Angela Canady
Professor Morgan
History 329-7
18 October 2015
Suicide or Witchcraft, Lives of the Religious Woman
Throughout history and leading into the Salem Witch Trials women have been accused of witchcraft in far greater numbers than men. Carol Karlsen, in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, Karlsen gives the terms of women being accused in numbers. The mass outbreak of accusations in Salem and surrounding areas by the middle of 1692, was 185 people were accused and 70 percent of those people accused were women. Women were starting to own property, which could have terrified men who did not support that, especially religious men. Elizabeth Reis’s book Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan …show more content…
Women during this time were seen as unfit for society and were easily accused and brought to believed justice. It did not seem that the women were anything other than the bottom of the social hierarchy and were better off gone. This lasted for centuries prior to Salem, which occurred at the end of the seventeenth century. As people started to settled across the Atlantic, in what was called New England, they brought with them their religious views from Europe, but unlike Europe they did not bring about their witchcraft hysteria right away. In the beginning of the seventeenth century there were no formal preceding’s for a person if they were accused of witchcraft. “Considering the prevalence of witchcraft beliefs and the frequency of witchcraft trials in England during the seventeenth century, it is at first surprising that no women were formally accused of witchcraft in New England during the first twenty-six years of settlement.” (Karlsen, 14) What Karlsen attributes to the lack of witchcraft accusations is the small populations. People were more concerned with their survival than anything …show more content…
Women at the time, and according to the Puritan faith were supposed to be submissive. Karlsen, in order to state her thesis claims that men found them to be submissive. According to Puritan religion, God saw men and women as equals, but there was also New England society which was still not allowing all women to own their own property or to even inherit more than the males when a family member passed on monetary profits. If a women did not have a man to back up her property, or she lived alone, it was deemed suspicious. This was whether you were puritan or
Professor Morgan
History 329-7
18 October 2015
Suicide or Witchcraft, Lives of the Religious Woman
Throughout history and leading into the Salem Witch Trials women have been accused of witchcraft in far greater numbers than men. Carol Karlsen, in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, Karlsen gives the terms of women being accused in numbers. The mass outbreak of accusations in Salem and surrounding areas by the middle of 1692, was 185 people were accused and 70 percent of those people accused were women. Women were starting to own property, which could have terrified men who did not support that, especially religious men. Elizabeth Reis’s book Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan …show more content…
Women during this time were seen as unfit for society and were easily accused and brought to believed justice. It did not seem that the women were anything other than the bottom of the social hierarchy and were better off gone. This lasted for centuries prior to Salem, which occurred at the end of the seventeenth century. As people started to settled across the Atlantic, in what was called New England, they brought with them their religious views from Europe, but unlike Europe they did not bring about their witchcraft hysteria right away. In the beginning of the seventeenth century there were no formal preceding’s for a person if they were accused of witchcraft. “Considering the prevalence of witchcraft beliefs and the frequency of witchcraft trials in England during the seventeenth century, it is at first surprising that no women were formally accused of witchcraft in New England during the first twenty-six years of settlement.” (Karlsen, 14) What Karlsen attributes to the lack of witchcraft accusations is the small populations. People were more concerned with their survival than anything …show more content…
Women at the time, and according to the Puritan faith were supposed to be submissive. Karlsen, in order to state her thesis claims that men found them to be submissive. According to Puritan religion, God saw men and women as equals, but there was also New England society which was still not allowing all women to own their own property or to even inherit more than the males when a family member passed on monetary profits. If a women did not have a man to back up her property, or she lived alone, it was deemed suspicious. This was whether you were puritan or