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Puritan Beliefs and the Salem Witch Trials

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Title: Puritan Beliefs and the Salem Witch Trials


1
Puritan Beliefs and the Salem Witch Trials
Junior English
2
Who were the Puritans? Defined
  • Refers to the movement for reform (change)
  • During early late 1500s - 1600s
  • Occurred within Church of England
  • Between time of Elizabeth and Charles I

3
Who were the Puritans?
  • Wanted to rid Church of Catholic influence
  • Built upon ideas of John Calvin
  • Meant Church had no supreme authority over God
  • God, alone, decided fate church had no control
    over destiny
  • James and son Charles I had disputes with
    parliament (congress make laws)
  • Dissolved parliament
  • Puritans in favor of parliament
  • Charles I demanded that those that did not
    support Anglican Church be killed
  • Religious persecution began for the Puritans

4
Leaving England
  • Severed themselves from new Anglican Church
  • Left for new world in 1620
  • Established Massachusetts
  • Bay Colony

5
New WorldNew Beginning
  • City upon a Hill Theory
  • New MA Colony would be a place of complete reform
  • God would be found in scripture and a stern work
    ethic

6
Puritans - Education
  • Strong belief in education was established to
    read Bible
  • First public school founded in 1635
  • Harvard College became an icon for educating
    ministers
  • 1647 Act passed ensured every town (of 100
    population) would attend grammar school for free

7
American National IdentityWhat do we take away
from the Puritans, Planters and Pilgrims?
  • Independence
  • Patriotism
  • Industry
  • Practicality (common sense)
  • Tolerance
  • Sense of justice
  • All developing as the villages/colonies changed
    politically and religiously

8
American National IdentityWhat do we take away
from the Puritans, Planters and Pilgrims?
  • Were first to build upon idea of the American
    Dream
  • Idea that a new path could be forged and goals
    attained
  • Inherited emphasis on
  • Hard work
  • Strong sense of religion
  • Duty to country
  • Freedom from oppression

9
Puritan Goals, Practices Beliefs
  • Sought to cleanse culture of corrupt, sinful
    practices
  • Believed civil government should strictly enforce
    public morality by prohibiting vices
  • Wished to purge (cleanse) churches of every
    vestige of Roman Catholic ritual and practice

10
Puritan Goals, Practices Beliefs
  • Church had no supreme authority over God
  • Worship services were
  • Simple
  • Often long
  • Learned sermons
  • Clergy expounded passages from Bible

11
Puritan Goals, Practices Beliefs
  • Membership was limited to the visibly godly
  • Those who lead sober (moderate), upright lives
  • Strict standards for admission to their churches
  • Each person applying for membership had to
    testify publicly to his/her experience of
    conversion

12
Conversion and Predestination
  • Believed human beings were innately sinful
    depraved
  • God would spare small number of elect
    individuals
  • Corrupt mankind justly deserved the fate of
    hellfire

13
Was Predestination Unfair?
  • God was a distinctly undemocratic sort of deity
  • God offered no incentive for upright moral
    behavior
  • Calvinist theology denied human beings any free
    will
  • BUT.

14
So Why Did So Many Believe?
  • Was a comfortable doctrine
  • If you believed yourself saved
  • Changes of 15th and 16th centuries
  • were unsettling and people needed
  • Social order
  • Intellectual and moral certainty
  • Spiritual consolation

15
Doctrine of Predestination answered these needs
  • Offered a wider message
  • God had a plan for all of human history
  • Good would triumph over evil

Good v. Evil
16
Doctrine of Predestination answered these needs
  • Every person in human history had predestined
    role to play
  • Life was meaningful
  • Strivings and sufferings produced
  • peace and security (a heaven on earth)

17
How Did Predestination Influence the Lives of the
Puritans?
  • Strove to reshape society and government to agree
    with the will of God
  • Strove to lead godly, disciplined lives
  • Believed mastering evil inclinations provided
    evidence they ranked among the elect

18
How Did Predestination Influence the Lives of the
Puritans?
  • Receive salvation through Gods mercy
  • Leading godly, moral life was an encouraging sign
    of receiving the grace of God, thus salvation
  • BUT behavior was NOT the cause of their salvation
  • Gaining greater reassurance of salvation was
    important

19
New Englanders and the World of Wonder
  • Both the ordinary and the educated believed in
  • Witches
  • Power of Satan to assume visible form
  • Foretelling power of dreams and portents
    (omens/signs)
  • Strange prodigies
  • Monstrous births
  • Miraculous deliverances

20
And all of this leaves them ripe for the mass
hysteria we call..
21
Salem Witch Trials
  • Salem Politics
  • Salem Town vs. Salem Village
  • Putnams wanted to separate from Salem Town
  • Establish their own congregation
  • Under the Rev. Samuel Parris, Putnams began own
    meetings
  • Over half of the congregation were Putnam's
  • Caused strain among members

22
Salem Witch Trials
  • Salem Politics
  • Rev. Samuel Parris
  • Forced to rely solely on volunteer contributions
  • Because a faction denied paying him any money due
    to the perks he was receiving from the Putnam's
  • Eventually, faction would demand to be separate
    from Putnam's congregation (unsuccessful)

23
Salem Witch Trials
  • Salem Politics
  • Puritan Play time
  • Rev. Parris opposed any games
  • Fear that idleness would allow the devil to enter
    hearts
  • Reading was a popular past time
  • Bible, books about witch craft, prophecy and
    fortune telling
  • Children would practice the incantations and
    divinations for fun

24
Witchcraft
  • Puritan definition
  • Entering into compact with devil in exchange for
    certain powers to do evil
  • Was a sin because it denied Gods
  • superiority
  • Was a crime because
  • the witch could call
  • up the devil to perform cruel acts against others
  • The determinant
  • Often, the slaves would be asked to make a witch
    cake
  • Made of rye meal
  • Mixed with urine of the afflicted
  • Fed to a dog
  • If dog displays similar sign as the afflicted,
    then they were bewitched

25
The Accused
  • Group of girls caught dancing in woods with
    Tituba, a slave
  • They feign sickness and possession
  • Among the group
  • Daughter of Rev. Parris
  • Daughter of Tomas and Anne Putnam
  • Who demands that the possessors be found and
    punished

26
The Accused
The following are the first accused by the girls
  • Sarah Osbourne An elderly, non-church going
    woman
  • Sarah Good A
  • homeless woman who
  • begged door to door
  • Tituba A slave from
  • Barbados
  • Martha Corey Accused because of poor standing
    in
  • the community
  • Rebecca Nurse 71, a
  • kind and generous lady, sher esponded when
    accused What sin has God found in me un-repented
    of that He should lay such an affliction upon me
    in my old age?
  • John and Elizabeth Proctor Farmers whose servant,
    Mary Warren accused them of witchcraft because
    John knew the girls were lying and requested
    that the girls be harshly punished
  • Rev. John Burroughs Accused because left
    position over a salary dispute. Called the Black
    Minister

27
The First Hangings
  • End of 1692, over 200 people jailed and standing
    accused of witchcraft
  • Bridget Bishop Found poppets with missing head
    in her home
  • Sarah Good, Sarah Wilds, Elizabeth How, Susannah
    Martin and Rebecca Nurse
  • Nurse states to Rev. Nayes, I am no more a
    witch than you a wizard, and if you take away my
    life God will give you blood to drink
  • George Burroughs Able to recite the Lords
    prayer
  • John Proctor, George Jacobs, John Willard and
    Martha Carrier were all hanged
  • Elizabeth Proctor was not hanged because she was
    pregnant

28
The Madness Begins to Die
  • Eventually, town begins to question validity of
    trials and girls accusations
  • Began when people of good standing in community
    are put to death
  • George Burroughs prayer
  • Mary Eastys letter
  • Giles Coreys refusal to stand trail
  • Giles Corey Is crushed to death and says more
    weight when he dies
  • Mary Easty Writes letter to court demanding
    innocence and questioning girls authority over
    the court
  • Mather states, It were better that ten suspected
    witches should escape than that one innocent
    person should be dissolved.
  • Last trial was held in January 1693
  • Total 19 people were hung and one crushed to
    death

29
The Aftermath
  • The few remaining
  • Many left in jail because they could not afford
    to pay fine to be released
  • Crops, fields, livestock, homes, meeting houses
    all fell, due to abandonment
  • Many felt that God was punishing them for
    executing innocent people
  • Joseph Green Once Rev. Parris is thrown out of
    Salem, Green manages to bring everyone back
    together
  • The accused sat down with accuser
  • Many were excommunicated, many returned to the
    church
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