Elizabeth Knapp was a house servant to Reverend Samuel Willard in Groton, Massachusetts and in 1671 she suffered what is described as a demonic possession. Unlike the fictional horror movies we are familiar with chapter 13 (irony?) of Hall’s “Puritans” is the real account of Elizabeth Knapp’s violent and frightening ordeal with who she said was the devil.
To me Elizabeth’s possession plays into the superstitious and heavily religious beliefs of the Puritans. Elizabeth references the devil as if he’s physically in place, harming and threatening her and causing her reactions not as if he is a figure representative of evil. It is said that with the acknowledgement of good there also has to be the acknowledgement of evil, so the belief in God is also the belief in the devil. This possession was something I read as the other side of the coin that is Puritan Christianity. There is the fervent, belief and fear of God and awe of his power and submission to his will and blessings. Then there is the devil and he too is feared for his power and curses, he too is gasped at in fear for what he can do to mortal men. Two opposite ends on the spectrum in their religion so far apart but almost reflective of each other superficially. An all-encompassing fear of the dark side is what seemed to consume Elizabeth subduing her into this possession.
It is notable that Reverend Willard took Elizabeth to a doctor initially before resulting to their faith. While Elizabeth’s episodes do read like a mental illness or even extreme lead poisoning, the Puritans of the 1670’s recognized that this could be a biological upset. Modern medicine was not needed to clarify the situation though, Elizabeth was beyond care of a health professional. The highly superstitious Puritans seemed more logical (in solving unknown problems) to me with this passage because of their consultation with a doctor. It also got me interested in what types of mental illnesses were so pervasive at during the late 1600’s that people could look at a thrashing girl and causally say, hrmm she should see a doctor she might have (fill in the blank). It is even more notable that we don’t know what happens to Elizabeth as Rev. Willard stops journaling about her, perhaps he was overcome with an all-encompassing fear as well?
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