Abstract
This chapter focuses on Dorcas/Dorothy Good, the youngest child to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem trials. Little is known of her, either before or after the trials; yet her case has sparked much speculation in Salem narratives. I consider why such accounts have focused on Dorcas/Dorothy at the expense of the other accused child witches; how positionings of Dorcas/Dorothy in history and fiction trouble the guilt/innocence binary in the Salem narratives; and how a focus on her position always depends on a simultaneous reading of her accusers and her family status. This chapter further explores animalistic imagery used in respect of Salem’s children; problematic representations of the child’s ‘voice’; and how this child ‘witch’ unsettles and informs accounts of the trials.
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Notes
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West, K. (2020). ‘An Uncommonly Small Witch’: Narrating Dorcas/Dorothy Good. In: Reading the Salem Witch Child. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49304-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49304-2_3
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