Readers probably won’t expect the discussion of the Jersey Devil legend to include a bit of history about the insults and invectives hurled by the opposing sides (in printed pamphlets) during an eighteenth-century religious schism. Yet that’s precisely where the Devil begins, as put forth by authors Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito.
The story of the Jersey Devil (née the Leeds Devil) follows a pattern common to legends of the monstrous. “In 1735, a witch known as Mother Leeds found herself pregnant for the thirteenth time. Breeching, she called out in agony, ‘Oh, let this one be a devil!’ The child then either emerged with, or soon developed, a horse-like head, bat-like wings, claws, and hooves. The creature yelped menacingly at the horrified family, then flew up the chimney and off into the forest, where it spent the next several centuries harassing and attacking unfortunate travelers” (Regal and Esposito 5). Similar in structure and theme to other progeny of monstrous birth such as the Webber of Newfoundland tradition and even the Minotaur of Crete, the Devil’s popularity has fluctuated throughout the years. Waxing in the early twentieth century, it then went through a long lull that was boosted occasionally, such as when New Jersey’s professional hockey team took the Devil as its name. Some authors (including Regal and Esposito) even list the Devil as “the official New Jersey state Demon,” though that fact may itself be an urban legend. People still report sightings, and the veracity of those sightings is subject to the debate that surrounds most legends.
Regal and Esposito are historians, so folklorists shouldn’t worry too much about their conflation of the terms myth and legend. The authors aren’t interested in the elements of the Jersey Devil legend that would draw the attention of folklorists. They look at primary documents whenever possible, and foremost among them are almanacs from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There is some recounting of the Devil’s appearances in media beyond the early twentieth century, but no attention to traditional performance contexts. It is, after all, a history book.
The value of this slim book lies in its contextualization. The authors situate the rise of the Jersey Devil within the belief context of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New Jersey and surrounding areas. According to Regal and Esposito, “The Jersey Devil came into being from the collision of several different streams of history” (115). Those streams include both folklore and popular culture: Native American belief and legend; religious and commercial conflict among Quakers, the Leeds family, and Benjamin Franklin; the rise of hoaxes and dime museums that coincided with some mysterious tracks in the snow that were interpreted quasi-ostensively; and an increased interest on the part of media and the general public prompted by the rise of the concept of cryptids. The authors compare the Devil to other monsters familiar to residents of colonial America, finding the Devil in company with sea serpents, dragons, and other devils.
The “Mother Leeds” of the brief narrative quoted above plays virtually no role in the Secret History, because she’s largely a legendary creation. Daniel Leeds (1652-1720) is one of much more importance in the legend. He had once been a Quaker, but he separated from that group as he began to feel their traditions and prescriptive rules for behavior to be too restrictive and unnecessary. This feud was very much in the public eye, taking place in pamphlets and other publications over the years. One technique employed by the Quakers to denigrate Leeds was to label him a devil. Regal and Esposito situate this within the larger tradition of devils, their iconography, and their use as insults during the eighteenth century.
Because Daniel and his son Titan were prominent members of the burgeoning communities of southern Jersey, and because of the astrological components of their almanacs, the label of “devil” stuck—especially once the pamphlet feud stretched to encompass no less a figure than Benjamin Franklin. Sightings of what would nowadays be called cryptids, which were reported in and spread by newspapers, that were called Devils by those familiar with the tradition, kept the legend in circulation.
Surprisingly for a book about the Jersey Devil, of fifteen images used, only one of them actually depicts the Devil itself. The rest show readers historical details, such as typical clothing worn by men during Leeds’s era, drawings of other devils and monsters, and pages out of almanacs. This does fit with the historical development on which the authors focus, and the monster’s popularity means that pictures are easy to come by on the Internet. More than anything else, The Secret History of the Jersey Devil can provide folklorists with historical context for understanding a legend and the behavior surrounding it.
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[Review length: 789 words • Review posted on March 6, 2019]