 Puritanism
 Salem Witch Trials
 Remember
John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill”—
a religious community in which “pure ideals”
were central
 Believed in a strong connection between
church and state (theocracy)
 Believed in a Covenant with God and with
each other to follow moral codes in pursuit of
eternal life
 Believed in Predestination (only the elect
would be saved)
 Believed God and Satan were active presences
in the natural word
 Believed
Native Americans were heathens and
the woods and forests full of demons
 Believed in mandatory attendance at church
 Believed that people were expected to work
hard and repress emotions and opinions
 The church dictated that dark, somber dress
was appropriate
 Never get caught sleeping in church or stealing
food
What do these beliefs tell us?
 Read
natural signs to see God’s will or Satan’s
tricks (when a neighbor’s crop failed or a child
became sick, saw it as God’s will and did not
help)
 Believed Satan selected the “weakest”—women,
children and the insane to carry out his work.
 Believed those who followed Satan were
considered witches
 Punished witchcraft by death
What does this tell us?
 As
early as 1450, witch hunts all over Europe
 Many thousands were hanged, drowned or
burned at the stake
 Women were viewed as “imperfect” as they
were formed from a man’s rib whereas men
were the privileged sex (Christ--a male)
 Popular view of women was source of witch
hunt hysteria…seen as inherently evil and
sexual—thus targets for the devil
 Possibly
the single, most studied event in
colonial American history
 Fear of magic and witchcraft was common in
New England, as it had been in Europe
 Over 100 alleged witches had
been tried and hanged in New
England during the 1600s
 In early 1692, the witch hunt
hysteria began in Salem
 From
early spring to September 1692, over 150
“witches” were taken into custody
 19
men and women refused to confess and
were hanged on Gallows Hill
 One
 Four
man was pressed to death under stones
died in jail
 Author: Arthur
Miller
 Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials
• Believed those who followed Satan were considered
witches
• Punished witchcraft by death
 Over
100 alleged witches had been tried and
hanged in New England during the 1600s
 From
early spring to September 1692, over 150
“witches” were taken into custody
 19
men and women refused to confess and
were hanged on Gallows Hill
 One
 Four
man was pressed to death under stones
died in jail
 The Witch
House, home of Judge Jonathan
Corwin, is the only structure still standing
in Salem with direct ties to the Witchcraft
Trials of 1692.
 Weak
vs. Strong
 How
did this happen?
 How
can we stop this from happening?
 What’s
hunts?
my role in stopping these witch