To understand why and how these issues arose in Salem, first look to the history of the Puritans. The Puritans believed that the Anglican Church needed to be purified of the Catholic ideologies. With monarchs of their time disinterested in the idea of reform, many Puritans became discouraged and thought the colonies would give them a better chance to reform the church. John Winthrop along with a few other Puritans in the New World decided to create City on a Hill to set an example of good behavior and religious purity. The Puritans believed that God had made a special covenant with them so they could live according to scripture, reforming the Anglican Church, and set a good example for those who were still living in England. The Puritans lived with religion and politics intertwined. …show more content…
There was to be no dancing of any sort ever. The young girls defiance of this rule lead to the mass murder of large numbers of people. People of the community were looked down upon for not being in church every Sunday. There was an exception to this rule because many respected John Proctor, although he was not in church every Sunday(Wiggins, 2012) . Ideas of witchcraft and voodoo were very common. The young girls dancing in the forest, both forbidden, made people worry of witchcraft almost instantaneously(Wiggins, 2012). Young girls were allowed dolls, but they were to be faceless with little or no clothing. It was seen as suspicious if the adult women of the community still had dolls of their own. Mary Warren made Elizabeth Proctor a doll as a gift, which was later seen as some kind of voodoo doll(Wiggins, 2012). The citizens of the community were to live as the Bible taught them, and nothing
1692 had been a deranged time for the Puritans living in the village of Salem Massachusetts. When a group of girls were discovered dancing around a fire in the forest things began to take a turn for the worst. Accusations from these girls started to rip this village apart when most of the Puritans were believed to be partaking in the act of witchcraft. Abigail, the girl leading the others, told the court that Elizabeth Proctor was infact a witch in the hope of getting John Proctor to love her once again. This mistake of lechery haunts John throughout the entirety of the play.
The jails that people accused of witchcraft were kept in, had horrible conditions. Small confined spaces packed with too many people, no food or water and no good sanitation. A lot of people died in these deplorable
the colonists of Massachusetts Bay expected to have trouble settling in the New World, far from their English heritage. Growing rapidly from the outset, the newcomers busied themselves establishing a governmental and religious order in a purely Puritanical method. With such success, the population expanded as well, shattering the relative tranquility the people of New England had known in the early years of their colonization. For example, in the mid-1600s, Salem divided into two communities: Salem Town and Salem Village, causing strain on the political, religious, and economical institutions of the people. Beyond these social difficulties, one cannot exclude human character and personal vengeance when considering what prompted the hysteria
Christianity was prevalent in the 1600’s and anyone who didn’t believe in God was seen as a heretic and put to death. In 1641 the colonists established a legal code and put witchcraft as the second one, the punishment for that, of course, was death. The Devil was highly feared and if there was word of somebody using witchcraft a big deal would be made out of it; as The Salem Witch Trials have proven. Women were mainly the ones who happened to be executed because they were also feared, if any woman had the same amount of power as a man she must’ve made a deal with the Devil. All of this made 1692 was an intricate time for the people of Salem Village, Massachusetts.
Sorcery of any kind was extremely looked down upon in Salem at that time. In all the churches and everywhere they went, they were being told that witches were real and to shun anyone who partook in the devil’s work. They often thought that “the devil is precise [and that the] marks of his presence [were as] definite as stone” (crucible, miller). If anyone was convicted of witchcraft or even merely showing signs of it, they were exiled immediately.
The 1600s were a very religious and superstitious time. People’s faith in God was strong, however it also brought them great fear of devil. It was easy to accuse anyone who did not follow social standards of conspiring with the devil and practicing witchcraft. Once somebody had been accused of being a witch mass hysteria and panic ensued.
Nineteen individuals was hanged because it was unacceptable to use witchcraft. If you had been known to use witchcraft, you was basically shunned. (history.com) Was these people men or women? There were eighteen teenage girls hanged, and one man.
Like being gay, being a witch was considered a major crime. People thought that if you were a witch you were unholy and you needed to be saved by Christ. People still had the same sort of problem in the rebellion. The stonewall and the Human Rights Society for human rights was shut down by the police. In salem if you did not confess to being a witch you were shut down also by execution.
It was the year of 1629 when Salem was settled in what was then the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Just like most colonial settlers, the group that arrived in Salem was searching for religious freedom from the Church of England. In 1641 England declares that witchcraft is a capital crime; capital crimes include treason and it is punishable by death. The settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were a very religious group known as the Puritans; the Puritans strongly believed in The Bible, which includes passages such as Leviticus 20:27 “A man or woman that hath such a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death.” Ministers started arriving to Salem in 1629 and it was evident that the Puritans wanted to disengage from the Church of England.
Religion influenced the government of the Puritans. They believed that they each had their own boundaries or power given by the Lord (Doc H). Puritans wanted the church and government to intertwine and aid one another, creating a stronger bond. In addition, the Puritan’s emphasis on religious conformity and the attainment of land for their model society led them to engage in wars with neighboring Indian tribes. For instance, William Bradford fought with Pequot tribe in the Pequot War, believing that God is the source of their victory and therefore praise him (Doc D).
In this Puritan society morals are the most important of all. You had to go to church every day and you had to obey the minister’s words like it was gods. Those accused of witchcraft are assumed to be associated with the devil. One of the more religious persons accused such as Rebecca Nurse was accused and put to death on account of being associated with
The people believed that the word of God was the only way of life and needed to be followed. They believed that the witches were trying to “breakdown God.” Any person who was accused of being a witch was first checked to see if they had the devils mark and if they did they would poke it with a needle and if they showed pain or drew blood then it wasn’t considered the devil’s mark. They were put on trial but no one ever wanted to stand up for the witches because if you did then you would then get interrogated and people then thought you were a witch also. Many people believe that things are good how they are but they don’t realize how much more needs to still be done.
Because religion had a major impact on this society, it made people go crazy when the word witchcraft got brought up within the Salem village. In The Crucible the girls started dancing around a fire and being rowdy and this behavior was unusual so it was just assumed that they were practicing witchcraft because Betty lie unconscious
In the beginning, Mary and her friends danced in the woods, but they are caught by Reverend Parris, and afraid they will get in trouble, two of the girls pretend to be afflicted by a witch. The two seemingly afflicted girls send widespread chaos through the town, and the remaining girls have to figure out what to do to get the attention away from their dance in the woods. Mary is understandably terrified as she is a rule follower and has never broken a rule in her life. Mary knows that “the whole country's talkin witchcraft!” (Miller 1107).
The forest was “evil” and the fact that the girls were doing the unspeakable act of dancing made the crime much more serious than before. “The Salem tragedy… developed from a paradox… Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together... ”(1.15) The Puritans religion also acted as their government so when the girls did an “unholy” act the Puritans felt they must be condemned lawfully for it. The citizens religious violations would result in