Increas Increase Mather Research Paper

Witch trials were a big part of the United States’ history. During the witch trials violence was more abundant than usual. They really started getting “popular” in the late 1600’s. The violence of the trials impacted people’s lives so heavily back then. By looking at witch trials, we can see the vicious impact it had, which most readers don’t see; this is important because it shows that violence was and is always the answer. People were most commonly tortured by stoning, being burned alive, and by placing heavy rocks on top of one’s body until they died. Women and, sometimes, men went into hiding and feared for their children and their own lives. Puritans wanted to please God and they thought killing witches, who were thought to be satanic, would be a good deed. Cotton Mather was one of those Puritans. Violence was a public practice and people would often come out with their kids and watch the trials so everyone became desensitized, for a period of time, but it also struck fear into the people who were “not doing what they were supposed to do”, according to the Puritans, or who were mentally disabled.

In 17th-century Colonial America, contact with the supernatural was considered part of everyday life; many people believed that evil spirits were present and active on Earth. This superstition emerged 15th century Europe and spread with the colonization of North American puritan colonies. Women were believed to be the most susceptible to demonic behavior; females were considered simple targets for Satan due to being viewed as the weaker sex physically, spiritually, and morally. Women who did not conform to the Puritan ideals at the time were usually ostracized, institutionalized, or brutally murdered. In 1692, thirteen women were famously put on trail for accusations of witchcraft; famously known as the Salem Witch Trails. Most of these women were put on trial and later burned to death for erratic and un-Godly behaviors, 78% of the people charged were women who were accused of doing devilish things such as; speaking out against church officials, being a financially wealthy widow, having pre marital sex, or just being too beautiful. According to Michael Coren’s Why Catholics are Right “five million women were killed by the Church as witches… witch hunts began in the sixteenth century in Europe and that between 30,000 and 50,000 men and women were burned to death for

From the time of the 1690’s the entirety of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. “The Puritan lifestyle was restrained and rigid: People were expected to work hard and repress their emotions or opinions. Individual differences were frowned upon.” (Salem Witch Trials, The World Behind the Hysteria). These people believed that doing anything sinful would result in punishment from God. Just as much as they believed in God, they also believed in the Devil. Keeping up with the Puritan code, it led to the first women being accused of witchcraft. They were viewed as pariahs, and seen differently. Had the Puritan government let the afflicted defend themselves, not be so dependent on religion, not investigating the facts or scrutinize the trials the killing of many could have been prevented. The hangings from the trials would ultimately be the last in America.

The notion of witchcraft has been around long before the witch trials in Early Modern Europe. Different cultures have different images and stereotypes on what a witch is and what “magical” abilities he or she may possess. Many people however, did not look at these “magical” men and women as bad until the Holy Roman Empire began to look negatively on those people who were different, and opposed the norm set by the elites. Driven by fear, those living under the control of the Holy Roman Empire would began to blame other people for diabolical actions, or malicious activities. Women and some men, were tortured and tested in cruel ways in attempt of finding evidence or gaining a confession that the accused was a witch. Laws about how which were persecuted

Cotton Mather believed like many that those who confessed to witchcraft were in fact manipulated by Satan and threatening to the Christian religion (Mather 308). For the citizens of Salem during the time, it was an undisputed part of their culture to think Satan could control members of the community (Mather 309). Thus, the belief during the mass hysteria was that “the wretches have proceeded so far as to concert and consult the methods of rooting Christian religion from this country, and setting up instead of it perhaps a more gross diabolism than ever saw the world before” (Mather 310). This is why many people testified against such witches and wanted to rid the society of them. Today in our more secular environment, the power of Satan is a more quietly promoted concept, but mass hysteria in which many people jump on board to attack one group still occurs. For example, a sixty year old rabbi was killed in Miami while he was walking to synagogue (“New York”) a few weeks after a synagogue in Miami was vandalized with swastikas

Witches have been feared by man since the 14th century in Europe when they believed women were given evil powers for loyalty to the devil. Although some others believed it was the result of consuming the fungus “Ergot” which was found in rye, wheat and other cereals. According to Jess Blumberg multiple people were caught using witchcraft as he mentions in her post “More than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed”. Later in colonial times there was a widespread of witchcraft throughout the new pioneer villages. People believe that it became worse from all the anxiety from the fear of death from disease, savages, smallpox and the after war effects of the British war with France. All this anxiety was driving the Puritans

The evidence of witchcraft and related works has been around for many centuries. Gradually, though, a mixture a religious, economical, and political reasons instigated different periods of fear and uncertainty among society. Witchcraft was thought of as a connection to the devil that made the victim do evil and strange deeds. (Sutter par. 1) In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth century, the hysteria over certain causes resulted in prosecution in the Salem Witch Trials, European Witchcraft Craze, and the McCarthy hearings. These three events all used uncertain and unjustly accusations to attack the accused.

In most towns before the events in which people of Salem had been accused of witchcraft, they would fight the use of magic with magic. On this topic Richard Weisman states, “From a theological standpoint, there was no justification for any malefic practice and protective countermagic.” Every act of magic not coming directly from God was said to be the work of Satan, which was the excuse for making countermagic a condonable act. As opposed to countermagic, when a witch in Salem was found condemned, or guilty after their trial, a clergyman would convict the perpetrator of crime against God’s divine law, then have an “Execution Sermon” given. In an event like such a minister would try to lure a confession out of the offender on the same scaffold he/she was to be hanged. This became a massive part of the judicial system in 17th-century New England. On one particular “Execution Sermon” Cotton Mather wrote:

Because of this more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 people actually died because of maybe false or true accusations. We may never know. 19 of those who died were hanged or left to die in their jail cells. And that other 1 who died was crushed to death.

In 1688, hysteria and paranoia would spread. Colonists were fearful of fellow citizens being witches after children are possessed, acting weirdly being told stories about witchcraft. The children would be cured through prayer and fasting. The potential witch would be executed. The execution of a witch was essential to the Puritan’s religion because the Roman Catholic Church looked upon witches and witch craft as an act of treason. Previously, witchcraft was used to execute those who turned their back on the church since the King was also the head of the Church. Since the Bible is the word of God, the reasonings were religious behind the executions.

For Puritans, witchcraft was a real part of life, it aligned with how “they viewed and experienced the world” (Godbeer 28). In Puritanism, a witch was a person whose soul made a pact with Satan. Making this pact gave Satan the right to use that person’s body to harm others or to coerce others into making an agreement with Satan (“The Devil, the Body” 16, “Confess or Deny” 11). Based on this definition, it is easy to understand why the Puritans viewed anyone accused of witchcraft as evil and why they feared witches. In 1641, Salem established witchcraft as the second of four capital crimes (Schiff). The fact that witchcraft was considered a capital crime demonstrates how negatively the

Witch persecutions began in Europe where countless numbers of women were put to death due to religious and moral beliefs of witch hunters. Of the few hundred thousand of people that were executed for witchcraft, 85% were women. When this is examined closely, both Europe and colonial New England shared a common agenda, the suppression of the female sex. Most were women who were considered ‘outside the norm’ due to their religion, attitudes, and those who did not consider themselves less than a man. Furthermore, the sexuality of women was probably the most significant issue involved during the witch persecutions. During those times, in an era when sex was viewed as sinful.

The panic began in 1692, during a raw Massachusetts winter when a minister’s niece began to writhe and howl, exhibiting strange behavior that caused many to believe she was bewitched. Fear was rapidly gaining momentum in Salem Village, as neighbors accused neighbors, husbands accused wives, parents accused children, and children, parents. More than two hundred colonists were accused and called to trial. It ended less than a year later, but not before nineteen people were hanged on Gallows Hill and one was pressed to death under a pile of field stone— their alleged crime: witchcraft. In the wake of the trials, people began to wonder just how the volume of accusations and convictions got as big as it did. Although Puritan belief in witchcraft

When one thinks of the word ‘witch’ today, one pictures a withered old crone from fairytales or a Halloween costume. In short, people associate a witch immediately with fiction. However, in Europe, witches were a very real threat. Between 1400 and 1800, historians estimate that upwards of 50,000 people were killed after being convicted as witches in Europe (Give Me Liberty, p. 109). As colonists settled in North America, they not only brought new customs, plants, animals, and diseases, they brought their superstitions. Witch executions were relatively rare in America, that is, until the 150 convictions and 19 executions of witches that took place in Salem, Massachusetts beginning in 1691 (Orr, September 30, 2015). Though the causes of the mania are still hotly debated even today, the primary cause of the witchcraft hysteria that captivated Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690’s was socioeconomic tensions within the community.

The use of witchcraft and magic became a taboo in early modern Europe. Most individuals living in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries believed that these witches could connect with a different realm to influence the world they found themselves in, the natural world. There was no way of pointing out a witch and so these arbitrary guidelines made by looking at stereotypes that outcasts had, led them early modern Europe into the witch hunts, where unfair trials meant the lives of innocent individuals were lost. Through the documents found in The Trial of Tempel Anneke, the use of witchcraft and other forms of sorcery were sought after to aid in time of need, but the actual practice of witchcraft and use magic were frowned upon by Christians who linked this practice to Satan and would culminate with the witch’s death after an unfair trial.