Joshua Gordon (1765-1845) is best known by mainstream scholars for his twenty-two-page, handwritten manual, Witchcraft Book (1784).[1] His guidebook describes cures, ways to care for livestock, and how to identify a neighbor who wishes you harm. But to local historians and genealogists in Lancaster County and York County, South Carolina, Joshua Gordon is a well-known local figure who happened to write a witchcraft manual. He was a prominent enslaver, church member, and childhood friend of President Andrew Jackson. His life beyond his most notable intellectual product is demonstrative of the Atlantic Word, despite his inland location. As the son of Read more