William Bradford Dbq

The Salem Witch Trials brought havoc among the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts starting in 1692. Many of the people within the town continued to have strong loyalties to their new Puritan religion and their old king back home. The church of England had moved away from the Catholic religion with the help of King Henry VIII and the Puritans were a new group of people who accepted the split from Catholicism but still believed that the church of England had a lot of aspects that remained with the Catholic religion. Despite this, loyalty to the king remained strong because the Puritans were not looking to break off from the Church of England instead they wanted to reform the religion and make it their own. These loyalties stretched to such an extent that any sin committed was also considered an act of treason and thus punished. The Salem community was constantly searching for evil within their town to prove their righteousness to God which lead to high rates of fear and paranoia in their daily lives. The strict Puritan religion soon became the root cause of the monstrous imagination that started to form within the community of Salem. Many people still feared the presence of Catholic ideas within their communities and in response were willing to go to any extent to irradiate these views. Some historians also account the beginning of the trials to divisions within the two towns of Salem that lead to tensions and turmoil between the townsmen. But without the increased belief in their new religion, women around town wouldn’t have been persecuted. The strict belief in the Puritan religion and culture was the root cause of fear and paranoia that led to the mass execution of many women and townspeople during the Salem Witch Trials.

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.

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 Salem Witch Trials of 1692 took place in the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts. Cotton Mather, a clergyman in Salem, emerged throughout the course of the trials as a pillar of support and, ultimately, as a witch-hunter. However, his motives at the beginning of the trials were driven by his Puritanical reasoning which holds a strong belief in Biblical Law. Cotton Mather used his Puritanical faith to find reasoning in God that allowed the Salem Witch Trials to occur.

Three centuries ago, the Puritan religion was the base of the Salem village and many townspeople strongly believed in the existence of witches and witchcraft. According to the common Puritan belief, witches were in alliance with the devil and were granted power to harm. People were blamed for illness, failed crops, to bad weather, and many other things that were evident centuries ago. Due to the belief in witchcraft villagers were, perhaps, inclined to the most improbable explanations. The Puritans held strict views, ways of living, perspectives fears, and fantasies. Many Puritan ministers used the the fear of witchcraft to scare the believers into following the church. Historians believe these strict Puritan ways of life may have brought upon the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. At the time, witches and witchcraft were a serious and viewed as a real threat; almost as real as

The myths surrounding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 spike the interest of historians and non-academics alike. These trials have been the concern of different historical articles, novels, plays, films, and even religious debates. One issue that is certain, is the hysteria of the community overwhelmed Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. A particular primary source, “Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (1693)” by Cotton Mather, suggests that the actions brought forth provided proof of satanic work. Even though Mather was a contemporary observer, Mather fails to analyze the importance of the real contemporary issues displayed during the time of the trials. Furthermore, historian Kyle Koehler, takes a different approach in his review,

Cotton Mather’s character was distinguished before the Puritans began their witch hunt. According to Brandt, Mather’s reputation has been “smeared for three hundred years by the abuse and harsh criticism” of those readers who perceive him as an instigator to the Salem Witch Trials (Brandt 232). Before the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather had an interest for “all extraordinary things wherein the existence and agency of the invisible

In his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741), Jonathan Edwards claims that anyone who is not “born again” is a sinner and is waiting to be thrust down to hell in a state of endless misery and the only way to be saved from this is to become a Puritan. Edwards supports his claim of the Puritan religion being the only saving thing from damnation by explaining how hell is being prepared for those who are not “born again,” that any unconverted are in the hands of an angry God, and then concluding by saying to the people that they have the chance to be saved and live in a happy state, of they are “born again.” His purpose is to illustrate the woe that awaits for those who are not “born again” in order to persuade them to want to be

In 1692-1693, the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria occurred, resulting in 20 deaths out of the 200 accused of practicing the Devil’s magic, a practice that women were commonly accused of. Salem, Massachusetts, was a colony that consisted of Puritans, both Separatists and non Separatists alike. From the start, the Puritans believed that the Bible was true in all aspects: every word, every idea, every thought--was true. The Puritans also had minimal understanding of science, which led them to believe that phenomenon was an act of the Devil. Thus, when three young girls admitted to seeing demons and started behaving strangely, the Puritans grew progressively hysterical because they became more convinced that witches existed within Salem as they had little scientific knowledge. In a nutshell, the cause of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria were Puritan fundamentalism, misogyny, and hysteria.

William Bradford and John Smith were both early American writers; however, their writing styles were very different. They began writing around the same time with Smith starting in 1608 and Bradford starting in 1630. Smith wrote three books: A Description of New England, The General History, and A True Relation. However, Bradford wrote only one book called Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford’s writing style is easy to read but still well written. Smith’s writing, on the other hand, is difficult to follow. In Smith’s The General History, he expresses that he has a low regard for the Native Americans in the way he frequently refers to them as savages. On the other hand, Bradford demonstrates a high regard for them when he wrote about them helping the Plymouth settlement. Just as their writing styles are different, so are their motives for writing. Bradford wrote because he did not want the Plymouth Plantation settlement to be forgotten, whereas Smith wrote for money and to promote exploration of the New World. The theme of Smith’s writing was very secular, even

Influence of the Puritan faith existed massively in social development of New England and brought great changed in the social standings. This can be seen through the emphasis on church and education. Visible in Doc B, a map of a colonial New England town shows the center of a average Puritan town, containing a village green surrounded by multiple buildings. Prominent in the surrounding buildings are the church and the school. The church was the religious and ultimately social center of a Puritan town. Puritan followers strived to comprehend the ways God. This belief also caused the Puritans to think themselves better by destiny; as stated by William Bradford, following the Pequot War, “…and they gave the praise thereof to God…who had wrought so wonderfully a [victory]” (Doc D). Some

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

People often fear things they do not understand. In Nigeria, churches are accusing defenseless children of witchcraft; a boy’s “family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism ” (The Boston Globe para. 2); permanently impairing the boy. The boy’s father did not understand why or how what his son was and tried to kill him out of fear of the consequences. Pastors were accusing either orphaned or children from poor families as witches because they could not fight back, as way to establish their credentials. Hysteria made the townspeople actually believe and fear witchcraft in both Nigeria and Salem. In the case of “The Dying Girl that No One Helped” one person did not get involved because the police” might have picked [him] up as suspect” he feared the outcome and did not understand the importance of the situation.

Let us first start by evaluating a writing related to the events described above, The Wonders of the Invisible World. In this publication, Mather makes many references to accounts of eyewitness testimonies and confessions of the accused; not only to justify, but also to prove that the Salem witchtrials were a God sanctioned attack against Satanic works. Mather says, “He (the devil) has wanted incarnate legions to persecute us, as the people of God have in the other hemisphere been persecuted: he (the devil) has therefore drawn upon his more spiritual ones to make an attack upon us.” (2) Mather’s use of the term “spiritual ones,” is meant to represent the accused witches of the time. Witches, Mather believes, are the work of the devil. Throughout this writing Mather quotes from the Bible. Mather knows that the people of his church would not dare question the validity of the Bible. So, by choosing specific verses that favor the intended goal of his writings he is able to add rock solid validity to the statements he is making to the members of his church. References to past situations illustrated in the Bible prove to Mathers’ audience that these

The refuges lived in the Netherlands, first in Amsterdam and then in Leiden, and for a short time, were able to worship in the way they believed in without government harassment. However, life Leiden became extremely difficult, many of the refuges, including Bradford barley made enough of a living as textile workers to support their families. Also during this time, The Netherlands are on the brink of war with Catholic Spain. Pressured by the English King James I, the Dutch government began to harass the refuges to the point of damaging their presses that printed the Separatists literature, to stoning them. The Separatists had finally had enough, deciding to make a new life and a new home overseas, in a new country where they could make their own rules and have the freedom of their religion without prejudice or persecution. This decision is how and when William Bradford first started to show his skills as a leader.