Puritan Salem Witch Trials Great Awakening

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Puritan Salem Witch TrialsGreat Awakening
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Growth in Salem Town

• Spreads inland quickly so a new community forms
  Salem Village.
• Villagers want own Church, Minister New
  Meeting House.
• Early support by Town declines over political
  influence access to property, family
  inheritances and wealth.

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Village Leadership Tough

• Village Minister Parris challenges Town
  powers - the prominent Putnam family, living
  along border of Town and Village.
• Battle is over influence in community affairs.
• Village seeks more independence from Town
• Town officials vote against Village on many
• issues
• Becomes rich vs. poor struggle

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Salem Accusers Defenders
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Targeted Accusations

• Minister Parris and his allies accused vulnerable
  Putnam family members and friends to intimidate
  them and force them to back off their political
  goals in Salem Village.
• Under British law and Puritan society those who
  were accused of consorting with the devil were
  considered felons, having committed a crime
  against their government. The punishment was
  hanging.

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The June 10, 1692 hanging of Bridget Bishop
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Gory Statistics
From June through September of
1692 - 19 men and women, convicted of
witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren
slope near Salem Village, for hanging. -
Another man of over eighty years was pressed to
death under heavy stones for refusing to submit
to a trial on witchcraft charges.

• - At least four accused witches had died in
  prison.
• - One to two hundred other persons were arrested
  and imprisoned on witchcraft charges.
• - Two dogs were executed as suspected
  accomplices of witches. 

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• Of the 50 who actually confessed, none were
  hanged.
• Eventually ended by the Governor when his wife
  was accused

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Theories About How

• Girls affected by symptoms of possession were
  encouraged to fake them by Parris his
  supporters.
• Girls from broken families were seeking
  attention, but went to far
• Victims of ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus
  on bread that produces the chemical LSD.
  From Science Vol. 192 (2 April 1976)

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Great Awakening

• Awakenings resulted often after times of stress
  in communities.
• Periods of renewed piety and devotion.
• 1739-1769 George Whitfield acted out sermons
  brought back many who had strayed.

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Great Awakening

• Jonathan Edwards Church attendance is not
  enough to gain salvation must FEEL sin!
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
• a fiery sermon that scared people.
• Resulted in interest in higher education
  Princeton, Brown, Columbia,
  Dartmouth