Goodbeer's Misconceptions

The Salem Witch trials were more than just accusations and women being sentenced to death. The politics, social status, and way of living back then all played essential roles in the trials which are discussed throughout the book “Salem Possessed” by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. The authors touch upon how social status of church members, farmers and community folk impacted who was accused of witchcraft and who was sentenced to death. While times have changed and the laws regarding imprisonment are very different, it is essential to remember that while the techniques and methods used during the witch trials were common back then and just their way of life.

A review of A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials, by Laurie Winn Carlson, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2000; 224 pp. $14.95 Paperback. ISBN: 1-566633095

Kappanadze, Margaret. "Baker, Emerson W.: A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience." Library Journal 15 Sept. 2014: 92. General OneFile. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.

Also, the investigation looks at the Puritan beliefs on witchcraft to see why there was such an impending and heavy correlation to the witchcraft performed in the colonies. Next, the causes of the trials are correlated to see which cause held a heavy influence on the outcomes. And finally, this investigation examines the Puritan reasoning behind the trials, to see why the actions of the clergy and ministers led to the execution of many accused witches. While the reason behind the Salem Witch Trials is not solely based on the Puritan ideology and values, the investigation will primarily focus on how religion was the basis for the Salem community, thus, having a greater impact than the other proclaimed causes and spreading Christian culture in the New

It is often difficult to understand the thought process that other people’s might have had many years ago. A college professor and writer, Richard Godbeer attempts to explain the thought process of the people who were involved in witch trials in the year 1692 in his text “How Could They Believe That?”. He often tells students in college and high school that we can relate to how society was in 1692 and how their views on life, and specifically the supernatural forces, are completely justifiable. In this article he explains the social atmosphere, the environment in which the settlers lived in, as well as how thorough the process of persecution was.

The audience this Mather’s work was intended for was the New Englander settlers in Massachusetts in 1693 one year after the witch trials took place. Though his account in

Many people are aware of the witch hunt that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692, however these same people may not be as familiar with the other witch hunt that also occurred in New England during the same year. Escaping Salem: the other witch hunt of 1692, written by Richard Godbeer, is a historical monograph that reconstructs the, mostly unheard-of witch hunt, that occurred in Stamford, Connecticut. The book also gives its readers insight into the minds of early American citizens. Thus, the theme of Escaping Salem, beside witchcraft, is human nature and Richard Godbeer’s thesis is that humans demonize others before recognizing their own share of human frailty. It is evident that he is biased toward the witches and sympathizes with them. This, of course, is not surprising since they were irrationally punished because of their neighbours unsubstantiated accusations. Richard Godbeer is currently a Professor of History at the University of Miami, who offers courses on a broad range of topics, including sex and gender in early America, witchcraft in colonial New England, religious culture in early America, and the American Revolution. He is also the author of 11 other historical monographs.

The view that religious beliefs were behind the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 is predominantly incorrect. While the Puritan culture’s strong Christian beliefs did dictate the behaviour of New England society, for the authorities that instigated the Witch Trials, religion was a mere justification for their actions that allowed them to gain support by instilling in the masses the fear of a higher power. Their true motives lay in the political and social issues of the time, with Salem Town’s division due to two disputing families, the ever-present fear of smallpox, and the male population’s immense opposition to female independence and sexuality. Thus, while society had strong religious beliefs, they were merely a pretext for the political and social factors of family conflict, disease, and fear of women that were the true bases for the accusations dealt in 1692.

When examining the topic of the Salem witch trials of 1692-93, Cotton Mather is presumed to be a major cause behind the hysteria of the events. He contributed to this image, perhaps unknowingly, by publishing numerous works especially “Wonders of the Invisible World.” At first glance, Mather 's book seems to be just a detailed account of the trials and executions that took place in the Massachusetts colony, but deeper investigation reveals otherwise. To dispel Mather 's arguments and reveal more details on the events of Salem at this time, Robert Calef published “More Wonders of the Invisible World” in 1700. Calef 's book seems just as capable as Mather 's book to maintain longevity in the world of literature and American history, however Mather has held a much more prominent stance out of the two. By examining Cotton Mather 's obligation to God and comparing the language of Mather and Calef, we develop more understanding as to why his arguments remain more prominent than Calef 's as well as how both of the authors influenced literature and American history in general.

During the 1600’s in the United States there was much economic and religious dissention within the Puritan society: a group of English reformed protestants who pursued the Purification of the Church of England. Among these issues, is the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials that prosecuted women to be found worshippers of the devil. The Puritans found the necessity to exercise this crusade in order to stay by their moral codes of conformity which included witchcraft to be the greatest crime, punishable by death. However, the true reasons of the trials was not to simply follow their religious constitutions. It is mainly in part from corruption of religion and how some had used the trials as a form of personal gain, the influences of the attitudes from the strict Puritan lifestyle, the need for unification between the Salem factions, and the society’s fear of evil.

The Salem Witch Trials was an uncanny and eerie event of hearings and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. Although it lasted from 1691 to 1692, it lead to more than 200 people, including men and women, being accused and arrested of witchcraft and 20 of those people executed. The hysteria began with two young girls: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams claiming to be possessed by the devil, causing the “witch-fever” among the Salem village. In this essay the circumstances behind poor harvest, sickness and the conjecture of witches and witchcraft being highly considered as a cause in this era will be described. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by environmental factors because the Salem community had limited understanding of natural causes such as poor harvest, sickness and diseases.

In Essex Massachusetts, early 1692, a group of girls came together. The girls began to cast spells and practice “conjuration with sieves and keys, and peas, and nails, and horseshoes”. By February, it was the adults who began to try to put into words what was happening to their children: “odd postures,” “foolish, ridiculous speeches”. Local physician William Griggs warned Reverend Samuel Parris, father of two of these girls, that he suspected the “Evil Hand” or more specifically, “malefic witchcraft”. As a result of this bizarre occurrence, rumors and assumptions spread rapidly across the area of Salem Village. The legal system was unkempt and clearly unprepared for something so baffling. As a result, the trials were conducted aimlessly and disorderly, without consideration for the persecuted. Throughout countless records, evidence was slim and weak. This was just the beginning of what is known as the Salem Witch Trials. Due to an unorganized legal system, The Salem Witch Trials exposed Puritan society as unprepared, unlawful, and unethical.

This essay assesses the claim that witch-hunting was rarely an uncontrollable or hysterical phenomenon. Witch hunts have traditionally been presented in the academic literature as the result of a panicked reaction to supposed malevolent devil worship (e.g., Trevor-Roper 1969; Thomas 1972). In support of this interpretation, it is possible to cite numerous cases in which large numbers of people were put on trial, imprisoned, tortured, and executed seemingly without reason and on poor evidence. It is sometimes argued that a number of the more famous trials were uncontrollable and hysterical in the way they were conducted. Examples include the North Berwick witch trials (1581-1593) in Scotland, the Salem witch trials in America (1692-1693), the Torsåker witch trials in Sweden (1675), and the Trier (1581-1593), Fulda (1603-1606), Bamberg (1626-1631), Würzburg (1626-1631) witch trials in Germany, among others (Briggs 2002; Ankarloo and Henningsen 1999). This argument has also been based on the development of a fierce culture of anti-witchcraft beginning in the 14th century, as evidenced by the publication of books on demonology and the emergence of professions such as ‘witch-hunters’ and ‘inquisitors’ (Ankarloo and Henningsen 1999). This essay argues that these select cases were the exceptions to the rule and that the incidence of ‘witch hysteria’ was relatively low. Contemporary perceptions of witchcraft have been misrepresented by focusing too narrowly on the most dramatic

Astonishingly, the striking differences between today’s law and order and the trials of the 17th century are expansive and extensive. If a judge today were to sentence a defendant to a death sentence based solely on intangible, baseless evidence taken from only unfounded accusations, the world would be in a riot. And yet, this was common practice in the 1600’s, where DNA and fingerprints were not of investigative use yet, and all judges had to go on was he-said-she-said. A jury of supposedly law-upholding, learned citizens found someone as innocent, pure, and warm as Rebecca Nurse to be not only guilty, but sentenced her to hanging for the heinous crimes of witchcraft that she certainly never committed. More importantly, Nurse’s hanging brought serious doubts through some of the judges and began the momentum needed to change and disrupt the way the entire town thought of and treated witch trials and those accused.

When most people think of witches, they usually visualize witches on broomsticks flying through the air, practicing black magic, casting spells with the influence to make others do things against their will or giving those diseases, sickness among so many other evil activities, however, in the case of the Salem witch trials the accused were nothing of the sort. The trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts beginning in 1692 and ending 1693, resulting in 19 hanged and 1 pressed to death. The witchcraft obsession was not unusual among the Europeans that had been persecuting and executing those accused of being witches since the 1300s. (Blumburg, 2007)