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Modern Times: How Perception Changes Over Time

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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. Now I understand that the reason the witch trials were so successful was
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Richard Godbeer presented an excellent picture on how puritan life was structured, how it functioned, and how they perceived the super natural in this novel. Reading "Escaping Salem," I was thrown several different scenarios displaying how witchcraft was addressed in early puritan society and how they reacted towards it. The supposedly bewitching of Katherine Branch showed the reader how the people of Stamford and the court system handled the act of witchcraft. After reading this novel, I can say that I do believe the accused in the Stamford witchcraft trial received a fair trial.

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The Salem Witch Trials: The How In the spring of 1692, the lives of the people who lived in Salem began changing. It is an event that can never be erased from history; lives were changed, and lives were lost. The Salem Witch trials began in a time where people felt vulnerability and fear to anything that they may not understand.

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One thing that might have caused the witch trials is profit, “ Mary Walcott ,Anns step cousin ,named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This almost proves that she might have been accusing people for money/profit. “Abigail Williams, fingered 41 different witches for attacking her; Ann Putnam Jr. accused 53;her servant Mercy Lewis named 54; and a girl named Mary Walcott who was Ann’s step-cousin, named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56). This means they were fervently,maliciously, wanted to abolish some of these people,and that most of the accusers stated accused more than 40 people. “Not all witches are human beings.

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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).

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1066 Words | 5 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

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They lied and manipulated the court into believing their stories. They did this for lots of reasons. One was because females were not allowed many rights let alone any power in their city. Through the witch trials and lies they gained power in Salem. Also, they were trying to win over lovers by accusing their wives and getting them hung.

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People began accusing others of being witches. The purpose of the trials were

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915 Words | 4 Pages

Witchcraft is the practice of black magic, especially black magic. In the movie Crucible, it talks mostly about how the witchcraft was a big problem in the town. In the beginning of the story,it showed a bunch of girls in a forest getting along, trying to play with black magic. When the whole whichcraft happened the whole town started to get attached to these rumors of witchcraft. A man named John Proctor, who once had an affair with Abigail Williams while he was married to his wife Elizabeth.

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Witchcraft was the ultimate deviancy in Puritan society. Puritans believed that the devil exists and was a very literal being that was watching them all the time waiting for them to mess up or make a mistake. Ministers frequently used this devil idea during service to scare citizens into behaving. Maleficium translates to the power of malice, meaning to give people power to ruin things such as crops, beer, or make hens lay fewer eggs. These supernatural powers were spoken about and very relevant in trial cases that were recorded during this time period.

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Puritan society is often considered to be plain and uninteresting. Modernly, we know Puritans to be the very religious settlers of New England, but what was their life truly like? The Witch of Blackbird Pond is an American historical fiction novel published in 1958, written by Elizabeth George-Speare, which explores topics of Puritan society such as their labors and hardships, and the struggles of non-Puritans living within Puritan communities. Though entirely fictitious, the book portrays the Puritans in a fairly accurate

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The Witches were able to project themselves as innocent beings before attack an unsuspecting victim. Of course, the only sources Mather’s had to back up his arguments were his spiritual faith, the Bible, and court

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Living a sheltered life, completing the same routine day after day, and not being able to read, write, or do anything but pray. These are everyday struggles Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts faced. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he explains the hysterical outbreak of the Salem Witch Trials. With many reasons for the occurrence, guilt is the most prominent. This is because Puritans wanted to be seen as good people in the eyes of God and wanted respect and attention from others.

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The year of 1692 identified a significant event in history in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials revealed series of prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft, which resulted in the executions of twenty innocent people. Out of the twenty people, fourteen of them were women were hung to death and the others died in prison. It all began with several girls that experimented with magic, which the Puritans believed they were collaborating with the Devil. Based on the Puritan beliefs, the meaning of witchcraft was the Devil’s magic.

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Many practicing Christians, at the time, believed that the Devil could persuade people to use the powers that he gave them to harm others. The Salem Witch Trials occurred because of resource struggles, many women were accused and tortured, and in the end the Governor realized that it was a big mistake. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1). In 1689, English rulers William and Mary started a war with France in the American colonies which sent many refugees into the Essex County and Salem Village.

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It is a period widely known in history as the migration period of Separatists escaping the remnants of Roman Catholicism in the transcended Church of England – the corruption and indecorous dogma during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Johnson, 1970). Interestingly, Puritan Period, more than its literature, has three particularly areas of discussion that can be relatable to the present time –social values and conduct, role of women, and their language. First of all, the social values of the Puritans mainly concerned marriage. Based on Biblical portrayals of Adam and Eve, Puritans believed that marriage was rooted in procreation, love, and, most importantly, salvation (Norton, 2011).

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