Puritan Fear and Hysteria in Salem Witch Trials

Puritanism

Puritans feared the natives:

Natives were the opposite of what puritans wanted to be. Natives started to be seen as inferior and uncivilized because they didn’t believe in the true God. So, puritans started to exclude the natives. This situation developed fear and hatred: the puritans feared the natives converting other puritans into Natural liberties. They also fear possible native attacks (because of the exclusion). As natives were seen as a sign of God that they were doing something wrong, by killing natives, the puritans believed that they were assuring their people not to follow Natural liberty.

The issue of women:

Puritans feared also women that weren’t married and didn’t follow the patriarchal system. These women were not under the control of the patriarchy because there were no husbands to control them. This issue leaded to label these women as witches.

Salem Witch Trials (1692)

The belief on witches existed before in EuropeàInquisition related to witchcraft. So, what happened in Salem came from Europe. Accusations of witchcraft were used to get rid of that fear. However, the fact that simply accusing someone of witchcraft he/she could be killed created a state of hysteria, especially in Salem, where people feared even their neighbours. Puritans justified their actions through the Bible, which says: “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” When someone accused someone of witchcraft, he/she needed proves. Some of the justifications were:

• Devil’s mark on someone skin, which it could only be a birth mark. Sometimes they shaved them to find the mark.
• Put a witch in water. They believed that if the woman was a witch, she would float; if not, she would drown. So, these women didn’t have election, in both of the cases they would die. (Because if you float=killed / if not = killed as well).

The first witch trial took place in 1648 in Charlestown, but it was not part of Salem witch trials. It was only the first time in North America. In this trial, Margaret Jones was accused of malignant touch and foretelling the future (superstition was not Biblical). They found the devil’s mark in her body (some birthmark) and then she was hanged.

The following trial (still not part of Salem) was in 1688 in Boston. Some children accused the family servant of possessing them (making them do evil things). She was executed and the children were cured by praying. These news were spread in Puritan settlements, especially in Salem (Massachusetts). The reasons why it happened in Salem:

• Salem was a wilderness settlementàthe fact that it was surrounded by the wild (the forest) made them think that the devil was hiding there. In other words, they were isolated and this increased their fear.
• The anxiety in the sense of knowing who was behaving in a puritan way or not, who was elected. The constant vigilance.àAm I doing things right?
• Very patriarchal society: they believed that women had to be submissive. So when a woman deviated, it was easier to accuse her of witchcraft.
• Political problemsàpeople was becoming angry because there was no equality. Some become richer or poorer than the others.

Report of Salem Witch Trials:

Two girls began to exhibit strange behaviour and physicians couldn’t find any physical cause so they concluded that the girls were under the influence of Satan. Those girls spent a lot of time with Tituba, the family slave. And she told them stories. Tituba did voodoo and then the girls behaved different. One theory says that maybe the girls felt guilty of being discovered (because they did some stuff that Tituba showed them) being in such repressing community. Another theory was that they could behave different because of eating bread that has a bacteria. The girls were pressured to reveal the identities of the witches who afflicted them (they were pressured with eating their own urine). There were three women: Tituba, Sara Good (town beggar) and Sara Osborne (old woman that not attend Church). Tituba confessed but the others didn’t. Then, as the witch hunt continued, accusations were made against many different people: the paranoia was spread. Frequently denounced were women whose behaviour or economic circumstances were somehow disturbing to the social order. The community started to pray more as a way to have God helping them. Spectral evidence was used in trials to accuse for witchcraft. For example, in the trial of Sara Good, she denied being a witch but the girl said that there was a spectrum and then S. Good was killed. So, if the people in the audience said that something strange was happening and simulated things, it was spectral evidence and it was sufficient to prove that the woman was a witch.