Summary Of Escaping Salem

Witchcraft, Religion, and the Enlightenment Richard Godbeer’s Escaping Salem chronicles the 1692 Stamford Witch Trials. The New England town of Stamford, Connecticut struggles with the case of Katherine Branch. Kate, a servant to the high class Wescot family, is seized by fits, and claims to be a victim of witchcraft. The trial is turbulent, raising questions about religion and government in New England. 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

The Wescots believed that Kate was an easy target, because, as a poor orphan, she secretly desired the “fine things” (20) that Satan would offer her. Because of beliefs about spiritual inferiority, women were suspected and accused of witchcraft more so than men. Women were more likely to be accused if they had a history of refusing to submit to authority. Mercy Disborough and Elizabeth Clawson had both quarreled with the Wescots, giving them a motive for bewitching Kate. The idea of a woman possessing that kind of power was intimidating because it put a woman in a position of authority, deviating from the expectations of the gender roles of the