Clio Ch 7 Miller.pdf
Media
Part of The Puritan Religion and the Salem Witch Trials
- Text (oc:text)
-
Miller, Puritan Religion
The Puritan Religion and the Salem Witch Trials
Stephanie Miller
The Salem witch trials, which were conducted during the years 1692-1693,
were a dark time in American history. It is a part of this country’s past that will live
on forever, one where the people who lost their lives will always be remembered in
history books as a great tragedy. The chaos and uncertainty that accompanied those
times remain a hot topic of discussion, and the events and texts of those times are still
studied today. While there were a few different causes that fueled the trials, perhaps
one of the most prominent ones was the Puritan religion. But just how much of an
effect did this religion have on the Salem witch trials? There is no doubt that religion
was very important to the people of New England during this time, and it was taken
very seriously. The first English settlers of America left Great Britain in search of
religious freedom and most of them were Puritans. This religion had a great effect on
what happened during the Salem witch trials and why the trials took the road they
did.
In 1630 John Winthrop was the governor of Massachusetts. The ship that he
arrived on, the Arbella, was part of a fleet that carried some of the earliest settlers
from England to the New World. This new expedition of colonializing the New
World led Winthrop to deliver his famous sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity,”
which would come to be widely associated with the phrase, “a City upon a Hill.”
When referring to “a City upon a Hill,” Winthrop was using the analogy of how the
Puritans were to be the shining example for the people of the new colonies. Their
Puritan faith was to be the beacon of light and hope, and they were to set the
standards of what a good and Godly life ought to be. When speaking of Winthrop’s
sermon, Edmund S. Morgan said that, “It offers an explicit statement…of the idea
that the Bay Colony was in covenant with God, a chosen people, a new Israel. It has
accordingly become the very emblem of the Puritan quest, the manifesto in which
Winthrop proclaimed the place of Massachusetts as a “city upon a hill”1. Although
Edmund S. Morgan, “John Winthrop's ‘Model of Christian Charity’ in a Wider
Context,” Huntington Library Quarterly 50, no. 2 (1987): 145–151.
1
93
Clio: WCSU History Journal
Winthrop did not settle in Salem, the Puritan beliefs carried on throughout most of
New England and they all followed relatively the same beliefs.
Puritanism was officially formed during the reign of Elizabeth I, who was the
last surviving child of King Henry VIII. Her sister Mary, who ruled before her, had
been a Catholic and was attempting to restore Catholicism in England after her
father’s establishment of the Church of England. During Mary’s reign, she attempted
to rid the country of Protestants which resulted in a violent pursuit, and Mary had
many of them executed; this earned her the nickname Bloody Mary. Elizabeth’s
religious beliefs did not exactly line up with her sister’s, and therefore, during her
reign, she led England back on track to follow the Church of England. There was
great division among the people as religions clashed, and people found it difficult to
get along. When Elizabeth ascended the throne, she welcomed the Protestants back
and turned the tables on the Catholics; it was now their turn to face religious
persecutions. However, some of the Protestants did not agree with the way Elizabeth
was running the Church, which led to a further split among the people. This division
would break off into another section of Protestantism, and it is during this time that
Puritanism is seen to have been fully established. There were two major beliefs in
Puritanism that set it apart from Catholicism and the Church of England. The first
was that Puritanism followed more closely to the scripture than most other
Protestants did. The second was that it simply enforced the practice of anti-
Catholicism. Puritans believed that the wrongdoings in the Catholic religion came
directly from the Pope, and therefore they wanted to separate themselves from being
under his rule. Francis J. Brenner states that, “For the Puritans…the papacy was the
source of all doctrinal and ceremonial errors that had taken the church off the course
initially set by Christ and his early disciples.”2 Puritans wanted a religion free from
the Pope, and one that followed closely to the scriptures for their teachings.
In Salem, religion was extremely important, and the majority of the people
that lived there during the trials were Puritans. Marilyn J. Westerkamp states that,
“the colonizers were mostly Puritans, and their identity as Puritans would come to
define not only the religious organizations but also the cultural climate, social
Francis J. Bremer Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction (New York. Oxford University Press,
2009), 7.
2
94
Miller, Puritan Religion
environment, and political structures of New England through the next century.”3
Puritanism was the religion that was there during the start of the colonies and it had a
major influence on the colony’s growth and development. It was the foundation that
New England was built on, and the Puritan beliefs greatly affected most areas of how
the colonies were established.
For Puritans, staying loyal and true to God was the number one priority in
their lives, and it was something that they strived to do every day. To them,
witchcraft was just the opposite of this. Witchcraft was seen to be in association with
the devil, which was just about as far away as a person could stray from their faith. In
order for someone to become a Witch, it was believed that a person had to have had
direct contact with the devil and that they signed his book. That is why when the
accusations of witchcraft being practiced in Salem Village started to arise, the fear
spread very fast and the accusations were taken very seriously. Bryan F. Le Beau said
that “the accused were believed to have been enticed into their heretical beliefs by the
devil. They were charged with having participated in nocturnal rituals presided over
by the devil, wherein they engaged in orgies, renounced Christ, desecrated the
Crucifix, and paid homage to the devil.”4 It is very easy to see how much this would
be frowned upon by the Puritans and also why fear was such a large part of what
fueled the trials; in order for people to be witches, there had to be some sort of direct
contact with the devil. Because of the rash and ill judgement fear often brings to
people, it caused a lot of trouble for the villagers of Salem, even for those who were
innocent.
Accusations seemed to be coming from every corner. Even if there was no
proof behind an accusation, it would still be investigated in some form to either clear
the person’s name or take the necessary steps in order to rid the village of the witch.
Consorting with the devil was one of the worst sins a person could commit, and the
people of Salem truly believed that they needed to root out the evil that they thought
was infesting their village. If they did nothing, then the threat would spread, and
more and more people would fall victim to the witches and devil. There were several
young girls who lived in the Salem Village, such as Abigail Williams, who were
Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Women and Religion in Early America, 1600-1850: The Puritan and
Evangelical Traditions (New York: Routledge, 2020), 10.
4
Bryan Le Beau, Story of The Salem Witch Trials (New York: Routledge, 2017), 5.
3
95
Clio: WCSU History Journal
accusing some of the local women of being witches and said that they were using their
powers to make them ill. The young girls would go into fits and have seizures, and
their bodies would move and convulse in an unnatural way. Elizabeth Reis gives an
insightful view into what could have been the cause of this when she says:
Abigail Williams, Betty Paris, and others continued to experience their
afflictions and to accuse people of witchcraft. We will never know
exactly why, but whether accusers and witnesses sincerely believed that
the accused had signed a devil’s pact and afflicted others, whether they
contemplated political or familial revenge, whether they simply
continued to play a game that had gotten out of hand, whether they
pursued a strategy to deflect suspicion from themselves, or whether
they calculated fraud, they knew that their stories would be believed.
In their religious world witchcraft accusations…were credible and
demanded action because they were so threating.5
The Puritan religion required all accusations to be taken seriously, even if the person
accused was a God-fearing person who always attended church and lived a good life.
There was no one safe from the investigation once they were accused, no matter how
good of a religious person they were.
While those who were judging the accused were using their faith as a
guideline, those who were persecuted were also using their faith to see them through
their hardships. Mary Easty is an example of how some of the accused kept hold of
their faith, even when they were in the position of losing their lives. She was wrongly
accused and convicted of witchcraft, but she did not let that ruin her hold on her
faith, nor did it lead her to turn her back on God. Easty could have saved her life by
admitting to using witchcraft and publicly giving herself to God to be saved; as long
as the accused confessed to the crime of witchcraft and agreed to change their life for
the better, they would be saved from being executed. Tituba, a woman from the West
Indies who moved to Salem, accepted this plea for her life and was allowed to live
despite her involvement with witchcraft. In regard to this guilty plea, Lori Lee
Wilson explains that “those who confessed were not executed. The magistrates
reasoned that witches who confessed had repented of their sins, and the devil was no
longer with them. Besides, they were useful as witnesses against those who insisted
Elizabeth Reis, Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England (New York: Cornell
University Press, 1999), 7-8.
5
96
Miller, Puritan Religion
they were innocent. Those who defended their innocence in spite of the testimony of
confessed witches and spectral evidence of the afflicted were hanged”.6 Tituba
confessed to what it was that she had done wrong and had also given the magistrates
names of other women who she said were also practicing witchcraft. The admission
of guilt was a way for people to escape death, but Easty would not take that plea; as a
Puritan, she believed that it was better to be truthful and honest than to lie to save her
own life. By lying, she could have endangered her soul which would have been much
worse than dying by a false accusation. If she died while remaining close to God, then
she had a good chance of entering Heaven after her death; if she lied, she might have
saved her mortal body, but by doing so she could have condemned herself to spend
eternity in Hell. These were just some of the views that the Puritans believed and
how their faith was an important part of the trials. While Easty was ready to lose her
life for holding on to her truths, she was also willing to sacrifice herself in order for
others to be spared.
In her final plea, Easty begged that she would be the last innocent life to be
lost on the accusation of witchcraft and that the judges would be able to see their
wrong doings and spare the other lives that were put before them. In her petition she
states:
I petition to your honors not for my own life, for I know I must die,
and my appointed time is set. But the Lord He knows it is, that if it be
possible, no more innocent blood may be shed…I question not but
your honors does to the utmost of your powers in the discovery and
detecting of witchcraft, and witches, and would not be guilty of
innocent blood for the world. But by my own innocence I know you
are in the wrong way. The Lord in His infinite mercy directs you in
this great work, if it be His blessed will, that no more innocent blood
be shed.7
Easty was willing to allow herself to be a victim of the unjust judgement cast on her,
as long as others would be spared the same fate. She knew that the standards and
logic that the judges and accusers were using to condemn people was flawed and that
many more would die if they continued down this path. Therefore, she knew
something had to change in order for things to take a turn for the better. Easty could
have been very spiteful and hateful towards those who were condemning her, but her
6
7
Lori Lee Wilson, The Salem Witch Trials (Minneapolis: The Lerner Publishing Group, 1999), 27.
“Petition of Mary Easty.”
97
Clio: WCSU History Journal
petition was full of selflessness and compassion. Her petition shows just how much
her faith meant to her and how it was a central point in her life.
Susannah Martin was another woman during the Salem witch trials who was
accused of using witchcraft. During her trial, she was a little more aggressive to her
judges and accusers than Easty was, but her point was the same as hers; that she was
innocent and that she would not lie to save herself. She stated that, “I desire to lead
my life according to the word of God.”8 When asked if she would lie, she replied, “I
would not tell a lye if it would save my life.”9 She knew lying could save her but
refused to go down that path. It was better to die while telling the truth than to live a
lie. They then asked her if she would tell the truth, to which she replied, “I have
spoken nothing else.”10 Both of these women were honest and truthful and did no
harm to anyone, and yet their lives were taken from them.
Arthur Miller’s famous play, The Crucible, also touches on the subject of
taking the guilty plea. Although his play is not completely historically accurate, he
based his characters on real people who lived during the trials and did his best to be as
accurate and truthful to the real-life situations as he could. In Miller’s notes on the
historical accuracy of his play, he states that, “The fate of each character is exactly that
of his historical model, and there is no one in the drama who did not play a similar—
and in some cases exactly the same—role in history”11. In Miller’s play, John Proctor
was a man who was convicted of witchcraft. After he and several other men joined
forces to attempt to save their wives from being executed, Proctor and some of the
other men found themselves in line with their wives to have their lives taken. Proctor,
like the other accused, was given the option to sign a confession and have his life
spared, as Tituba had done. It took some convincing, but Proctor seemed willing to
sign the confession and start a new life. But once it was mentioned that his confession
would be posted publicly for all the village people to see, Proctor refused. What is
interesting about this situation is that Proctor knew that by lying with his confession,
he was damning his soul. He accepted that in exchange for his life. But he could not
and would not allow his name to be ruined in the eyes of the people of Salem. This
was where he drew the line. When he was asked why he would not allow his name on
“Examination of Susannah Martin.”
Ibid.
10
Ibid.
11
Arthur Miller, The Crucible (New York: Penguin Classics, 2003), 2.
8
9
98
Miller, Puritan Religion
the confession to be placed in public, he replied, “Because it is my name! Because I
cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not
worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I
have given you my soul; leave me my name!”12 Proctor was also struggling with the
idea of betraying his friends whom he had fought so hard beside in the attempt to
free their wives. He knew that if he signed a confession, it would be like turning his
back on them and make what they fought for seem like nothing.
While Easty and Martin were using religion to help them navigate the messy
waters they were in, those who were judging them were doing the same. John
Hathorne was one of the judges who conducted the Salem witch rials. He and the
other judges believed that what they were doing was right. They truly believed that
they needed to get rid of whoever was associated with witchcraft. Unfortunately, this
left little room for proper trials to happen, and the judges of the Salem trials are now
looked upon with anger and frustration. How could these men have killed twenty
innocent people? The reasoning behind this is that, as mentioned earlier in the essay,
witchcraft was strongly believed to have connections with the devil. Reis explains
that, “In the Puritan world Satan’s appearance signaled God’s severe displeasure. And
once Satan had successfully gained access to an individual or a community at large,
Puritans believed he was very difficult to exorcise”13. To have this kind of threat
hanging over the people of this village was just unacceptable and drastic measures
needed to be made in order to save the people of Salem. Hathorne and the other
judges saw what they were doing as a necessary act to save the village, and they were
blind to the evil that was coming from their actions. To them, the executions were a
necessary part of ridding the village of the witches, and their actions were seen as just
by a lot of people. The fear that was consuming the people of the village was enough
for the pleas of the innocently accused to fall on deaf ears. Only by confessing and
pledging a life devoted to God would their life be spared, and not everyone who was
accused was willing to risk losing their soul for their mortal life.
The Salem witch trials lead to a lot of tragedies and unjust actions, and there
can be no denying the horrible and unnecessary way that the twenty people lost their
Miller, The Crucible, 133.
Elizabeth Reis, Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England (New York:
Cornell University Press, 1999), 7.
12
13
99
Clio: WCSU History Journal
lives. It is a shame that the Puritan religion played such an important part in the bad
outcome of the trials, seeing as many people look to religion as a comfort and use it to
guide them through life. The Puritans attempted to be good and Godly people, but it
would seem that they let their religious beliefs get out of hand in an extreme way.
While it is not wrong to want to follow religious beliefs and practice them, people
cannot allow them to rule their lives in a negative way. Religion can often help people
see the good in bad situations and can bring out the best in people; most religions
practice compassion and charity. But the judges of the Salem trials were so caught up
in expelling every trace of witchcraft that they were blind to the good and innocent
people placed before them. They seemed determined to only see the negative side of
things during the trials and seemed to completely forget that these were actual people
that they were dealing with, and not just some evil manifestation. If they had taken a
step back and truly observed what was going on, the trials could have had a totally
different outcome. Instead, they were rash and excessive, and innocent people paid
the price for this.
While the judges let their religious views on witchcraft get out of hand, those
accused also used their religion as a way to hold on to hope. Easty and Martin were
determined to hold on to their faith in God and allowed His will to be done. They
did not lose faith and knew that if they remained loyal to God, they would get their
reward in the afterlife. They used their Puritan faith as a way to keep themselves from
falling into despair and did not let the dark situation they were in bring them to
despair in God. They seemed to have a very different view of things then the judges
and their accusers did, and while both sides were heavily relying on their faith, the
side of the accused allowed their religion to continue to be a beacon of hope in their
lives, while the accusers and judges allowed their faith to be turned into fear and ruled
their lives in a dark way.
The Salem witch trials are a lesson on how much religion can have an effect
on the lives of people, and how it can be turned into something ugly. It was not a bad
thing for the Puritans to want to live a life that was closely associated with God, it
was their religion and it was very important to them. However, there is the blatantly
obvious negative affect that this had on the accused people of Salem Village, and it
should be a reminder for people to always be vigilant in what path they are allowing
their religion to take them on.
100