The story begins in 1692 with three young girls afflicted by something seemingly supernatural. The only explanation the Puritan community could compose was that the Devil was among them. The goal of the early Puritans was to purify the church, they began as a new society free from the grip of the Catholic church of England. The founders of the Puritan society believed that church under Queen Elizabeth 1 was much too political and much too Catholic. They were Calvinist in theology, believing in predestination and did not want priests or bishops running the church. They had faith that anything God did was good and when things went poorly they concluded that the enemy, Satan had a hand in it somehow. In short the Puritans postulated that the
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The colonial cycle has characteristics of fighting back any foes who challenge them. They structure themselves in reformation of the church of England and the purification of themselves. Puritan belief system stressed social equality and the importance of education and religion. This greatly affected how the Puritans reacted to the witchcraft dilemma. Their religious beliefs made them socially aware and open to the possibilities of how the Devil may have affected the community. They were also more open to the science of witchcraft and how the, so called witches may have been able to cause such “destruction”. Although they believed in social equality it was a trend to see the more poverty stricken Puritans accused of being witches or …show more content…
In the first seen case of witchcraft the three women accused were all in some sort of poverty: Tituba a slave to a well known well to do family; Sarah Good a beggar; and Sarah Osborne an elderly woman who had little or no money to her name. The heads of the Puritan society believed that these women were so poverty stricken that they begrudged all the well to do families in Salem over jealousy for the “good life”. In truth it is reasonable that the heads of the society would believe such a thing due to those who didn’t have money didn 't have much of a life in the Puritan society. So needing a scapegoat, as i mentioned previously, they blamed those women whether they did participate in witchcraft or
The colonial cycle has characteristics of fighting back any foes who challenge them. They structure themselves in reformation of the church of England and the purification of themselves. Puritan belief system stressed social equality and the importance of education and religion. This greatly affected how the Puritans reacted to the witchcraft dilemma. Their religious beliefs made them socially aware and open to the possibilities of how the Devil may have affected the community. They were also more open to the science of witchcraft and how the, so called witches may have been able to cause such “destruction”. Although they believed in social equality it was a trend to see the more poverty stricken Puritans accused of being witches or …show more content…
In the first seen case of witchcraft the three women accused were all in some sort of poverty: Tituba a slave to a well known well to do family; Sarah Good a beggar; and Sarah Osborne an elderly woman who had little or no money to her name. The heads of the Puritan society believed that these women were so poverty stricken that they begrudged all the well to do families in Salem over jealousy for the “good life”. In truth it is reasonable that the heads of the society would believe such a thing due to those who didn’t have money didn 't have much of a life in the Puritan society. So needing a scapegoat, as i mentioned previously, they blamed those women whether they did participate in witchcraft or