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Salem Witch Trials: Puritans Impact

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Salem Witch Trials: Puritans Impact
New charter government, lethal frontier war, and political and religious conflicts set the perfect stage for Salem, Massachusetts (Paranoia, the Devil, and Witchcraft). That disaster was known as the Salem Witch trials. The trials was a span of time when people believed in the devil's practice of giving certain humans (witches) the power to harm others (Salem Witch Trials). When the people's superstitions became fear a great deal of innocent people were accused, put on trial, and even murdered (Salem Witch Trials). The first trial began when three girls flew into hysterics on January 20, 1692; their symptoms were so extreme, fear spread quickly (Saari 38,39). Thereafter, additional villagers, young girls …show more content…

Puritan laws gave women as little freedom and power as possible because they believed a woman could gain access to power only through communication with the devil (Saari 22). "They used the biblical tale of Adam and Eve to show that women inherited Eve's original sin" (Saari 22). With biblical proof, the Puritans easily shaped the views of women so that women were viewed with strange hatred: that hatred replaced old pagan respect (Paranoia, the Devil, and Witchcraft). Because of Puritan views when the trials hit the streets of Salem women were wrongfully accused, however, a woman accused wasn't just any ordinary woman. She had the characteristics of being the age between fifty and seventy, was likely to be a widow or unmarried, and was poverty stricken ( Salem; The real Problem with the Show). A less commonly accused type of woman that was accused was one of a younger age with a reputation for sexual promiscuity (Salem: The Real Problem with the Show). These women were feared because they could potentially control male desire to manipulate them and then become the dominant sex (Salem: The Real Problem with the Show); men, especially Puritan men, did not want that. Women continued to be accused and would be until the witch trials

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