Witchcraft is a belief in Satan who is known for tempting human beings and destroying their lives by creating desperation in mankind and leading them into the dark side. Humans are vulnerable and can easily be manipulated and used for one’s own gain. Witchcraft is considered evil, impure, a nightmare from hell, and a rebellion against religion since it associates itself with the Devil. The Devil is known to manipulate and attack an individual’s mind and gain control of them for wrongdoings. An individual can be blinded by evil and can be taken away from God to glorify the Devil. In the book Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts by Richard Weisman, the writer focuses on the origins of witchcraft in the village Salem in the 17th century. Weisman’s goal is to portray the people accused during the Salem trials as ordinary human beings and not witches; therefore, innocent lives had been killed due to merely popular allegations and an injustice court system. I believe the real threat of witchcraft was not the damage it caused but the way people were up to mischief on land and no one had any actual evidence besides assumptions and people’s testimonies. People were blinded by the idea of witchcraft and took innocent lives. Satan did tempt accusers to do immoral acts against other human beings but it was mainly the accusers own fault. The actions they took were by their own free will and no one had to force them. They were aware this could be taken seriously, but they did not know it would change their world forever. Weisman successfully explores the origins of witchcraft and magic, social beliefs of Puritans, and witchcraft persecutions that led to the downfall of Massachusetts. The author, a sociologist by the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ommitted in the Salem trials. He wrote this book because he wanted to show how humans can so cruel for their own gain and that the court system and government cannot always be trusted. He wants the world to not commit a mistake like this again. He was not biased and explained his approach through proof and evidence from other sources and psychologists as well. The formal language of the book was extremely complex at times; I had a hard time comprehending some parts. I think that could have been improved and made it understandable. I thought the textbook was more appropriate with language than this book, but overall it is a good read. I would recommend this book to others because it conveys interesting controversial topics that are always debated on. This book can teach others not to make the same mistake again and not repeat history but actually learn from the past.
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
The Salem, Massachusetts Witch Trials have generated extensive evaluation and interpretation. To explain the events in Salem, psychological, political, environmental, physical, and sociological analysis have all been examined. The authors Linnda Caporael, Elaine Breslaw, Anne Zeller, and Richard Latner all present differing perspectives to speculate about the events of the Salem Witch Trials. This changing interpretation and perspective has resulted in an extensive historiography to explain the
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 spread just about as fast as the Black Plague. This epidemic caused chaos among neighbors in a community. The chronology of events describes an awful time for colonists from June 10th to September 22nd of that year. The books "Salem Possessed" by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, "The Story of the Salem Witch Trials" by Bryan Le Beau, and "The Devil in the Shape of a Woman" by Carol Karlsen all describe these events and provide varying explanations for the epidemic that plagued Salem Village. This review will look at the facts that surrounded the trials and then using those facts will look at the cause stated in each book for the hysteria to compare and contrast with one another.
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft explores and breaks down the events that took place in the small village of Salem in 1692. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed, use primary sources, both published and unpublished, to tell the crazy and eventful history of Salem. They go into great detail in why some folks were accused of being Witches, the arrests and the so popular Salem Witch Trials. The main reason for this book was to try and find out what caused the terrible outbreak of events that happened in Salem and they do so by looking into the History and Social life in the famed Salem Village. The history of Witchcraft in Salem is a well-known story from High School on and this book goes in depth about why things happened the way they did and how the social aspect played a big role is the story.
...appenings of everyday life turned into something more. From the belief that women were more susceptible to evil intimidation and for having a weaker constitution since Eve was tempted by the Devil to having a non-existent court system to settle disputes between neighbors or just the fact that there were people who saw an opportunity to gain personal wealth, the Salem witch hunt and trials was more than just a religious cleansing of the community by pious people. They were a microcosm of what could happen when people do not understand the relationships between themselves, their neighbors and the natural cause and effect of the world around them.
In today’s times, witches are the green complexed, big nosed ladies who ride around on broomsticks at Halloween. Back in the 1600’s, witches looked like average people, but they worked alongside the devil. Salem, Massachusetts, was a religious town of Puritans. They were strong believers in God, and had believed that witches were the devils workers. Everything was usual in Salem in 1692, until, 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigale Williams had sudden outbursts of screaming, contortions and convulsions, the doctor came and diagnosed witchcraft (Blumberg, Jess) And from this time on, the people of Salem believed there were witches all around them.
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
They had difficulty with defining witchcraft and considered it as separate from other forms of magic and superstition, that in the long run it causes an outbreak of persecution due to the fact that Salem was dominated by Puritanism and seen as a humble, honest, God-fearing society that prided itself on its moral values. The settlers in Salem saw themselves as God’s chosen people, and Satan was believed to be loose in these unfamiliar
A major cause of the Salem Witchcraft trials was superstition, an “irrational [belief] ... resulting from ignorance or fear of the unknown” (Saliba). A lack of scientific reasoning led many people to believe that, for instance, walking under a ladder would bring seven years of bad luck. The Puritans in Salem had even more reasons to be superstitious. Cotton Mather’s “Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions,” with its inaccurate accounts of witchcraft, terrified. In addition, crude medical techniques, constant food poisoning, and unsanitary conditions killed many Puritans. (In the Trials, dead people and dead livestock were used as evidence of witchcraft.) More importantly, war with a nearby Indian tribe was imminent (Schlect 1); when livestock died, the Puritans thought their village was cursed, vulnerable to Indian attack. With several factions vying for control of the Village, and a series of legislative and property disputes with the nearby Salem Town which controlled Salem Village, it is easy to see how the people of Salem were so vulnerable to the notion of witches taking over their town.
The history of witchcraft during seventeenth century New England is inherently a history of direct confrontations within communities where relationships become tainted with suspicion, revenge and anger. The documents in Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England have retold the events and stories of Puritan New England to give the modern reader an understanding of the repressive social institutions of religion and family structure which were controlling factors that lay behind the particular cases discussed in the book. However, in order to really interpret the structure of witchcraft, it is important to consider that social tensions (most likely a dispute or argument) combined with personal or familial bad luck, were the root of all these occurrences.
For centuries the Salem witch trials have astonished historians, and people in general. People were executed based on accusations of being a witch. People were afraid of being accused. Chaos continued to ensue as neighbors, friends, and family turned against one another. The very people who lived under the same roof turned around accused their own flesh and blood of witchcraft. The events that occurred during the Witchcraft crisis would claim the lives of nearly 20 men and women via execution. Witchcraft was considered a capital crime and anyone accused was tried and potentially executed. The only escape from execution was to confess. Several girls, women, and even men stood at the center of a pivotal event in history. There is no real answer
Many Puritans believed in supernatural interventions in the clergy and churches. They interpreted these as expressions of God’s will such events as lightning that struck one house but spared another, and epidemics that reduced the population of their Indian enemies (108). Witches were usually woman, who were accused of entering into a pact with the devil to obtain supernatural powers, which they then used to harm others. In Europe and the colonies, witchcraft was punishable by execution. “It is estimated that between the years of 1400 and 1800, over 50,000 people were executed in Europe for being accused of witchcraft” (109). Until 1692, the prosecutions of witches were local and sporadic, but over the years, many trials took place in the town Salem that made its name by its fanaticism and persecutions. This event started in 1691 when a group of young girls, including the head pastor’s daughter suffered from hallucinations and nightmares that were believed to be caused by witchcraft. Many people in Salem were accused of witchcraft and in the end, 14 women and five men were executed. Luckily, after word got out of this major trial, the governor of Massachusetts ordered that the remaining prisoners would be set free, while the clergymen of Salem named Increase Mather created an influential treatise,
In 1692, the occurrence of “witchcraft” began after the Massachusetts Bay Charter revolution and the outbreak of small pox. The rebellion caused hysteria and a sad injustice. Friends were pinned against friends; upstanding citizens were forced to flee for their lives and men and women were put to death (Jurist Legal News and Research Services 2008).The fear of the devil influenced the cruelty that took place. Most of the settlers that established their homes in the colony were puritans, a member of a group of English Protestants who revolted against the Church of England. The belief that God punished sinful behavior with misfortune did not help circumstances. The puritans targeted outcasts, people who never really fit it in; they wanted to rid the towns of these suspected sinners.
The Salem Witch Trials were a prime part of American history during the early 17th century. During this time, religion was the prime focus and way of life within colonies. This was especially true for the Puritan way of life. Puritans first came to America in hopes of practicing Christianity their own way, to the purest form. The Puritans were fundamentalists who believed every word transcribed in the Bible by God was to be followed exactly for what it was. The idea of the devil controlling a woman and forming her into a Witch was originated from people’s lack of awareness on illness, disease or simple hysteria. The Colonists lack of expertise on the methodical approach through sciences, left them concluding to a spiritual phenomenon.
Witchcraft was a highly widespread phenomenon in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. In many different places, there were many different factors which allowed the rise of witchcraft persecutions or witch trials. In some areas, power played a main role behind the influence toward witchcraft accusations. If we examine American witchcraft, particularly in Salem, Massachusetts, we can see people with high recognition behind the early stages of witchcraft accusations in the village of Salem. Such people include government officials, such as judges, and the Parris family, where Samuel Parris is a well known, Protestant minister who held tremendous influence to his followers. It is through some Salem documents where this power structure is evident.