's a murder most foul
[Verse 3]
Tommy, can you hear me? I'm the Acid Queen
I'm riding in a long, black Lincoln limousine
Ridin' in the back seat next to my wife
Headed straight on in to the afterlife
I'm leaning to the left, I got my head in her lap
Hold on, I've been led into some kind of a trap
Where we ask no quarter, and no quarter do we give
We're right down the street, from the street where you live
They mutilated his body and they took out his brain
What more could they do? They piled on the pain
But his soul was not there where it was supposed to be at
For the last fifty years they've been searchin' for that
Freedom, oh freedom, freedom over me
I hate to tell you, mister, but only dead men are free
Send me some lovin', then tell me no lie
Throw the gun in the gutter and walk on by
Wake up, little Susie, let's go for a drive
Cross the Trinity River, let's keep hope alive
Turn the radio on, don't touch the dials
Parkland Hospital, only six more miles
You got me dizzy, Miss Lizzy, you filled me with lead
That magic bullet of yours has gone to my head
I'm just a patsy like Patsy Cline
Never shot anyone from in front or behind
I've blood in my eye, got blood in my ear
I'm never gonna make it to the new frontier
Zapruder's film I seen night before
Seen it thirty-three times, maybe more
It's vile and deceitful, it's cruel and it's mean
Ugliest thing that you ever have seen
They killed him once and they killed him twice
Killed him like a human sacrifice
The day that they killed him, someone said to me, "Son
The age of the Antichrist has just only begun"
Air Force One comin' in through the gate
Johnson sworn in at 2:38
Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel
It is what it is, and it's murder most foul
[Verse 4]
What's new, pussycat? What'd I say?
I said the soul of a nation been torn away
And it's beginning to go into a slow decay
And that it's thirty-six hours past Judgment Day
Wolfman Jack, he's speaking in tongues
He's going on and on at the top of his lungs
Play me a song, Mr. Wolfman Jack
Play it for me in my long Cadillac
Play me that "Only the Good Die Young"
Take me to the place Tom Dooley was hung
Play "St. James Infirmary" and the Court of King James
If you want to remember, you better write down the names
Play Etta James, too, play "I'd Rather Go Blind"
Play it for the man with the telepathic mind
Play John Lee Hooker, play "Scratch My Back"
Play it for that strip club owner named Jack
Guitar Slim going down slow
Play it for me and for Marilyn Monroe
[Verse 5]
Play "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Play it for the First Lady, she ain't feeling any good
Play Don Henley, play Glenn Frey
Take it to the limit and let it go by
Play it for Carl Wilson, too
Looking far, far away down Gower Avenue
Play "Tragedy", play "Twilight Time"
Take me back to Tulsa to the scene of the crime
Play another one and "Another One Bites the Dust"
Play "The Old Rugged Cross" and "In God We Trust"
Ride the pink horse down that long, lonesome road
Stand there and wait for his head to explode
Play "Mystery Train" for Mr. Mystery
The man who fell down dead like a rootless tree
Play it for the reverend, play it for the pastor
Play it for the dog that got no master
Play Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz
Play "Blue Sky," play Dickey Betts
Play Art Pepper, Thelonious Monk
Charlie Parker and all that junk
All that junk and "All That Jazz"
Play something for the Birdman of Alcatraz
Play Buster Keaton, play Harold Lloyd
Play Bugsy Siegel, play Pretty Boy Floyd
Play the numbers, play the odds
Play "Cry Me a River" for the Lord of the gods
Play Number nine, play Number six
Play it for Lindsey and Stevie Nicks
Play Nat King Cole, play "Nature Boy"
Play "Down in the Boondocks" for Terry Malloy
Play "It Happened One Night" and "One Night of Sin"
There's twelve million souls that are listening in
Play "Merchant of Venice", play "Merchants of Death"
Play "Stella by Starlight" for Lady Macbeth
Don't worry, Mr. President, help's on the way
Your brothers are comin', there'll be hell to pay
Brothers? What brothers? What's this about hell?
Tell them, "We're waiting, keep coming," we'll get them as well
Love Field is where his plane touched down
But it never did get back up off the ground
Was a hard act to follow, second to none
They killed him on the altar of the rising sun
Play "Misty" for me and "That Old Devil Moon"
Play "Anything Goes" and "Memphis in June"
Play "Lonely at the Top" and "Lonely Are the Brave"
Play it for Houdini spinning around in his grave
Play Jelly Roll Morton, play "Lucille"
Play "Deep in a Dream", and play "Driving Wheel"
Play "Moonlight Sonata" in F-sharp
And "A Key to the Highway" for the king on the harp
Play "Marching Through Georgia" and "Dumbarton's Drums"
Play "Darkness" and death will come when it comes
Play "Love Me or Leave Me" by the great Bud Powell
Play "The Blood-Stained Banner", play "Murder Most Foul"
2020.01.09 23:52 Meroghar Is Zionism a Colonial Movement?
The proposition that Zionism is a colonial movement has generated much discussion and controversy, with some asserting that the claim is antisemitic (for example see here or here ). This post will examine how the relationship between Zionism and colonialism has been discussed from within the academic field of Jewish Studies by reviewing a collection of essays from the book Colonialism and the Jews. The editors of the book set out in its final section to “tackle the vexing question of Zionism’s historical relationship to colonialism” by publishing a series of essays, starting with Derick Penslar’s 2001 essay Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? The book provides two critical responses by Joshua Cole and Elizabeth F. Thompson as well as a final response by Penslar which contains some of his additional reflections. I’ve tried my best to faithfully summarize the scholars’ main points and present them in dialogue with each other while trying to be concise. The following is not meant to be an exhaustive review of the subject of colonialism and its relationship to Zionism as addressed by the field of Jewish studies, and there is also much written on this subject in other academic disciplines such as postcolonial studies. However, I will not be focusing on those texts here. Instead this post is meant to offer some insight into how this controversial question is addressed in the scholarly context of Jewish studies.
In his essay Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? Penslar summarizes his main argument, contending that “the Zionist project was historically and conceptually situated between colonial, anticolonial, and postcolonial discourse and practice” with “colonial and anticolonial elements coexist[ing]in the Zionist project from its inception until the creation of the state in 1948.” Penslar goes on to compare Israel after its independence to other postcolonial states such as India, but maintains that here too “colonialist elements were present as well in the treatment of Israel’s Arab minority and state confiscation of its land.”
Penslar begins by briefly outlining some of the principle forms of European colonialism, describing settler colonialism as the form “in which substantial numbers of Europeans established permanent communities that became extensions of the homeland.” He states that it is tempting to classify Zionism as a form of settlement colonialism “not only because of the large numbers of Jews who immigrated to Palestine but also because of the speed with which they indigenized… and came to think of it as their native land (as opposed to an abstract, distant object of desire, a ‘holy land’ or ‘land of their ancestors’ to which they would return in messianic days)”.
However, Penslar pushes back against this classification of Zionism as a form of settler colonialism. He argues that European colonialism at the end the 19th century was “fostered by a colonizing state, a key factor missing in the early Zionist movement.” He rejects the assessment that Britain came to play the role of the colonizing state after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He argues that because “Britain’s role was inconsistent, vacillating between promoting and throttling the Zionist project” it is better to understand it as “more a stepfather than a biological parent of the Jewish state.” While acknowledging that “without British support, the Zionist project would have died in the cradle”, Penslar concludes by saying that because “the Zionist movement lacked a “mother country” it “therefore defies simplistic association with European settlement colonialism.”
In his response to Penslar, Joshua Cole writes that “one might push back against [Penslar’s] argument” that “the absence of a colonizing state makes the situation very different from other examples of settler colonialism.” Cole offers the example of French Algeria in the interwar period, countering that “much of the settler population came from places other than France” such as Spain, Italy, Sardinia and Malta. He illustrates how “the local settler political establishment in Algeria” developed the capacity to “defy the ability of authorities in Paris to implement reform of the colonial system” and points out that “some settler political movements in Algeria advocated outright secession from France.” He argues that “what was ‘colonial’ about the political dynamic in French Algeria was not necessarily… the power of the French state to enforce its will on the various populations of Algeria”, rather it was the result of “the competing interests of a metropolitan authority in a distant capital, local leadership among an increasingly defensive and at times militant settler population, and a majority population of colonial subjects who were simultaneously marked for inclusion in an imagined future polity of uncertain constitution and excluded from such participation in the present.” Later, in his response to Cole and Thompson, Penslar acknowledges that “Not all forms of settlement colonialism… require a metropole” and he provides the example of South Africa “prior to the establishment of British hegemony” to support his claim.
Elizabeth Thompson contests Penslar’s argument about the lack of a colonizing state more directly in her essay. She thinks Penslar has understated the colonial role of the British in the Zionist movement and accuses him of “[eliding] the fact that Jewish settlement depended vitally on the British Empire.” Thompson points to the fact that the Jewish population in Palestine fell from 85,000 in 1914 to 55,000 in 1917 because of hostility from the Ottoman military governor Jamal Pasha, who expelled many Zionist leaders in 1915 because he “learned of their intention to build a state on Ottoman territory and deemed it treason.” Thompson asserts that the 1917 Balfour declaration reversed the fortunes of the Zionist movement, and that “the historical record suggests a direct link between Zionists’ success and their ties to the British imperial state.” She writes that Chaim Weizman and the Zionist Commission to Palestine enjoyed “privileged access to the highest British officials” and points to collaboration between British officials and Zionists in crafting propaganda, such as a British film produced by Zionist advisor Albert Hyamson titled “The British Conquering Palestine for the Jews.” Thompson also cites the 1922 ratification of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine which incorporated the Balfour declaration as a moment when “the Anglo- Zionist alliance was institutionalized in international law” to support her view that without British support, the Jewish population in Palestine would not have been able to grow to over one hundred thousand in the decade following the mandate.
Penslar counters this argument in his response by pointing out that “stateless or oppressed peoples often seek alliances with powerful patrons, claiming to offer them some tangible or strategic benefit.” He offers the example of Balkan nationalists appealing to the Ottoman Empire and Ghandi’s pro-British mobilization of Indians in South Africa during World War I. Penslar argues that the “subaltern’s assertion of utility as a means for enhancing agency is not in and of itself the behavior of a lackey.” He also criticizes Thompson for not adequately addressing Zionist history before 1917.
The next angle that Penslar examines in his essay Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? is the “apparent parallels between the Zionist movement’s nation- building practices and the exploitation and displacement modes of colonial practice.” To this end he examines “the heavy reliance upon Arab labor in the Zionist plantation colonies and in certain urban industries.” Penslar finds that the during the mandate period “the level of exploitation… was exceedingly modest” with only 5 percent of Palestine’s Arabs being employed in the Jewish sector. He argues that “the use of Arab labor was not necessarily or purely colonial” and that both Arab and Jewish citrus plantation owners “employed Arab laborers on similar terms.” Penslar also questions how big a role Zionist national institutions played in the displacement of Palestinian peasants from the countryside through “the purchase of Arab-owned land and restrictive access to it to Jews alone”. He argues that “throughout the Arab world in the early twentieth century the development of capitalist agriculture tore peasants from their holdings and sent them into agricultural wage labor” and that the impact of Jewish land purchases on Palestinian displacement is difficult to determine compared “to other factors in the movement of Palestinian laborers from the countryside to the cities during the mandate period.”
Turning to examine claims of displacement rhetoric in Zionist political discourse, Penslar finds that “until the intensification of the Zionist–Palestinian conflict during the mid-1930s, there was little discussion, public or private, of systematic removal of Arabs from Jewish- owned land.” He notes that even when Zionists adopted European models of colonization, such as an attempt in 1908 by the Zionist Organization to “establish a publicly funded colonization company along the lines of the Prussian Colonization Commission, which sought to strengthen the German presence in Prussian Poland” a discourse of expulsion did not develop until the Arab revolt of 1936 which “introduced an aggressive, militant tone into Zionist political rhetoric, which did not shy away from a possible ‘transfer’ of Palestinians.” Still, Penslar maintains that “this rhetoric nor the mass expulsions that in fact did occur during the 1948 War can be assimilated within a colonialist analytical framework” because “the war was not a colonial uprising but rather an existential conflict between two nationalities.”
Thompson, takes issue with Penslar’s characterization of the ‘48 war and criticizes his assessment for not taking into account the views of the Arab population and how they perceived their encounter with Zionism. Thompson references a petition brought to the British military governor, Ronald Storrs, by over a hundred local Arab leaders shortly after the Balfour Declaration was announced. The petition expressed Arab fears that the establishment of a Jewish nation in the country would lead to it “ruling over us and disposing of our affairs” and it requested that Brittan “establish a just ruling for immigration to Palestine by Muslims, Christians and Jews equally, in order that the country may be saved from being lost and the inhabitants from being persecuted.”
According to Thompson, the failure of the British to respond to this petition led an announcement by the first Palestinian Arab congress. Referencing Wilsonian notions of self-determination, the congress “demand[ed] sovereignty, affirm[ed] Palestine’s links with Syria, and reject[ed] the Balfour Declaration.” Palestinians sent delegates to the Syrian Arab Congress of Prince Faysal’s short lived Greater Syria in Damascus. These delegates relayed to the American King- Crane commission that “Palestine was historically a southern district of Greater Syria and that the majority of the population desired a unified, independent state.” Thompson writes that Britain and France ignored the report and shortly after Samuel Herbert arrived to establish a civilian government in Palestine. According to Thompson, Herbert “proposed a constitution with a joint legislative assembly that would guarantee Britain and Zionists a majority of votes. Musa Kazim (the mayor of Jerusalem) and other Arab groups rejected participation in a government that limited the 88 percent majority of the population to minority representation.” In 1921, Kazim led a delegation to London to “argue against incorporating the Balfour Declaration into the mandate” but that the request was dismissed. Thompson concludes that “Arabs’ encounter with Zionism was conditioned by this history of force and exclusion from the due process set in motion at the Paris Peace Conference.” She describes the ‘48 war as an “anticolonial uprising” and “the culmination of a conflict conditioned by a colonial regime of domination.” In her view “Arabs turned to war in 1947 as a continuation of earlier anticolonial revolts in Palestine, Syria, and Iraq” and “they fought Jews as local representatives of an international regime” which “imposed the interests of foreign-born settlers over longtime residents of Palestine”
Later in his essay Penslar writes that “during the 1948 War, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were compelled to leave their homes, and after the war the Israeli state prevented the return of the refugees, carried out massive expropriations of Arab land, and subjected most of Israel’s Arab citizens to harsh military rule” however, he argues that “Palestine was but one of many places on the globe in the mid- twentieth century where indigenous nationalities were displaced in the wake of state creation.” He cites the forced migration of some 14 million people during the partitioning of India, and the expulsion of more than 10 million Germans from the Soviet Union after World War II to argue that “the most controversial aspects of Israeli actions toward Palestinians during the 1948 War and its aftermath were not specifically colonial.” He mirrors this thought in his response to Cole and Thompson, questioning “whether Israel is best understood within a framework of modern Western settlement colonialism or whether instead Israel should be compared to countries anywhere in the world that practice demographic engineering— that is, moving dominant or favored populations from one territory to another within its borders.” He compares Israel to Moroccan, Indonesian, and Turkish settlement projects, and internal demographic engineering’s attempts such as those carried out by Baathists in Iraq or Sinhalese settlements in Tamil and Muslim areas of eastern Sri Lanka, to question whether colonialism is the most apt framework for analyzing demographic engineering in the context of Israel and Palestine.
The next topic Penslar addresses in Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? are the “colonial mentalities” underlying Zionism which he describes as “conform[ing] in many ways to the colonialist and orientalist sensibilities of fin-de-siecle European society”. Penslar states that “Within a few years of its founding in 1897, the ZO tried to assume the role of a colonizing state” by emulating European practices such as the establishment of a colonial bank and joint stock companies, but “failed primarily due to a lack of means.” He makes a distinction that while “the ZO had few qualms about linking the enterprise with European colonialism, their colonization schemes did not call for the exploitation of native labor.” However in his response to Cole and Thompson, Penslar acknowledges that “The hallowed Zionist principle of ‘Hebrew labor has parallels in colonial North America, where colonists vowed to toil the land by the sweat of their brow, and South Africa in the 1920s, when Afrikaner mineworkers campaigned against cheap black labor under the slogan “Workers of the World Unite, and Fight for a White South Africa!”
Penslar writes in his 2001 essay that “Zionism contained a powerful mission civilisatrice” or civilizing mission (a salient characteristic of European colonialism which rationalized the venture by characterizing colonial subjects as backwards and primitive, and in need of uplifting by the colonizer’s superior culture). Penslar parallels the Zionist narrative that the Jews would rescue Palestine from environmental neglect and desertification by making it bloom with the French narrative “that in antiquity Algeria had been the breadbasket of Rome but under Berber rule had become barren and malarial.” In his response to Cole and Thompson, he likens the “Zionist quest to create a ‘New Hebrew’… to the New England Puritan colonists’ vision of a New Jerusalem and to the self- aggrandizing discourse of Algerian pied- noir activists as the ‘Latins of Africa,’ said to comprise a new race, fair of form, committed to hard labor and to reviving the land from neglect at the hands of ostensibly indolent and fanatical Arabs and Berbers.” Penslar describes the orientalist attitudes that Zionists often held toward Palestinian peasants, viewing them as “an ignoble savage, uncouth and backward” and comments that “the most benign Zionist impulses to offer Arabs the fruits of Western technology and to present a model of bourgeois social relations were imbedded in a project to control, direct, and regulate all affairs in the Land of Israel.”
In his 2001 essay, Penslar also described how orientalist views and the mission civilisatrice were directed by Ashkenazi Zionists toward their Mizrahi brothers and sisters. In one example he writes that “because they were believed to be true Orientals, Yemenite Jews were perceived as ‘natural laborers’ who could compete successfully with Arabs, performing backbreaking agricultural work at low wages. With this goal in mind, in 1912 the ZO’s Palestine Office recruited Yemenite Jews to immigrate to Palestine; a contingent of them labored on the lands of the Kinneret training farm, only to be summarily expelled in 1930 when the land was needed for new immigrants from eastern Europe.” He says that “Throughout the mandate period, American and European Zionists active in a variety of social- welfare projects (for example, the Hadassah Medical Organization) conceived of Palestine’s Mizrahi Jews and Arabs alike as socially and culturally backward and in need of the blessings of Western civilization.”
But Penslar also argues that while “Zionism certainly contained orientalist elements, and constructed elaborate moral justifications for its colonization project… its discursive framework differed from that of European overseas colonialism in intriguing ways.” According to Penslar, “Zionism asserted familial propinquity, however distant, with the Arabs” and Zionist writers such as Moshe Smilansky “presented Jewish contact with the Bedouin and Druze of Palestine as literally an ennobling experience.” He points out that orientalist fantasies prominently featuring the Arab as a sexual object “rarely figured in literature or public speech as a Zionist desire” and that “the issue of miscegenation, the source of such great anxiety and public debate in French, Dutch, and German colonialism, scarcely rippled the waters of Zionist discourse.” In his response to Cole and Thompson he further adds “the concept of return to an ancient patrimony; the mission to foster mass migration of persecuted and impoverished members of a single community; the top- down construction of a new polity, national economy, and culture; and a zealous secularism” as qualities which make Zionism distinct from other settler-colonial ventures.
The next two thirds of Penslar’s essay focus on comparing Zionism post-Independence with other post-colonial movements such as India and Bengal. This section of his essay may not be as directly relevant to addressing the question of whether Zionism is a colonial movement and for this reason, as well as considerations of space and brevity, I will skip over that portion of his essay, but I urge anyone who is interested to read it. Next, Penslar jumps forward to the aftermath of the ’67 war. Here he argues that the act of conquering the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan “was attributed to bona fide security concerns” and “was arguably not motivated by a desire to subjugate a people and expropriate its land.” However, he claims that “the speed with which the Palestinian labor force and market became tools for Israeli economic exploitation, the harshness of Israeli military occupation, and the sheer numbers of Arabs brought under Israeli control quickly created a colonial regime in the Occupied Territories.” He opines that “one could argue that post-1967 Israel became not only a colonial state but also an imperial one” as Israel adopted an “imperialist ideology, which emerged in late nineteenth- century Europe, posit[ing] that the nation depended for its survival upon territorial expansion and that empire was an indivisible extension of the nation.”
Toward the conclusion of his essay, Penslar summarizes his thoughts, writing that “Zionism was a product of the age of imperialism. Its adherents shared a number of common sensibilities with European advocates of colonial expansion in the Middle East. Yet the movement was more than a form of colonial practice. Enmeshed in a matrix of religious sensibility, political ideology, and historic circumstance, Zionism realized itself in the Middle East, a space chosen not for its strategic value, natural resources, or productive capabilities but rather because of what Jews believed to be historic, religious, and cultural ties to the area known to them as the Land of Israel”. He bemoans “The blinkered passion that leads Jewish activists to identify Zionism as a movement of national liberation and to whitewash its oppressive and racist qualities” as well as “its counterpart in the overwrought, almost campy tone of anti-Israel discourse, both within academia as well as outside of it.” In his conclusion he urges scholars to “set an example for their students and the public by shunning the use of the word ‘colonial’ as a universal pejorative akin to ‘fascism’… and to “understand colonialism to be no more or less than a form of power, and the colonized as subjects of various forms of domination, without making facile identifications between power relations and moral qualities.”
I hope these essay reviews model what civil, constructive, and scholarly exchange can look like, introduce some interesting new facts and perspectives to this sub, and shed some light on the various scholarly responses that arise around the question “Is Zionism a Colonial Movement?”
submitted by Meroghar to IsraelPalestine [link] [comments]
In his essay Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? Penslar summarizes his main argument, contending that “the Zionist project was historically and conceptually situated between colonial, anticolonial, and postcolonial discourse and practice” with “colonial and anticolonial elements coexist[ing]in the Zionist project from its inception until the creation of the state in 1948.” Penslar goes on to compare Israel after its independence to other postcolonial states such as India, but maintains that here too “colonialist elements were present as well in the treatment of Israel’s Arab minority and state confiscation of its land.”
Penslar begins by briefly outlining some of the principle forms of European colonialism, describing settler colonialism as the form “in which substantial numbers of Europeans established permanent communities that became extensions of the homeland.” He states that it is tempting to classify Zionism as a form of settlement colonialism “not only because of the large numbers of Jews who immigrated to Palestine but also because of the speed with which they indigenized… and came to think of it as their native land (as opposed to an abstract, distant object of desire, a ‘holy land’ or ‘land of their ancestors’ to which they would return in messianic days)”.
However, Penslar pushes back against this classification of Zionism as a form of settler colonialism. He argues that European colonialism at the end the 19th century was “fostered by a colonizing state, a key factor missing in the early Zionist movement.” He rejects the assessment that Britain came to play the role of the colonizing state after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He argues that because “Britain’s role was inconsistent, vacillating between promoting and throttling the Zionist project” it is better to understand it as “more a stepfather than a biological parent of the Jewish state.” While acknowledging that “without British support, the Zionist project would have died in the cradle”, Penslar concludes by saying that because “the Zionist movement lacked a “mother country” it “therefore defies simplistic association with European settlement colonialism.”
In his response to Penslar, Joshua Cole writes that “one might push back against [Penslar’s] argument” that “the absence of a colonizing state makes the situation very different from other examples of settler colonialism.” Cole offers the example of French Algeria in the interwar period, countering that “much of the settler population came from places other than France” such as Spain, Italy, Sardinia and Malta. He illustrates how “the local settler political establishment in Algeria” developed the capacity to “defy the ability of authorities in Paris to implement reform of the colonial system” and points out that “some settler political movements in Algeria advocated outright secession from France.” He argues that “what was ‘colonial’ about the political dynamic in French Algeria was not necessarily… the power of the French state to enforce its will on the various populations of Algeria”, rather it was the result of “the competing interests of a metropolitan authority in a distant capital, local leadership among an increasingly defensive and at times militant settler population, and a majority population of colonial subjects who were simultaneously marked for inclusion in an imagined future polity of uncertain constitution and excluded from such participation in the present.” Later, in his response to Cole and Thompson, Penslar acknowledges that “Not all forms of settlement colonialism… require a metropole” and he provides the example of South Africa “prior to the establishment of British hegemony” to support his claim.
Elizabeth Thompson contests Penslar’s argument about the lack of a colonizing state more directly in her essay. She thinks Penslar has understated the colonial role of the British in the Zionist movement and accuses him of “[eliding] the fact that Jewish settlement depended vitally on the British Empire.” Thompson points to the fact that the Jewish population in Palestine fell from 85,000 in 1914 to 55,000 in 1917 because of hostility from the Ottoman military governor Jamal Pasha, who expelled many Zionist leaders in 1915 because he “learned of their intention to build a state on Ottoman territory and deemed it treason.” Thompson asserts that the 1917 Balfour declaration reversed the fortunes of the Zionist movement, and that “the historical record suggests a direct link between Zionists’ success and their ties to the British imperial state.” She writes that Chaim Weizman and the Zionist Commission to Palestine enjoyed “privileged access to the highest British officials” and points to collaboration between British officials and Zionists in crafting propaganda, such as a British film produced by Zionist advisor Albert Hyamson titled “The British Conquering Palestine for the Jews.” Thompson also cites the 1922 ratification of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine which incorporated the Balfour declaration as a moment when “the Anglo- Zionist alliance was institutionalized in international law” to support her view that without British support, the Jewish population in Palestine would not have been able to grow to over one hundred thousand in the decade following the mandate.
Penslar counters this argument in his response by pointing out that “stateless or oppressed peoples often seek alliances with powerful patrons, claiming to offer them some tangible or strategic benefit.” He offers the example of Balkan nationalists appealing to the Ottoman Empire and Ghandi’s pro-British mobilization of Indians in South Africa during World War I. Penslar argues that the “subaltern’s assertion of utility as a means for enhancing agency is not in and of itself the behavior of a lackey.” He also criticizes Thompson for not adequately addressing Zionist history before 1917.
The next angle that Penslar examines in his essay Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? is the “apparent parallels between the Zionist movement’s nation- building practices and the exploitation and displacement modes of colonial practice.” To this end he examines “the heavy reliance upon Arab labor in the Zionist plantation colonies and in certain urban industries.” Penslar finds that the during the mandate period “the level of exploitation… was exceedingly modest” with only 5 percent of Palestine’s Arabs being employed in the Jewish sector. He argues that “the use of Arab labor was not necessarily or purely colonial” and that both Arab and Jewish citrus plantation owners “employed Arab laborers on similar terms.” Penslar also questions how big a role Zionist national institutions played in the displacement of Palestinian peasants from the countryside through “the purchase of Arab-owned land and restrictive access to it to Jews alone”. He argues that “throughout the Arab world in the early twentieth century the development of capitalist agriculture tore peasants from their holdings and sent them into agricultural wage labor” and that the impact of Jewish land purchases on Palestinian displacement is difficult to determine compared “to other factors in the movement of Palestinian laborers from the countryside to the cities during the mandate period.”
Turning to examine claims of displacement rhetoric in Zionist political discourse, Penslar finds that “until the intensification of the Zionist–Palestinian conflict during the mid-1930s, there was little discussion, public or private, of systematic removal of Arabs from Jewish- owned land.” He notes that even when Zionists adopted European models of colonization, such as an attempt in 1908 by the Zionist Organization to “establish a publicly funded colonization company along the lines of the Prussian Colonization Commission, which sought to strengthen the German presence in Prussian Poland” a discourse of expulsion did not develop until the Arab revolt of 1936 which “introduced an aggressive, militant tone into Zionist political rhetoric, which did not shy away from a possible ‘transfer’ of Palestinians.” Still, Penslar maintains that “this rhetoric nor the mass expulsions that in fact did occur during the 1948 War can be assimilated within a colonialist analytical framework” because “the war was not a colonial uprising but rather an existential conflict between two nationalities.”
Thompson, takes issue with Penslar’s characterization of the ‘48 war and criticizes his assessment for not taking into account the views of the Arab population and how they perceived their encounter with Zionism. Thompson references a petition brought to the British military governor, Ronald Storrs, by over a hundred local Arab leaders shortly after the Balfour Declaration was announced. The petition expressed Arab fears that the establishment of a Jewish nation in the country would lead to it “ruling over us and disposing of our affairs” and it requested that Brittan “establish a just ruling for immigration to Palestine by Muslims, Christians and Jews equally, in order that the country may be saved from being lost and the inhabitants from being persecuted.”
According to Thompson, the failure of the British to respond to this petition led an announcement by the first Palestinian Arab congress. Referencing Wilsonian notions of self-determination, the congress “demand[ed] sovereignty, affirm[ed] Palestine’s links with Syria, and reject[ed] the Balfour Declaration.” Palestinians sent delegates to the Syrian Arab Congress of Prince Faysal’s short lived Greater Syria in Damascus. These delegates relayed to the American King- Crane commission that “Palestine was historically a southern district of Greater Syria and that the majority of the population desired a unified, independent state.” Thompson writes that Britain and France ignored the report and shortly after Samuel Herbert arrived to establish a civilian government in Palestine. According to Thompson, Herbert “proposed a constitution with a joint legislative assembly that would guarantee Britain and Zionists a majority of votes. Musa Kazim (the mayor of Jerusalem) and other Arab groups rejected participation in a government that limited the 88 percent majority of the population to minority representation.” In 1921, Kazim led a delegation to London to “argue against incorporating the Balfour Declaration into the mandate” but that the request was dismissed. Thompson concludes that “Arabs’ encounter with Zionism was conditioned by this history of force and exclusion from the due process set in motion at the Paris Peace Conference.” She describes the ‘48 war as an “anticolonial uprising” and “the culmination of a conflict conditioned by a colonial regime of domination.” In her view “Arabs turned to war in 1947 as a continuation of earlier anticolonial revolts in Palestine, Syria, and Iraq” and “they fought Jews as local representatives of an international regime” which “imposed the interests of foreign-born settlers over longtime residents of Palestine”
Later in his essay Penslar writes that “during the 1948 War, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were compelled to leave their homes, and after the war the Israeli state prevented the return of the refugees, carried out massive expropriations of Arab land, and subjected most of Israel’s Arab citizens to harsh military rule” however, he argues that “Palestine was but one of many places on the globe in the mid- twentieth century where indigenous nationalities were displaced in the wake of state creation.” He cites the forced migration of some 14 million people during the partitioning of India, and the expulsion of more than 10 million Germans from the Soviet Union after World War II to argue that “the most controversial aspects of Israeli actions toward Palestinians during the 1948 War and its aftermath were not specifically colonial.” He mirrors this thought in his response to Cole and Thompson, questioning “whether Israel is best understood within a framework of modern Western settlement colonialism or whether instead Israel should be compared to countries anywhere in the world that practice demographic engineering— that is, moving dominant or favored populations from one territory to another within its borders.” He compares Israel to Moroccan, Indonesian, and Turkish settlement projects, and internal demographic engineering’s attempts such as those carried out by Baathists in Iraq or Sinhalese settlements in Tamil and Muslim areas of eastern Sri Lanka, to question whether colonialism is the most apt framework for analyzing demographic engineering in the context of Israel and Palestine.
The next topic Penslar addresses in Is Zionism a Colonial Movement? are the “colonial mentalities” underlying Zionism which he describes as “conform[ing] in many ways to the colonialist and orientalist sensibilities of fin-de-siecle European society”. Penslar states that “Within a few years of its founding in 1897, the ZO tried to assume the role of a colonizing state” by emulating European practices such as the establishment of a colonial bank and joint stock companies, but “failed primarily due to a lack of means.” He makes a distinction that while “the ZO had few qualms about linking the enterprise with European colonialism, their colonization schemes did not call for the exploitation of native labor.” However in his response to Cole and Thompson, Penslar acknowledges that “The hallowed Zionist principle of ‘Hebrew labor has parallels in colonial North America, where colonists vowed to toil the land by the sweat of their brow, and South Africa in the 1920s, when Afrikaner mineworkers campaigned against cheap black labor under the slogan “Workers of the World Unite, and Fight for a White South Africa!”
Penslar writes in his 2001 essay that “Zionism contained a powerful mission civilisatrice” or civilizing mission (a salient characteristic of European colonialism which rationalized the venture by characterizing colonial subjects as backwards and primitive, and in need of uplifting by the colonizer’s superior culture). Penslar parallels the Zionist narrative that the Jews would rescue Palestine from environmental neglect and desertification by making it bloom with the French narrative “that in antiquity Algeria had been the breadbasket of Rome but under Berber rule had become barren and malarial.” In his response to Cole and Thompson, he likens the “Zionist quest to create a ‘New Hebrew’… to the New England Puritan colonists’ vision of a New Jerusalem and to the self- aggrandizing discourse of Algerian pied- noir activists as the ‘Latins of Africa,’ said to comprise a new race, fair of form, committed to hard labor and to reviving the land from neglect at the hands of ostensibly indolent and fanatical Arabs and Berbers.” Penslar describes the orientalist attitudes that Zionists often held toward Palestinian peasants, viewing them as “an ignoble savage, uncouth and backward” and comments that “the most benign Zionist impulses to offer Arabs the fruits of Western technology and to present a model of bourgeois social relations were imbedded in a project to control, direct, and regulate all affairs in the Land of Israel.”
In his 2001 essay, Penslar also described how orientalist views and the mission civilisatrice were directed by Ashkenazi Zionists toward their Mizrahi brothers and sisters. In one example he writes that “because they were believed to be true Orientals, Yemenite Jews were perceived as ‘natural laborers’ who could compete successfully with Arabs, performing backbreaking agricultural work at low wages. With this goal in mind, in 1912 the ZO’s Palestine Office recruited Yemenite Jews to immigrate to Palestine; a contingent of them labored on the lands of the Kinneret training farm, only to be summarily expelled in 1930 when the land was needed for new immigrants from eastern Europe.” He says that “Throughout the mandate period, American and European Zionists active in a variety of social- welfare projects (for example, the Hadassah Medical Organization) conceived of Palestine’s Mizrahi Jews and Arabs alike as socially and culturally backward and in need of the blessings of Western civilization.”
But Penslar also argues that while “Zionism certainly contained orientalist elements, and constructed elaborate moral justifications for its colonization project… its discursive framework differed from that of European overseas colonialism in intriguing ways.” According to Penslar, “Zionism asserted familial propinquity, however distant, with the Arabs” and Zionist writers such as Moshe Smilansky “presented Jewish contact with the Bedouin and Druze of Palestine as literally an ennobling experience.” He points out that orientalist fantasies prominently featuring the Arab as a sexual object “rarely figured in literature or public speech as a Zionist desire” and that “the issue of miscegenation, the source of such great anxiety and public debate in French, Dutch, and German colonialism, scarcely rippled the waters of Zionist discourse.” In his response to Cole and Thompson he further adds “the concept of return to an ancient patrimony; the mission to foster mass migration of persecuted and impoverished members of a single community; the top- down construction of a new polity, national economy, and culture; and a zealous secularism” as qualities which make Zionism distinct from other settler-colonial ventures.
The next two thirds of Penslar’s essay focus on comparing Zionism post-Independence with other post-colonial movements such as India and Bengal. This section of his essay may not be as directly relevant to addressing the question of whether Zionism is a colonial movement and for this reason, as well as considerations of space and brevity, I will skip over that portion of his essay, but I urge anyone who is interested to read it. Next, Penslar jumps forward to the aftermath of the ’67 war. Here he argues that the act of conquering the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan “was attributed to bona fide security concerns” and “was arguably not motivated by a desire to subjugate a people and expropriate its land.” However, he claims that “the speed with which the Palestinian labor force and market became tools for Israeli economic exploitation, the harshness of Israeli military occupation, and the sheer numbers of Arabs brought under Israeli control quickly created a colonial regime in the Occupied Territories.” He opines that “one could argue that post-1967 Israel became not only a colonial state but also an imperial one” as Israel adopted an “imperialist ideology, which emerged in late nineteenth- century Europe, posit[ing] that the nation depended for its survival upon territorial expansion and that empire was an indivisible extension of the nation.”
Toward the conclusion of his essay, Penslar summarizes his thoughts, writing that “Zionism was a product of the age of imperialism. Its adherents shared a number of common sensibilities with European advocates of colonial expansion in the Middle East. Yet the movement was more than a form of colonial practice. Enmeshed in a matrix of religious sensibility, political ideology, and historic circumstance, Zionism realized itself in the Middle East, a space chosen not for its strategic value, natural resources, or productive capabilities but rather because of what Jews believed to be historic, religious, and cultural ties to the area known to them as the Land of Israel”. He bemoans “The blinkered passion that leads Jewish activists to identify Zionism as a movement of national liberation and to whitewash its oppressive and racist qualities” as well as “its counterpart in the overwrought, almost campy tone of anti-Israel discourse, both within academia as well as outside of it.” In his conclusion he urges scholars to “set an example for their students and the public by shunning the use of the word ‘colonial’ as a universal pejorative akin to ‘fascism’… and to “understand colonialism to be no more or less than a form of power, and the colonized as subjects of various forms of domination, without making facile identifications between power relations and moral qualities.”
I hope these essay reviews model what civil, constructive, and scholarly exchange can look like, introduce some interesting new facts and perspectives to this sub, and shed some light on the various scholarly responses that arise around the question “Is Zionism a Colonial Movement?”
2019.12.31 09:09 SeiShonagon 120 Series Starters and Stand Alones for 2020
Hi all; happy (almost) 2020! In the spirit of the new decade, why not try out some new books and authors? I've been keeping a list of new series and new standalones coming out next year sorted by release date and genre, and thought I'd share it with all of you!
Two caveats: I based the genres on blurbs, so these might not all be accurate and this list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, so I'm sorry if I missed a book you're excited about (mention it in the comments though; I'm always looking for more books).
Without further ado, the list:
submitted by SeiShonagon to Fantasy [link] [comments]
Two caveats: I based the genres on blurbs, so these might not all be accurate and this list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, so I'm sorry if I missed a book you're excited about (mention it in the comments though; I'm always looking for more books).
Without further ado, the list:
High Fantasy
- A Queen in Hiding, Sarah Kozloff, January 21
- Orphaned, exiled and hunted Cérulia must master the magic that is her birthright, become a ruthless guerilla fighter, and transform into the queen she is destined to be.
- Mazes of Power, Juliette Wade, February 4
- The cavern city of Pelismara has stood for a thousand years. When a fever strikes, and the Eminence dies, seventeen-year-old Tagaret is pushed to represent his Family in the competition for Heir to the Throne.
- The Unspoken Name, AK Larkwood, February 11
- On the day of Csorwe’s foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become the wizard's loyal sword. But Csorwe will soon learn gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
- Sword of Fire, Katherine Kerr, February 18
- All over the kingdom of Deverry, the common people are demanding reform of the corrupt law courts. In Aberwyn, the situation catches fire when Gwerbret Ladoic, second only to the High King, allows a bard to starve to death rather than hear their grievances.
- Black Leviathan, Bernd Perplies, February 25
- When Lian makes an enemy of a dangerous man, he ships out on the next vessel available as a dragon hunter. A fanatic captain, Adaron’s goal is the Firstborn Gargantuan—and Adaron is prepared to sacrifice everything for revenge.
- The Killing Fog, Jeff Wheeler, March 1
- An epic, adventurous world of ancient myth and magic as a young woman’s battle with infinite evil begins.
- Race the Sands, Sarah Beth Durst, April 21
- A pair of strong and determined women risk their lives battling injustice, corruption, and deadly enemies in their quest to become monster racing champions.
- The Girl and the Stars, Mark Lawrence, April 30
- Yaz is torn from the only life she’s ever known, away from her family, from the boy she thought she would spend her days with, and has to carve out a new path for herself in a world whose existence she never suspected. A world full of difference and mystery and danger.
- The Obsidian Tower, Melissa Caruso, June 4
- Ryx was destined for power and prestige at the top of Vaskandran society. But her magic is broken; all she can do is uncontrollably drain the life from everything she touches, and Vaskandar has no place for a mage with unusable powers.
- Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee, June 9
- For generations the empire has spread across the world, nigh-unstoppable in their advance. Its power depends on its automata, magically animated and programmed with sigils and patterns painted in mystical pigments.
- Ashes of the Sun, Django Wexler, July 21
- Long ago, a magical war destroyed an empire, and a new one was built in its ashes. But still the old grudges simmer, and two siblings will fight on opposite sides to save their world.
- Savage Legion, Matt Wallace, July 21
- The Savages are the greatest weapon ever developed. Evie is not a Savage. She’s a warrior with a mission: to find the man she once loved, the man who holds the key to exposing the secret of the Savage Legion and ending the mass conscription of the empire’s poor and wretched. But to find him, she must become one of them.
- Play of Shadows, Sebastien de Castell, July 23
- Swordplay, magic, intrigue and friendships stronger than iron: the first volume in this new swashbuckling fantasy series.
- The Vanished Queen, Lisbeth Campbell, August 18
- Long ago, Queen Mirantha vanished. After finding the missing queen’s diary, Anza—impassioned by her father’s unjust execution and inspired by Mirantha’s words—joins the resistance group to overthrow the king.
- Sixteen Swords, K Arsenault Riva, December 31
- A motley crew of sixteen infamous warriors embark on a suicide mission to slay a traitorous god.
Science Fiction
- Finna, Nino Cipri, February 25
- When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line.
- A Pale Light in the Black, KB Wagers, March 3
- The Near-Earth Orbital Guard—NeoG—is a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard.
- Sixteenth Watch, Myke Cole, March 10
- The Coast Guard must prevent the first lunar war in history.
- Providence, Max Barry, March 31
- Gilly, Talia, Anders, and Jackson are astronauts captaining a new and supposedly indestructible ship in humanity's war against an alien race. Confined to the ship for years, each of them holding their own secrets, they are about to learn there are threats beyond the reach of human ingenuity.
- Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang, April 14
- A century after the Martian war of independence, a group of kids are sent to Earth as delegates from Mars, but when they return home, they are caught between the two worlds, unable to reconcile the beauty and culture of Mars with their experiences on Earth.
- Goldilocks, Laura Lam, April 30
- Despite increasing restrictions on the freedoms of women on Earth, Valerie Black is spearheading the first all-female mission to a planet in the Goldilocks Zone, where conditions are just right for human habitation.
- The Eleventh Gate, Nancy Kress, May 5
- Despite economic and territorial tensions, no one wants the city-states of the Eight Worlds to repeat the Terran Collapse by going to war. But when war accidentally happens, everyone seeks ways to exploit it for gain.
- The Doors of Eden, Adrian Tchaikovsky, May 28
- Khan’s extradimensional research was purely theoretical, until she found cracks between our world and countless others. Parallel Earths where monsters live.
- Stormblood, Jeremy Szal, June 4
- Vakov Fukasawa fights against the stormtech: the DNA of an extinct alien race injected into him, altering his body chemistry and making him permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression.
- Red Noise, John P Murphy, June 9
- Caught up in a space station turf war between gangs and corrupt law, a lone asteroid miner decides to take them all down.
- Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliot, July 7
- GENDER-SWAPPED ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON AN INTERSTELLAR SCALE!
- Quantum Shadows, LE Modesitt Jr, July 21
- An adventure that pits old gods and new against one another in a far future world.
- Architects of Memory, Karen Osborne, August 25
- Terminally Ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she'll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure.
- To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini, September 15
- During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, xenobiologist Kira Navárez finds an alien relic that thrusts her into the wonders and nightmares of first contact.
- Polostan, Neal Stephenson, October 15
- Five thousand years from now, seven distinct races now three billion strong embark on an audacious journey into the unknown ... to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.
Romantic SFF
- The Will and the Wilds, Charlie Holmberg, January 21
- Enna knows to fear the mystings that roam the wildwood. When one tries to kill her, Enna takes a huge risk: fighting back with a mysting of her own. His price? A kiss. One with the power to steal her soul.
- A Heart of Blood and Ashes, Milla Vane, February 4
- When Maddek learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay. Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected.
- The Light Years, RWW Greene, February 11
- In exchange for a first-class education and a boost out of poverty, Hisako will marry Adem Sadiq, a maintenance engineer and self-styled musician who works the trade lanes aboard his family's sub-light starship, the Hajj. Sparks fly when Adem and Hisako meet, but their personal issues are overshadowed by the discovery of long-held secrets and a chance at faster-than-light travel.
- The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune, March 17
- As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, Linus spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
- Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna, April 2
- A gothic tale of magic, intrigue on dangerous waters and a love story for the ages.
- Bonds of Brass, Emily Skrutskie, April 7
- A young pilot risks everything to save his best friend--the man he trusts most and might even love--only to learn that he's secretly the heir to a brutal galactic empire.
- Deal with the Devil, Kit Rocha, May 12
- Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers in the vein of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series.
- The Extroardinaries, TJ Klune, May 19
- After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).
- Automatic Reload, Ferritt Steinmetz, May
- A quirky, genre-mashing cyberpunk romance about a grizzled mercenary with machine gun arms who unexpectedly falls in love with a bio-engineered assassin.
- Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Bolu Babaloa, July 9
- Retellings of the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology, from the homoromantic Greek myths, to magical Nigerian folktales, to the ancient stories of South Asia.
- Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar, August 11
- The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. But when a flare of starfire injures her human father, Sheetal needs a full star's help to heal him.
- Spellbreaker, Charlie N. Holmberg, September 8
- In Victorian England, there are two kinds of wizards: those rich enough to make spells and the rare few born with the ability to break them.
- Night Shine, Tessa Gratton, September
- A dark, queer Howl's Moving Castle. After a crown prince is kidnapped, an orphan named Nothing sets out to rescue him, and discovers all magic is a bargain.
- The Other Side of the Sky, Amie Kaufman, October 6
- A genre-bending romance where The 100 meets a Miyazaki-inspired fantasy world, in which the prince of a hi-tech city in the sky falls into a goddess's ancient land ruled by magicians and prophecy.
- The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, VE Schwab, 2020
- A love story between a French girl and the devil over 300 years. She sells her soul for the ability to live forever, and the devil curses her to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Historical Fantasy
- Lady Hotspur, Tessa Gratton, January 7
- Inspired by Shakespeare's Henry IV, revolution, love, and a betrayal corrupt the descendants of two warring kingdoms.
- Cries from the Lost Island, Kathleen O’Neil Gear, March 10
- An ancient Egyptian mystery comes to life against a modern background, in a tale expertly crafted by a seasoned anthropologist.
- The Age of Witches, Louisa Morgan, April 7
- Harriet Bishop, descended from a long line of witches, uses magic to help women in need -- not only ordinary women, but also those with powers of their own.
- The Glass Magician, Caroline Stevermer, April 7
- What if you could turn into the animal of your heart anytime you want? With such power, you’d enter the cream of New York society, guaranteed a rich life among the Vanderbilts and Astors, movers and shakers who all have the magical talent and own the nation on the cusp of a new century.
- By Force Alone, Lavie Tidhar, May 1
- Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. You can look it up on Wikipedia. You can see it in those pretty Pre-Raphaelite paintings. But there was never a painting that showed the true Britain, the clogged sewer Rome abandoned just as soon as it could.
- The Ghosts of Sherwood, Carrie Vaughn, June 9
- Robin of Locksley and his one true love, Marian, are married. But when the Locksley children are stolen away by persons unknown, Robin and Marian are going to need the help of everyone they’ve ever known, perhaps even the ghosts that are said to reside deep within Sherwood.
- The Angel of the Crows, Katherine Addison, June 23
- A fantasy novel of alternate 1880s London, where killers stalk the night and the ultimate power is naming.
- A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, HG Parry, June 23
- It is the Age of Enlightenment- of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France to the weather mage Toussaint L'Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas.
- The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, Zen Cho, June 23
- A found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.
- The Burning Horse, Paul Kearney, August 18
- An orphan from a faraway country, Anna lives with an old farmer named Gabriel who may be a demon, or an angel, or both. Her best friends are a doll named Pie and a werewolf. Her long-lost mother was an Anatolian witch, and there are those who say that in Anna the witchcraft lurks too.
- The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix, October 6
- A young art student comes to London in 1983 in search of the father she never knew, and is drawn into the arcane business of the booksellers whose secret sideline is to ensure that mythic entities and dormant legends do not disastrously intrude into the modern world.
- The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow, October 13
- The Eastwood sisters join the suffragists of New Salem and begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement.
- The Conductors, Nicole Glover, November 3
- As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people North with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch.
- The Factory Witches of Lowell, CS Malerich, November 10
- For the young women of Lowell, freedom means fair wages for fair work, decent room and board, and a chance to escape the cotton mills before lint stops up their lungs. When the Boston owners decide to raise the workers’ rent, the girls go on strike.
- The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman, December 31
- The Bright Sword will begin with the fall of Camelot and will tell of the knights following in the wake of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and others of the Round Table.
- The Lights of Prague, Nicole Jarvis
- In the quiet streets of Prague all manner of otherworldly creatures lurk in the shadows. Unbeknownst to its citizens, their only hope against the tide of predators are the dauntless lamplighters - a secret elite of monster hunters whose light staves off the darkness each night.
Literary SFF
- The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez, January 14
- Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known.
- Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi, January 21
- Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world.
- Daughter from the Dark, The Dyachenkos, February 11
- A story about creation, music, and companionship filled with elements of subtle magic and fantasy.
- A Witch in Time, Constance Sayers, February 11
- A young witch is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist.
- The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu, February 25
- Ken Liu’s much anticipated second volume of short stories.
- Hearts of Oak, Eddie Robson, March 17
- The buildings grow. And the city expands. And the people of the land are starting to behave abnormally. Or perhaps they’ve always behaved that way, and it’s normality that’s at fault.
- Conjure Women, Afia Atakora, March 17
- Spanning eras and generations, this story follows the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue; and their master's daughter Varina.
- The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo, March 24
- A tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.
- The City We Became, NK Jemisin, March 26
- Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series.
- Drowned Country, Emily Tesh, June 16
- The haunting follow-up to Emily Tesh's lush, folkoric debut, Silver in the Wood.
- Or What You Will, Jo Walton, July 7
- He has been too many things to count. But “he” is in fact nothing more than a spark of idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years.
- Driftwood, Marie Brennan, July 17
- Fame is rare in Driftwood--it's hard to get famous if you don't stick around long enough for people to know you. For Driftwood is a strange place of slow apocalypses, where continents eventually crumble into mere neighborhoods, pulled inexorably towards the center in the Crush.
- Crossings, Alex Landragin, July 28
- A genre-bending novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes.
- Bestiary, K-Ming Chang, September 8
- Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland in this blazing debut about one family's queer desires, violent impulses, and buried secrets.
- Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, September
- Piranesi has always lived in the House. It has hundreds if not thousands of rooms and corridors, imprisoning an ocean. Then messages begin to appear; all is not what it seems. A terrible truth unravels as evidence emerges of another person and perhaps even another world outside the House’s walls.
Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Apocalyptic
- The God Game, Danny Tobey, January 7
- Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Then the threatening messages start.
- A Beginning at the End, Mike Chen, January 14
- Six years after a global pandemic wiped out most of the planet’s population, the survivors are rebuilding the country, split between self-governing cities, hippie communes and wasteland gangs.
- Strange Exit, Parker Peevyhouse, January 14
- Lake spends her days searching a strange, post-apocalyptic landscape for people who have forgotten one very important thing: this isn’t reality. Everyone she meets is a passenger aboard a ship that’s been orbiting Earth since a nuclear event.
- The Seep, Chana Porter, January 21
- Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible.
- Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey, February 4
- The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.
- The Dystopia Triptych, February 20
- Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE DYSTOPIA TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of dystopian fiction.
- The Companions, Katie M Flynn, March 3
- In the wake of a highly contagious virus, California is under quarantine. Sequestered in high rise towers, the living can’t go out, but the dead can come in—and they come in all forms, from sad rolling cans to manufactured bodies that can pass for human.
- Anthropocene Rag, Alex Irvine, March 31
- Huck Finn-meets-Willy Wonka tale of a United States overwhelmed by and remade by renegade nanotechnology…
- Eden, Tim Lebbon, April 7
- A brand-new supernatural eco thriller. In large areas of the planet, nature is no longer humanity's friend...
- The Book of Koli, MR Carey, April 14
- Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand.
- Repo Virtual, Corey J White, April 21
- Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief, has been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he's stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated.
- The Mother Code, Carole Stivers, May 5
- It’s 2049, and earth’s inhabitants must turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots—to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines.
- Firewalkers, Adrian Tchaikovsky, May 12
- The Earth is burning. The ultra-rich, waiting for their ride off the dying Earth can buy water. And as for power? Well, someone has to repair the solar panels, down in the deserts below.
- The Windscale Incident, Paul Kearney, May 20
- The simultaneous meltdown at the Windscale Nuclear Reactor and the Calder Hall site in the North of England killed thousands, but what came next was worst.
- Afterland, Lauren Beukes, July 28
- This is America, but not like you know it. Now, hiding a living and healthy male is one of the gravest offenses, rivaled only by the murder of a man.
YA & New Adult
- Woven in Moonlight, Isabel Ibanez, January 7
- Ximena is the decoy Condesa, a stand-in for the last remaining Illustrian royal. Her people lost everything when the usurper, Atoc, used an ancient relic to summon ghosts and drive the Illustrians from La Ciudad. Now Ximena’s motivated by her insatiable thirst for revenge, and her rare ability to spin thread from moonlight.
- Scavenge the Stars, Tara Sim, January 7
- Packed with high-stakes adventure, romance, and dueling identities, this is a gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.
- Infinity Son, Adam Silvera, January 14
- A gritty, fast-paced adventure about two brothers caught up in a magical war generations in the making.
- Spellhacker, MK England, January 21
- Diz and her three best friends run a highly lucrative, highly illegal magic siphoning gig on the side. Their next job is supposed to be their last heist ever.
- The Winter Duke, Claire Eliza Bartlett, March 3
- In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother's warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without—and within—her own ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love...or for a crown she has never wanted.
- The Kingdom of Back, Marie Lu, March 3
- Two siblings. Two brilliant talents. But only one Mozart. Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish—to be remembered forever.
- House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J Maas, March 3
- Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars, but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation.
- When We Were Magic, Sarah Gailey, March 3
- When accidental magic goes sideways and a boy winds up dead, Alexis and her friends come together to try to right a terrible wrong. Left with the remains of their failed spells and more consequences than anyone could have predicted, each of them must find a way to live with their part of the story.
- A Phoenix First Must Burn, March 10
- Sixteen tales that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.
- Chosen Ones, Veronica Roth, April 7
- Five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons and reconsider what it means to be a hero.
- Elysium Girls, Kate Pentecost, April 14
- In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.
- The Notorious Virtues, Alwyn Hamilton, May 5
- A glittering thriller about a glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.
- Burn, Patrick Ness, May 7
- An all-consuming story of revenge, redemption and dragons.
- A Peculiar Peril, Jeff VanderMeer, July 7
- A boy inherits his grandfather's mansion and discovers three strange doors and clues to the family's ties to an alternate Europe immersed in a war fought with strange tech and dark magic.
- Seven Devils, Laura Lam, August 6
- A feminist space opera following seven resistance fighters who will free the galaxy from the ruthless Tholosian Empire -- or die trying.
Urban Fantasy & Horror
- Highfire, Eoin Colfer, January 28
- A vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon lives an isolated life in the bayous of Louisiana. Raucous adventures ensue when he crosses paths with a fifteen-year-old troublemaker on the run from a crooked sheriff.
- Prosper’s Demon, KJ Parker, January 28
- The unnamed and morally questionable narrator is an exorcist with great follow-through and few doubts: he’ll get the demon out—he just doesn’t particularly care what happens to the person.
- The Last Smile in Sunder City, Luke Arnold, February 6
- I'm Fetch Phillips. There are a few things you should know before you hire me: 1. Sobriety costs extra. 2. My services are confidential - the cops can never make me talk. 3. I don't work for humans.
- The Boatman’s Daughter, Andy Davidson, February 11
- Dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda's peculiar and precarious life.
- The Chill, Scott Carson, February 11
- Far upstate, in New York’s ancient forests, a drowned village lays beneath the dark, still waters of the Chilewaukee reservoir. The local families were forced from their land, but they didn’t move far, and some didn’t move at all…
- The Deep, Alma Katsu, March 10
- Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.
- The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix, April 7
- A women's book club must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.
- Devolution, Max Brooks, May 12
- Brooks takes on the Bigfoot legend with a tale that blurs the lines between human and beast--and asks what we are capable of in the face of the unimaginable.
- The Only Good Indians, Stephan Graham Jones, May 19
- Four American Indian men from the Blackfeet Nation find themselves in a desperate struggle for their lives, against an entity that wants to exact revenge upon them for what they did during an elk hunt ten years earlier.
- Survivor Song, Paul Tremblay, July 7
- In a matter of weeks, Massachusetts has been overrun by an insidious rabies-like virus that is spread by saliva. Those infected quickly lose their minds and are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before they inevitably succumb.
- The Year of the Witching, Alexis Henderson, July 21
- A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself, with terrifying and far-reaching consequences.
- Flyaway, Kathleen Jennings, July 28
- In a small Western Queensland town, a reserved young woman receives a note from one of her vanished brothers that makes question her memories of their disappearance and her father’s departure.
- Ink and Sigil, Kevin Hearne, August
- Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. A binder who can craft spells using magically infused inks he makes himself, he is legendary in his field, not least because he is the last of his kind.
- Empire of the Vampire, Jay Kristoff, September 3
- Twenty-seven years have passed since the last sunrise, and for almost three decades, the creatures of the night have walked the day without fear.
- The Devil and the Dark Water, Stuart Turton, October 1
- A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.
So there you have it! Go forth and read, my friends!
2019.02.08 00:11 prechewed_yes Excerpt from Albion's Seed on Puritan Naming Traditions
David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America is an extraordinarily comprehensive resource for early American culture. Highly recommended. Naturally, my favorite parts deal with names and their cultural significance. Here's Fischer on Puritan onomastics (pp. 94-97):
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The Puritan families of Massachusetts named their newborn infants in ways that differed very much from other English-speaking people. The most striking feature of their onomastic customs was their strong taste for Biblical names. In seventeenth-century Boston, 90 percent of all first names were taken from the Bible; in Concord, 91 percent; in Hingham; 95 percent. That proportion was nearly twice as great as in non-Puritan colonies.
Few biblical names failed to be bestowed upon one New England baby or another. Some parents cultivated a spirit of scriptural uniqueness. One unfortunate child was named Mahershalalhasbaz, the longest name in the bible. Another, the son of Bostonian Samuel Pond, was baptized Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Pond. There is evidence that parents sometimes shut their eyes, opened the good book and pointed to a word at random, with results such as Notwithstanding Griswold and Maybe Barnes.
But onomastic eccentricities of that sort were rare in New England. A remarkably small number of biblical names accounted for a very large proportion of choices. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a whole during the seventeenth century, more than 50 percent of all girls were named Mary, Elizabeth, or Sarah. These biblical namesakes were carefully selected for the moral qualities which they personified. Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to the Puritans as humble, devoted, thoughtful, sensitive and serious. Elizabeth was the faithful wife of Zecharias and mother of John the Baptist. Sarah was the wife of Abraham, mother of Isaac and "mother of nations". Also very popular was Rebecca, wife of Isaac and mother of two nations, who appears in the bible with a pitcher perched upon her shoulder. The few female prophets -- Anne, Hannah, Deborah, and Huldah -- were often honored in New England. So was Abigail, who bravely defended her husband against a monarch's wrath, and Rachel who stood up for her husband even against her own father. Many a daughter of New England was named for Ruth, industrious and obedient, who gleaned the field and beat out her gleanings and lay down her head at the foot of her husband Boaz. Most feminine namesakes were firmly anchored in a domestic role. At the same time they were also notable for intellect, courage, integrity and strength of character. The feminist movement has trained us to think disjunctively of these qualities; but in early New England they were one.
For boys, the leading namesake was John, the most Christlike of the apostles, the disciple whom Jesus loved for his goodness of spirit. Another favored namesake was Joseph, not the father of Jesus but the first Joseph, whom the Puritans specially respected for strength of character. Other favorites were Samuel the upright judge and Josiah the just ruler. The names of many great patriarchs and lawgivers were rarely used. Among 1,000 families in Concord, the name Moses was uncommon and Adam was virtually unknown. Few children were named Abraham or Solomon. A surprising omission was Paul, despite the fact that New England Puritanism lay squarely within the Pauline tradition of Christianity.
Other common Christian names did not appear in Massachusetts. Puritan children were not named Jesus, or Angel or Emmanuel or Christopher, all of which were taboo among English Calvinists. A minister explained the reason: "Emmanuel is too bold," wrote Thomas Adams. "The name is properly to Christ, and therefore not to be communicated to any creature." Adams also thought it "not fit for Christian humility to call a man Gabriel or Michael, giving the names of angels to the sons of mortality." The archangels were common namesakes in Anglican families of Virginia, but Puritan parents carefully matched biblical names to their mortal condition in the great chain of being.
With equal care, Puritan parents also chose scriptural names which seemed suitable to their social role. On New England muster rolls, the name of Hezekiah the king of Judah appeared ten times as often for officers as for enlisted men. Amos, the name of a simple herdsman, was generally more common among the rank and file.
Onomastic customs of Massachusetts were also unique in another way -- the descent of names within the family. Children in Calvinist families were not named after godparents; this was a "Popish" practice which Puritans detested. In Massachusetts, two-thirds of first-born sons and daughters were given the forenames of their parents. This nuclear naming strategy persisted through many generations in Massachusetts. As we shall see, it was very different from other cultures in British America.
Still another onomastic custom in Massachusetts was the use of necronyms. When a child died, its name was usually given to the next-born baby of the same sex. A case in point was the Concord family of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell who married in 1732 and had five children named Ephraim, Samuel, John, Elizabeth, and Isaac. In 1740, the "throat Distemper" came to Concord, and the Hartwells watched helplessly as all their children died within a single month. But the parents survived, and nine more children were born; their names were Elizabeth, Samuel, Abigail, Ephraim, John, Mary, Sarah, Isaac, and Jonas. The name of every dead child was used again. The Hartwells were unique only in the scale of their suffering. When New England families lost a child, its name was used again in 80 percent of all cases where another baby of the same sex was born.
Massachusetts onomastics were the product of what has been called a "Puritan naming revolution", in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. It is interesting that this revolution took different forms in various parts of England, and that once again it was the East Anglian pattern that came to Massachusetts, rather than the naming customs from the south or west or north of England.
A great many English Puritans lived in Sussex, for example, but only about 1 percent of New England's immigrants came from that county. Sussex Puritans made heavy use of courteous names such as Be-courteous Cole (in the Parish of Pevensey), Safely-on-High Snat (Uckfield), Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith White (Ewhurst), Small-hope Biggs (Rye), Humiliation Scratcher (Westham), Kill-sin Pemble (also Westham), and Mortifie Hicks (Hailsham). A classic example was an unfortunate young woman named ffly fornication Bull, of Hailsham, Sussex, who was made pregnant in the shop of a yeoman improbably called Goodman Woodman. So popular were these hortatory names among Sussex Puritans that in the parish of Warbleton, for example, more than 43 percent of children received them in the period between 1570 and 1600.
In East Anglia, on the other hand, hortatory names were uncommon among Puritan families -- less than 4 percent of children were given them. Massachusetts followed the East Anglian rather than the Sussex pattern; its onomastic customs were both religious and regional in their origins.
2018.08.10 18:24 tgisfw Tablet of the Maiden and possible implications.
This is the beautiful tablet of Baha'u'llah and there is a qualification "disclaim" document by UHJ that all Baha'i may want to read so they know context of this translation as provisional
I suspect there are more writings untranslated that may be significant. But I can see why UHJ may think this translation won't be correctly understood by many Baha'i and humans in religious life that are conservative, or puritan. But for people who understand the imagery - In my mind there seem to be implications that the Goddess foundation of Baha'i religion may slowly be released to community. If you have Male Manifestation of God to establish UHJ then when UHJ is mature and has function as all male then if next Manifestation 1000 years from now (short time from the big picture) it will be there to serve The Female Manifestation. IF the next Manifestation change theology from "He is God" to "She is God" this will be big test. And perhaps having all the men as servants on UHJ in need of repair , it will all make sense and more accptable. The Female Godhead and the male servants would be appropriate imagery and metaphor to create stable human body of administration. . It could designate a new dispensation based on creation as the Female is the vessel of pro-creation. Not the justice of the executioner , but the justice that Mom shows to siblings in infancy with all instruction couched in deeply enveloping love.
But I think in past the year 2000 was not understood and many expectation did not occur. I think there may be similar unrevealed light on this tablet as well, but the translation by Cole is too advanced for most of community. The word selection has no buffering for cultural immaturity. Too literal and will distract most from obvious vital meanings. But for now the Tablet seems to be treated as pre-mature by official admin. And maybe so.
submitted by tgisfw to FreeSpeechBahai [link] [comments]
I suspect there are more writings untranslated that may be significant. But I can see why UHJ may think this translation won't be correctly understood by many Baha'i and humans in religious life that are conservative, or puritan. But for people who understand the imagery - In my mind there seem to be implications that the Goddess foundation of Baha'i religion may slowly be released to community. If you have Male Manifestation of God to establish UHJ then when UHJ is mature and has function as all male then if next Manifestation 1000 years from now (short time from the big picture) it will be there to serve The Female Manifestation. IF the next Manifestation change theology from "He is God" to "She is God" this will be big test. And perhaps having all the men as servants on UHJ in need of repair , it will all make sense and more accptable. The Female Godhead and the male servants would be appropriate imagery and metaphor to create stable human body of administration. . It could designate a new dispensation based on creation as the Female is the vessel of pro-creation. Not the justice of the executioner , but the justice that Mom shows to siblings in infancy with all instruction couched in deeply enveloping love.
But I think in past the year 2000 was not understood and many expectation did not occur. I think there may be similar unrevealed light on this tablet as well, but the translation by Cole is too advanced for most of community. The word selection has no buffering for cultural immaturity. Too literal and will distract most from obvious vital meanings. But for now the Tablet seems to be treated as pre-mature by official admin. And maybe so.