What role did Puritanism play in the witch trials?

The Puritans were desperate to get back on the path to righteousness that they started the witch trails in order to cleanse the town. They believed what they were doing was morally correct and it was their duty to God to rid of the witches that had possessed their community.

How did the Puritans feel about witchcraft?

Witches were thought to be able to harm people and therefore were feared greatly. The Puritans feared the Devil and God equally and “they believed the Devil was real, and had the intent to Page 2 C6-18 2 influence and harm” (Mills 16). People heard about and eye witnessed the fits the Afflicted girls were having.

What did the Puritans believe during the Salem witch trials?

They believed that Satan would select the “weakest” individuals (women, children, and the elderly) to carry out his evil work. 12. Those who were believed to follow Satan were automatically assumed to be witches, which was a crime punishable by death.

How was witchcraft viewed in the 17th century?

How was the practice of witchcraft viewed in seventeenth century New England? In seventeenth-century New England a witch was thought to be an individual who sold their soul to the devil. In return for this sacrifice, the devil was thought to provide this person with material possessions, a better life, power, etc.

Why did the witch trials happen in Puritan New England?

Since the Puritans saw themselves as God’s chosen people, they believed they had been sent to the New World (the European term for North and South America) to wage a battle against the agents of the devil (the Christian term for the source of all evil).

What led Puritans to jump to the conclusion of witchcraft?

The strange events lead the puritans to mistrust and reject each other. In both of Hawthorne’s short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister Black Veil” and in Miller’s The Crucible, a strange event makes the puritans jump to conclusions of witchcraft.

What religion caused the Salem Witch Trials?

Puritan religious
We have discovered that the lost lives of the accused witches were the direct result of the Puritan religious fanaticism of the day. Fanaticism in religion occurs when one goes beyond strict adherence to his or her faith. It occurred in Salem when death resulted from closed minded adherence to religious teaching.

In what ways did the trials encourage Puritans to accuse one another?

In what ways did the trials encourage Puritans to accuse one another? Witness testimony and spectral evidence turned an accusation into admissible evidence of witchcraft. Witness testimony and spectral evidence turned an accusation into admissible evidence of witchcraft.

What happened to witches in the 17th century?

From 1484 until around 1750 some 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt or hanged in Western Europe. Most supposed witches were usually old women, and invariably poor. Any who were unfortunate enough to be ‘crone-like’, snaggle-toothed, sunken cheeked and having a hairy lip were assumed to possess the ‘Evil Eye’ !

Why were people accused of witchcraft in the 17th century?

Somebody new to a community might be accused of witchcraft because his or her neighbours were suspicious of them. Sometimes a person might pretend to be bewitched because it was a way of making money. People were more suspicious of witchcraft when the harvest failed, as they looked to find a cause.

What religion are Puritans?

The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant.