Why did the Puritans fear witchcraft?

Question

During the Salem Witch Trials, many were tried and convicted of accusations of witchcraft, but why did the Puritans fear it to such an extent?

Answer 1

(I know this is long... I hope you don't mind bearing with my long-winded answer), and that this is helpful

Wow! So many attack the Puritans' "ignorance" and narrowness. Yet the very things they say are based on hearsay and uninformed caricature

Especially sad is the labeling of Puritans and "religious fanatics" as narrow, irrational and fearful of everything they don't understand or agree with. Feel free to disagree with them, but if you study what they did (perhaps even READ what they wrote) you will find a very strong and careful scholarly tradition. (I'm not speaking here of everyone in the Puritan colonies, but of the views of the leaders and strongest adherents.)

Sorry, no personal insult meant there. I'm not people writing these things are unintelligent. In fact, I suspect some are what people were actually told in high school history (or more likely ENGLISH literature) classes. It's just that many of the "facts" they've picked up are totally mistaken (not even debatable), and some at best unlikely.

I'll try to provide some explanation while pointing out corrections --and some good sources for getting proper info on what we DO know.

1) It is NOT a good idea to base your understanding on Miller's play "The Crucible". The play is hardly a work of scholarship, and wasn't even really INTENDED to teach about the events in Salem. It was, instead, a play written to offer Miller's criticism of the 1950s McCarthy hearings.

(It's unfortunate the many high schools give students such a distorted view of the Puritans and their beliefs through such works as "The Crucible" an *The Scarlet Letter*, and never a fair sampling of their actual writings.)

2) The "ergot" (or 'something-in-the-food') theory is widely dismissed, esp. because of the questions it raises that it has no good answers for (like why only certain people were affected).

3) "Floating" of witches was NEVER practiced in New England and was largely rejected in England.

In fact, in fairness to those who DID use this practice, the notion that someone was allowed to drown to prove their innocence is absurd --IF someone started to sink they would be fished out before that could happen.

(Also, someone was not automatically thought guilty if they could swim, because they were tied up in such as way as to make swimming difficult if not impossible. Thus it WAS very unusual for someone to simply float.)

4) The belief in witchcraft was NOT specifically connected to their Puritanism. This was a GENERAL belief at the time. So I'm not sure the form of your question ("why did the PURITANS fear?") is the right way to put it.

Also, some of the explanations of what people believed about witches are off-base (e.g., 'mark of the devil' stuff). The fact that SOMEBODY at some point believed this about witches does NOT automatically mean New England Puritans of the 1690s did.

5) As for the role of Puritan religion, few notice the role religious leaders did not "run the show". In fact, they played a key role in bringing the trials to an END, esp. Increase Mathers (Puritan pastor) who urged that "spectral evidence" NOT be used in court. Once that happened, all further trials were quickly suspended. (Did it take too long? Yes, sadly. But that's a slightly different issue.)

6) Also the notion most have of trial procedures is mistaken, as well as that it was somehow typical for people to take wild accusations seriously and start trying people as witches. (You might ask yourself why nothing like the Salem episode happened elsewhere in 17th century New England.)

In fact, these particular trials were EXCEPTIONAL. (A recent doctoral dissertation on witchcraft trials at the SAME time in Puritan Connecticut is a study of the "norm", in which very high proof was expected. In that case, few ended up charged, and I believe none were convicted.)

Some interesting study has noticed that this all happened in the middle of a period where trial methods and esp. standards of evidence were taking better shape, and that gradually STRONGER standards were being developed. This trend was, in fact, what spelled the end of 'witchcraft trials' in many places.

8) Another interesting piece, often missed, is that in the eras when there were a lot of 'witch hunts' and trials, the places where they occurred were NOT where the church and government were in firm control. (This, of course, undermines the notion that it all happened BECAUSE the Puritans controlled things so well.) Quite the opposite -- it tended to be in 'border territories' where things might be more lawless, and where some local group(s) became very excited (angry or fearful).

Many have studied what particular goings on of this sort in Salem might provided the proper setting for such a scare. Note that it was not "fear of witches" per se, but fear and tension about some other thing(s) that the local community was trying to get a handle on..

Linders (see first link below) summarizes it by writing,

"an unfortunate combination of an ongoing frontier war, economic conditions, congregational strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies can account for the spiraling accusations, trials, and executions"


________________

Some GOOD sources to check --

I've tried to collect a number of sources on this question, esp. online ones, but along with or even before you look at these, here is a book that I think tries to take a sympathetic look at the various people involved, and unlike many studies, looks at what people did to correct, forgive and heal afterwards. Yes, it's dated (more recent research can counterbalance that), but it tells the basic STORY well and gives you a sense of the people.
-- The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey, 1949.

excellent summary article-
"The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary"
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

Collections of materials and overview, including court documents.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm **
http://www.salemwitchtrials.org/home.html

see also "Teaching the Salem Witch Trials -
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~bcr/maps_esri/Ray_ch02.pdf

The current scholar's "standard" is *In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692* by Mary Beth Norton (2002)

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Why did the Puritans fear witchcraft?
During the Salem Witch Trials, many were tried and convicted of accusations of witchcraft, but why did the Puritans fear it to such an extent?

Answer 3

That is a good question. I have always been very interested in this period of American history. I find it quite intriguing how a whole group of people could be insanely niave. I mean really, throw someone in a lake and if they drown they're innocent yet if they don't then they're guilty? How freaking bizarre is that whole belief system? I find this to be a very dark part of out history and wish that there was more written about (other than on the Internet).

To get to your question I think that the Puritans believed others were into witchcraft as a way to explain what they didn't understand. So they did away with those who did things that most did not understand.

Also, because the Puritans thought that their God wanted everyone to pure otherwise; which is why those whom they thought were sinners were thrown into water because water was God's 'cleanser'. Hence the name Puritans.

Answer 4

puritans were a very religious group of people
witchcraft is something to do with the devil, so you can see where the two things might not work out to well :)
in salem, it started with a few accusations, by a couple of kids, who probobly only did it because they feared punishment for whatever they were doing
this was a good way for them to get out of whatever punishment theyd get for whatever it was
now, if someone accused you of witchcraft, and the only way to get away from a daeth penalty was to admit to consorting with the devil and accusing others, wouldnt you?

this is basically what happpened, people accusing others to save themselves
if you ever read or have read the crucible, it shows this really good
it ended because respectable people began getting accused and hanged
in the beginning, it was just like homeless people, or those nobody liked getting accused. when respectable farmers and the like begin to get accused, and they refuse to admit to doing witchcraft, andd are hanged, people begin to think, hey, maybe this isnt such a good idea, or hmm, i knew him for a long time, and there is no way he did that
so i hope that helps ya, i tried to make it easy to understand as possible

Answer 5

Their were a few hypocrites that waned to rule the colony their way . Usually if their was a beautiful woman or young girl and their husband glanced at them , they were then a witch . The courts that ruled over the trials wer run by men , who couldn't' get familiar with the women , so they were put to death , and even if they did get to first Base , they were put to death , because the men were a afraid of them telling ...

Answer 6

From what I understand it was a combination of ignorance induced by their religion and a plant ergot (Type of Hallucinogenic fungus) on their grain. They could not explain the hallucinations and so, had to blame someone. The only reality they acknowleged was Satan and someone had to be in league with the devil.

Answer 7

Because they were religious fanatics and like all that kind have no limit in their fear or their violent reaction to anything that does not fit in their narrow world view.