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Life in Puritan New England was controlled by piety and an undercurrent fear of evil. Devoting their lives to worshiping God, hard work and the belief in predestination was an existence most Puritans in New England stoically accepted; they had, after all, gone there to carve out new lives as God’s chosen people. Beneath the surface of most settlements in Puritan New England, however, coursed dark currents of “immoral behavior.” The existence of witches was for many Puritans not some sort of wild fantasy but a serious expression of social and religious disorder. The fear of the devil was omnipresent in Puritan New England. This seminar aims at looking at the roots of witchcraft in Puritan New England and the traces it has left in U.S.-American society and cultural memory. We will discuss historical key texts and documents from the Salem Witch Trials among others to find possible explanations why more than 80% of the accused were women and how the fear of the devil has quickly turned into a deadly mass-hysteria. |
