Commander

in 1641, English law made witchcraft a crime. The following was taken from about.com

Following an argument with laundress Goody Glover, Martha Goodwin, 13, began exhibiting bizarre behavior. Days later her younger brother and two sisters exhibited similar behavior. Glover was arrested and tried for bewitching the Goodwin children.

Reverend Cotton Mather met twice with Glover following her arrest in an attempt to persuade her to repent her witchcraft. Glover was eventually hanged. Mather took Martha Goodwin into his house, but her bizarre behavior continued and even worsened.

Why do you think people were so quick to point fingers at women and accuse them of witchcraft. Around 20 people were killed in the witch hunts.

old_abe

I have never been able to quite understand the Salem Witch Hunt. I saw the movie the Crucible yearrsss ago, but don't really remember what was going on.

I think everyone was quick to accus someone so in turn they would not be accused. Rather to be the accuser than the accused.

MafiaMaster

People need someone to blame. In World War Two, there were the Jews. Other times, it was the Blacks. Other times, it was the Christians. Everyone needs someone to blame. Well, when people were having problems, they needed to blame someone, so they decided to blame witches. Odd, I know, but it's just a way of life. However it is so disappointing that people can kill based on a pure irrational fear of nothing. At least, that's my opinion on it.

tedkaw

Women conducting witch craft were different. They weren't the norm. People are always scared of what they don't know.

okamido

This is a great topic, join our discussion on the dramatization of this topic here: http://www.historum.com/historum-boo...tml#post427160

JoeGlidden

Lets not forget Giles Corey.

Cotton Mather was an interesting man, rather radical compared to his father Increase. Mather had developed a pattern during King Philip's War of blaming all the bad things on a lack of religious piety exhibited by the New England Puritans. When the Indians were raiding villages and killing women and children, Mather "believed" God was punishing the people for not following Puritan teachings, praying, etc. I put believed in quotes because one cannot be certain if he actually believed this himself or just preached it.

Mather also had a habit of blowing things out of proportions in his writings and sermons. He interviewed whites captured by Native Americans to create "Captive Narratives" which he often exaggerated or lied about events. He was fond of focusing on violent acts carried out against white babies and children.

There is a belief that Mather had issues with women. Supposedly he was adulterous and wrote negatively about women in personal diaries. I haven't read any research to verify this, but it could explain the focus on women in particular.

Regardless, Mather would make a great televangelist. Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion (1691) reflects his view of women.

skizzerflake

For an interesting read..try Salem Witch Judge, by Eva LaPlante. It is not exactly a history of the trials, but of Samuel Sewall, one of the judges. Sewall was a affluent and respected citizen who owned property in Massachusetts and England. He was well educated and considered enlightened. In his later years, however, he came to believe that the trials had been wrong, that women and Indians had been mistreated by Salem society and tried to make amends. He also became a proto-environmentalist and due to the death of his own adult children, came to be raising young kids when he was in his 70's. Sewall was the only judge to admit to being wrong. This is a fascinating book by one of Sewall's descendants, who had access to personal papers handed down from him.

Kebuka

I believe The Crucible was an allegorical work that had more to do with McCarthyism than the events in Salem.

kbear

i've always been interested in the salem witch trials and read quite a bit about them. i read the various theories of why these girls acted the way they did. i remember one idea was that there was a spore in the rye bread that caused temporary insanity/hallucinations and other possible physical ailments.
but at the end of the day i believe this was a bunch of bored adolescent girls who wanted a little excitement in their dreary lives. they cooked up this scheme for attention--and attention they got! then they got caught up in their lies and were too afraid to admit it and so the madness ensued. there may have been another reason but that's my theory. what a shame so many innocent people had to die...

Carlisle Blues

Many reason have been noted; among which feuds between landowners, congregational unrest and the confession of Tituba who used "witchcake" (a mixture of rye and Betty's urine, cooked and fed to a dog, in the belief that the dog would then reveal the identity of Betty's* afflictor)", and the general desire to beleive the Devil was at work here.

What is striking is that the colonists used legal procedure to resolve conflicts the supernatural.

*"Elizabeth "Betty" Parris (November 28, 1682 – March 21, 1760) was one of the accusers during the Salem witch trials. In the winter of 1691-2, Betty, the nine-year-old daughterof the Salem, Massachusetts' Reverend Samuel Parris (1653–1720) and his wife Elizabeth , was the first to claim illness due to being "bewitched."