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Puritans and witchcraft
Puritans and witchcraft
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Puritans and witchcraft
Puritans and witchcraft
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Puritans and witchcraft
Religion was very important to the Puritans in the 1600s. John Winthrop a member of the Puritans gentry, wrote to his wife the ‘I am verily persuaded God will bring some heavy affliction upon this land.” A year later he went and lead a group of a group of puritans to New England. By the 1630s another twenty thousand Puritans would come to America. When John became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he told immigrants that will have to guide people toward this holy ideal or they were not welcomed.
Escaping Salem illustrates how the Enlightenment influenced Puritan culture in seventeenth century New England. Puritanism has roots back to the 1517 Protestant Revolution in Germany, when Martin Luther began rejected some of the ideas of the Catholic Church in his Ninety Five Theses. He believed that the Catholic Church had become too corrupt to properly fulfill its duties and that the only way to God was through personal faith and the the word of the Bible. In the early sixteenth century, Puritanism finds its way to England and is adopted by Henry VII as he established the Church of England. However, Puritanism doesn’t stay in favor with the monarchy for long, and many English Puritans flee to the colonies to escape religious persecution by King Charles
Throughout the seventeenth century, religious freedom was essentially a key to the new forming colonies. Many pursued the “New World” looking to gain individual rights for their own personal beliefs- which we understand today as religious freedom. The main group seeking this freedom was the Puritans who came to the New World from England. When the Puritans had reached the land where they wished to settle they called it the Massachusetts’s Bay Colony. The colony was said to be a place where one could express their beliefs freely.
Telling fortunes, showing peoples faces in glasses, enchantments, and healing the sick are some of the things people who practiced witchcraft claimed to be able to do. New Englanders often turned to people who could do these things for favors and referred to them as "cunning folk" (pg.107). The New Englanders didn't see any harm in using their occult powers for there own good, when in fact these people were in contact with the devil. They did not see it that way but they were indeed risking being banished to hell.
Religion was a very strong influence in the lives of Puritans as they followed a very strict moral code and based their entire lives on their faith. Most Puritans were taught from the Bible that "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Doc. A), which explains why the witch scare was taken so seriously and why the accused were punished so harshly. They believed and feared that "evil spirits were all around" (Doc. C) as noted in Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions by Cotton Mather, who at that time was a reputable expert in the "invisible world. " It seems strange to 21st-century dwellers that people believed that witches could be identified by marks of the devil, as portrayed in an 1853 painting by T.H. Matteson (Doc. D).
I chose to do this term paper on the Salem Witch Trials because this topic has always fascinated me. I watched a movie when I was younger called “The Crucible” and it was interesting to me. I have always wondered if these people was innocent, or really “witches.” Why were all these people killed? Was these people men or women?
The Bible might say there is evil, witches, and magic, but evil may have a different meaning entirely. The Puritans believed that evil went hand in hand with witches and magic. Although they claim to be the purist people of
Witchcraft was something of the past that was not accepted, people looked down on things as these, superstition and witchcraft was against the law. Korbmacher (basketmaker) who presided from German in Spring Garden was pointed out by the public as being a witch. In 1787 people of that era would blame her for illnesses that come onto children and cattle. This is something that worried may cause the Constitutional Convention that was to take place at that same time would somehow be ruined because of peoples actions toward witches, it would sidetrack their intention.
How could the same individuals with the freeing thoughts of the Enlightenment, also be the same individuals that participated with the haze of the salem witch trials? They are practically complete opposites. The enlightenment was a European time of intellectual movement occurring during (late 17th and 18th centuries) emphasising reason and individualism rather than tradition. However the salem witch trials were forcing people to conform to what others considered to be the right frame of mind. Which, to the church was that any supernatural powers was point blank evil and of the devil and anything beyond understanding and reason is wrong.
New England’s economy would also be influenced by the British tax later that would cause Americans to revolt many of which trusted in their faith to guide them The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 were also motivated by religious beliefs. They believed in the idea of a "city upon a hill," a vision of a holy community that would serve as an example to the rest of the world (American YAWP, 2.6). This belief led to a strict social order and a commitment to the moral and spiritual purity of the community. It also led to conflicts with other religious groups, such as the Quakers, who were seen as a threat to the Puritan social order.
The ideas constructed by the Puritans were not simply a principal starting point for American culture because they were the first in the country, but because they offered distinct ways of thinking that are still deep-seated in our culture today. Although many of the ideas of Puritans have evolved or vanished over time, it is important to give credit to the Puritan writers and thinkers such as John Winthrop and John Cotton who offered ideas that were new at the time and that stayed with the American consciousness—culturally, socially, and politically. “John Winthrop's legacy can be seen primarily in the fields of government, commerce, and religion. It was religion that would most impact John's life; his religion would ultimately impact the
These views, in and of themselves, speak to the level of intolerance permeating America and to the level of fear associated with witchcraft. The Religious intolerance and fear experienced in English North America was not a sole construct of Puritanism in New England. These ideas permeated Southwards throughout the length of the thirteen English colonies. Oftentimes, the fear of witchcraft led to colonial governments establishing capital laws against any person entering into communion with Satan.
The demon and the devil were powerful symbols of evil in the religious and cultural life of early modern England. While the concept of the devil had existed for centuries, it was in the early modern period that the devil began to take on the form of a demonic figure with the power to possess and corrupt individuals. This demonic figure was seen as a real and present threat to the spiritual and moral wellbeing of society. The concept of the demon and the devil had its roots in Christianity. In this culture, demons were believed to be malevolent supernatural beings that could cause illness and misfortune.
One topic brought up in the discussion was how perception changes over time. With the example of fire, fire used to be essential to survival back during the time of cavemen. In modern times, we have electricity and heaters so we take fire for granted. This idea can be connected to witchcraft because the way we view something changes based on our moral values and how we live. After doing background research about puritans the first time I read the book, I understood that Puritans placed a high value upon hard work, their religion, and living a honest and pure life so that they will be saved; however I never really connected their lifestyle to their belief in witchcraft.
REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.