In 1691 and 1692 in Salem Massachusetts, executions were regularly taking place to destroy people thought to be witches. In “Outspoken Women and Witchcraft Accusations”, Jane Kamensky appears to be leading the reader to believe the only people persecuted in the Salem Witch trials were women. Kamensky seems to be reaching out to women by the language she uses to show her audience the mistreatment women faced during this time period. Although outspoken women were targets for witch hunts, they were not the only people being accused of witchcraft. Kamensky claims that women were the targets of witch hunts for being outspoken but she does not examine other parts of the hunt. Religious beliefs and people who did not want to admit their role …show more content…
“The American Promise” claims the amount of men accused was about twenty percent leaving eighty percent of the accused being women and most of those women were “past the normal childbearing age”. Although the amount of women charged with witchcraft compared to men is considerably larger, it shows that outspoken women were not only the targets of the Salem witch hunt. With speculation, one might say, that the age of the women could have played a role in the decisions of who was accused of being a witch. Especially since the sentence for being found guilty of being a witch was death.
Kamensky shows the stories of women overtly speaking out in public places without the permission of men. The Puritans believed the men were in control; and women who spoke against or with a man were trying to be his equal. This could have been perceived as the woman trying to be in control, which was unacceptable during this time. Kamensky says “…the witch linguistically outperformed the virtuous woman” because the virtuous women would not speak in public places without the permission of the man. Most of the women charged, being older women, may have felt they had the “right” to speak as they felt