The London Dungeons

Before embarking upon my research project, I sat down to ponder what sort of topics interest me, as far as having the potential to provide an avenue for research. For some reason, which I can not explain, my thoughts roamed to a trip I took in 2012 to London, England. In England, I visited a place called the London Dungeons. It is really nothing more than a tourist trap, to be honest. However, the dungeons did offer an exhibit on methods used in England to obtain confessions from accused witches. At the time, I found it disturbing, but it also caused me to wonder if these same methods crossed the Atlantic Ocean with English immigrants. Likewise, it made me ponder where and how these torture methods were used in the colonies. Some years later, I was provided the opportunity to explore these questions when I was required to perform a research project for my masters degree at Arizona State University. Since my interest in this topic initially began with the exhibit at the London Dungeons, I figured that the best place to begin my research was with English sources from the 16th and 17th centuries. I happened open the literary works of the self proclaimed witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins. Hopkins
Gerard Scharfenberger over his findings at the First Baptist Church in Holmdel, New Jersey. Instead of colonial literary evidence to compare with Hopkins in England, Dr. Scharfenberger detailed tangible artifacts found that were meant to prevent witchcraft, one being an entombed cat in the church entryway. I found no evidence of this sort of practice in Hopkins’s book. However, I did find this practice being discussed as part of rural English folklore in other secondary sources. Although the influence was not Hopkins, the practice was still imported from England into New Jersey. This is perhaps the most valuable and important conclusion that I drew from this