Hi, Steve Patterson here, host of the debaters, the show where Canada's top comedians answer Canada's top questions like, is Winnipeg the best place to raise a family?

We're expecting to raise a little heck with this one, so don't miss it wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC podcast. ABC Podcast.

Welcome to your bonus episode.

This is The Devil You Know, and I'm Sarah Marshall.

Today our guest is Elizabeth Seppi, chair of the Department of English at Portland State University and my former professor.

Elizabeth Sepi is the author of Invisible Masters, Gender, Race, and the Economy of Service

in early New England, a book about the Puritan power dynamics that shaped American culture

all the way back to the beginning.

In this episode, which was co-conducted by our guest producer Carolyn Kendrick,

we talked to Elizabeth Seppie about the strange case of Elizabeth Knapp,

a 16-year-old servant girl who seemed to have become possessed by the devil.

20 years before the Salem witch trials, the possession of Elizabeth Knapp became one of the

hottest news stories in Western Massachusetts, and the question of what was afflicting her

and what this affliction represented, if not demonic possession itself, has remained

unanswered.

All we're able to do is speculate about what happened, why it happened, and ultimately about

the human life that got buried beneath this story.

We also talk about how the devil is always around to answer uncomfortable questions about what life is like for women in a male-dominated society.

This may seem like a story about the devil, but at heart it's a story about a 16-year-old girl.

And in the end, I don't think anything could be more interesting.

We're rolling.

...