The Puritans

and the Salem Witch Trials

The Puritans

Learning Target

I can understand the historical context of a w

ork. (18th century for The C

rucible) I have know

ledge of the tim

e period in w

hich the work

was w

ritten or takes place.

I can understand how

the lifestyle of the tim

e influences the w

ork or the characters that exist w

ithin it.

What is a Puritan?

On your paper, do

one of the follow

ing:Sketch a sim

ple picture of w

hat you visualize w

hen you think of the Puritans.C

reate a list of at least three key Puritan traits.

What is a Puritan

Do these pictures

match the m

ental im

ages that you had earlier? W

hy or why

not?

Who are the Puritans?

It is a broad term,

referring to a number

of Protestant groups that, beginning about 1500, sought to “purify” the C

hurch of E

ngland.

What does the term

“purify” m

ean?

Why m

ight a group of people w

ant to “purify” their church?


In England during the

1500s and 1600s, a group of Protestants called Puritans led a m

ovement to “purify”

the Church of

England.

They wished to return

to the simpler form

s of w

orship and church organization described in the N

ew

Testament. They did

not believe that the clergy or the governm

ent should or could act as an interm

ediary between

the individual and G

od.


The first and most

famous group of

English Puritans

landed in 1620, on the tip of C

ape Cod,

just before Christm

as after a long and difficult journey. There they hoped to build a new

society patterned after G

od’s w

ord.

They were follow

ed ten years later by seven hundred m

ore Puritan settlers. B

y 1640, as m

any as tw

enty thousand E

nglish Puritans sailed to w

hat they call N

ew E

ngland.

The First Thanksgiving

Values of the Puritans

For the Puritans the everyday w

orld and the spiritual w

orld were

closely related. Puritans also believed the

bible is the supreme

authority on earth.

They did not believe in separation of church and state.

Puritans did value hard w

ork—their attem

pt to begin a life in the new

w

orld dictated this, but m

any Puritans also placed great em

phasis on obtaining m

aterial w

ealth.

Values of the Puritans

Puritans believed that those w

ho obtained w

ealth did so because it w

as a reward for a

virtuous life.

They also valued fam

ily life, comm

unity service, art and literature. As a result of this, they w

ere the first group in the new

colonies to establish a printing press, free public gram

mar

schools, and Harvard

College.

Religious Beliefs of the Puritans W

hen it comes to

religion, Puritans were

often arrogant in their faith and intolerant of religious view

points that differed from

their ow

n.

Because of their

religious intolerance, they are often seen as hypocritical.

Why do you think this

last statement could be

true?

Predestination

The largest tenant of their faith w

as the concept of predestination.

What exactly IS

predestination?

It is the doctrine that all events have been w

illed by G

od: biblical predestination m

eans that God w

illed eternal dam

nation for some

people and salvation for others.

This “final destination decision” w

as decided prior to birth. B

y this theology, G

od decides whether you

are going to heaven or hell before you are born. You and your actions have no say in the m

atter.

What problems arise from the theology of Predestination?

Interestingly enough, God

does not tell humans w

hich people are predestined to go to heaven and w

hich people are predestined to spend an eternity in hell.

This means hum

ans were

left to determine w

ho they thought w

as going to heaven and w

ho was going

to hell.

How

do you think Puritans determ

ined who w

as going to heaven and w

ho was

going to hell? What

problems could this cause

within a com

munity?

Discussion: Are Witches Real?

• Do you believe that witches are real? Why or why not?

• For those that believe in witches, why would thinking that they were hiding in your community create a sense of fear?

• If you did believe in witches, what evidence would you need to have in order to accuse someone of being a witch?

Background on Salem Witch Trials

Salem w

as a Puritan colony. The residents fully believed

that witches and w

itchcraft w

ere real and were in their

comm

unity.

Witchcraft w

as defined as “entering into a com

pact w

ith the devil in exchange for certain pow

ers to do evil.”

Witchcraft w

as considered both a sin

and a crime.

This was because it

supposedly used the devil’s pow

er to perform cruel acts

against each other.

The intense fear of witches

caused the hysteria to spread quickly through the sm

all village.

The Salem Witch Trials

The witch hunt began

in early 1692.

Rev. Parris’ daughter,

Betty, and A

bigail W

illiams started having

fits of convulsion, scream

ing and hallucinations.

The doctor that examined

them said that the only

explanation was

witchcraft.

Cotton M

ather had detailed w

itchcraft and the sym

ptoms of being affl

icted by it in a book.

The girls’ symptom

s were

much like those described

in Mather’s book so the

Puritans in Salem easily

believed that it was true.


The girls accused Tituba (a Parris family

slave), Sarah Good and Sarah O

sborne of being w

itches.

John Haw

thorne and Jonathan Corw

in were

responsible for examining the three accused

wom

en and determining w

hether they were

witches or not.


March 1, 1692

questioning began

After rigorous questioning Tituba confessed to being a w

itch stating that her, G

ood and Osborne

made a pact w

ith the devil. Tituba confessed because she thought she w

ould avoid death.

This fueled the village’s speculations and they w

ent on a w

itch hunt that lasted for years.


In the following m

onths m

any more w

ere accused: M

artha Corey, B

ridget W

illiams, R

ebecca Nurse,

Sarah Cloyce and M

ary E

astick. Many of these

wom

en were am

ong the m

ost respected in the com

munity.

A new court w

as set up to handle just w

itch cases:

This court was called the

Court of O

yer and Term

iner

Trials got out of control and m

any suspected witches

were convicted and

hanged quickly.

Bridget B

ishop, Rebecca

Nurse and John Proctor all

died as convicted witches.


They were all convicted

based on hearsay and gossip.

The only way to avoid

execution was to adm

it to being a w

itch.

Why do you think this is

ironic?

During 1692 nineteen

people refused to confess to being a w

itch and died as a result.

The witch trials getting out

of control showed the deep

belief in the supernatural that ran in colonial Am

erica.

Hysteria and Its Effect Hysteria is defined as an uncontrollable burst of

emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, crying or laughing.

In what situations, may we encounter a hysterical person today?

Do you feel hysteria spreads? Why or why not?

What historical situations are you aware of in which hysteria played a role?

How could technology help increase of reduce hysteria?

The Puritans

Documents

Transcript of The Puritans