ipl-logo

Why The Puritans Were Allowed In The Salem Witch Trials

1729 Words7 Pages

In the year of 1630, a group of people known as the Puritans arrived to America and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. The Puritans were similar to the Pilgrims in which they were Protestants from England who thought that their reforms of their church were “too Catholic” and needed to be changed further. The Puritans being unhappy with their reforms was the primary reason for leaving England and settling in America, while the Pilgrims stayed behind and were determined to change their reforms. When they came to America, they decided to keep some of their strict rules. For example, church was mandatory and if someone missed a day, they’d receive a fine. Women faced degradation because it was taught by the ministers that the soul had two parts. There …show more content…

This caused the Puritans to believe in evil forces like the devil who could potentially try to lead them into temptation or other sinful things because their faith in God was so strong. In 1692, the Puritans worst nightmare had begun. The Salem Witch Trials had started and an estimated number of 200 people were accused of practicing dark magic and some had been punished by death. These trials consisted of bringing convicted witches into court and sentencing them to be hanged or in prison for many years if proven guilty. To the Puritans, the devil was as real as God, and the devil would choose the weakest people to torment, and those people were mostly women and children. Being in a mostly religious community like Salem, when people confessed it had turned many heads because people weren’t sure whether to believe it or not. That same year, they had gotten a new minister named Reverend Samuel Parris and he managed to make matters worse by supporting the witchcraft hysteria, which caused more chaos in

Open Document