Flying devils, “monsters” born to unruly women, babies prophesying from their cradles - welcome to a universe of wonders and providences in early New England. In this illuminating presentation, renowned Harvard historian David Hall takes us into the vastly different mental world of 17th century people, a world we rarely inhabit or understand.
When we look at the history of New England, we usually examine laws, early representative government, war, slavery, institutions that, for good or bad, seem to us to be rational. But underpinning these structures and the individuals who shaped them was a belief that the smallest events were a sign of God's providence and that magical forces prevailed. Don't miss this wonderful exploration of wonders.
In early New England, magic and wonders pervaded not just the home but political debates, judicial decisions, the puritan meeting house, and ordinary life.
Alongside sermons that outlined how sinners' redemption, books and “lore” preserved stories of “wonders” that were “preternatural” or indeed the doing of an all sovereign God. Wonders could be very specific. For John Winthrop, when he was still in England, detecting a spider in a bowl before it attacked someone was a “wonder”—and a sign of God’s favoring providence. The assumption that nothing happened by chance, because God arranged all such events.
Or wonders could be communal: a drought, thunder and lightning, the sighting of a comet in the sky. The flow of portents and providences in everyday life was always ongoing -sometimes health related, or keyed to events such as a house burning down (Anne Bradstreet wrote a poem about the destruction of her house), or to unexpected events, especially sudden deaths.
Portents were also highly politicized. When a seaman on the Mayflower was rude (or “mean”) to the passagers, and then, in a storm, was swept off the boat, the pilgrims regarded the accident as God’s response to an ungodly person. When martyrs were dying at the stake in England, stories circulated of how one or more of their judges died abruptly, often in distress. Conversely, when all but one or two of the ships carrying people to New England in the 1630s crossed the Atlantic safely, this was God’s means of blessing the enterprise.
Of course the Devil could produce signs and portents. These were intended to deceive the godly. And, always in the near background was the hope that the long delayed return of Christ in judgment was going to be fulfilled.
David D. Hall is Bartlett professor of New England church history, emeritus, Harvard Divinity School. He has written extensively on popular religion, political practices, and witch-hunting in early New England. His Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment (1989), exploring religious belief in early New England, was described as "a brilliant book"and "a model of historical analysis" which "shows us, as never before, how the sophisticated doctrines of the Puritan clergy meshed, clashed and merged with the inherited attitudes and assumptions of ordinary people in their day-to-day grappling with the mysteries of their world."
His most recent book, which was awarded the Philip Schaff prize by the American Society of Church History, was The Puritans: A Transatlantic History (2019).
Please note: The opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter and not necessarily those of the Partnership of Historic Bostons.