Cheryl Lassiter

Marked Cheryl Lassiter

The true and fascinating story of Goody Cole, persecuted for witchcraft in Hampton, Massachusetts Colony.

"It must be so, it shall be so, do what you will."So muttered Goodwife Unise Cole to her neighbor Abraham Drake as he pondered his mysteriously deceased livestock. The deaths were blamed on her familiarity with the Devil, one of many similiar accusations lodged against her- she bewitched crops; shape-shifted into a dog, a cat, an eagle; had conversations with the Devil; enticed young children; and moved at supernatural speed. Worse, she was blamed for the deaths of a man as he lay helpless in his bed and a child who had been diabolically transformed into an 'ape.' Unise Cole's childlessness, low social status, and tempestuous spirit marked her for persecution as a witch in the puritan town of Hampton, where she endured three decades of accusations, whippings, court trials, and imprisonment, all in an attempt to banish her from the town. Drawn from historical records, Marked is the first book to examine Goodwife Cole's life from her time in England, through her arrival and settlement in Massachusetts, her stormy relations with her neighbors and the law, the witchcraft trials, and beyond her death to her later notoriety. In her third non-fiction book about the people and events in the small seacoast town of Hampton, New Hampshire, Cheryl Lassiter shares her passion for detailed historical research to tell the definitive, true story of the woman known as The Witch of Hampton.