How Did Native Americans Contribute To The Salem Witch Trials

Throughout the history of the Western world, people have feared religions that are different from their own, waging wars and instituting discriminatory practices in the name of faith. In the early colonization of America, this fear of drastically different religions and social orders created the perfect storm for the destruction of common sense. Over fifty women were put on trial after being accused of practicing witchcraft, many of whom were executed for their supposed crimes. According to primary sources, the conductors of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 possessed an innate fear of evil and often relied on superstitious ideas concerning alternate religious traditions and social standards as the primary source of evidence when convicting
The first trial conducted began with a Native American woman, and fear of Native American religious customs in comparison to traditional religious customs of the Europeans contributed to the panic colonists felt towards the idea of witchcraft. The Indian woman who tested the first two girls suspected of being witches carried out an important role in the witch trials because she confessed “that she was a Witch, and that she and with the two others accused did torment and bewitch the com-plainers.” This initial confession and the accusation against two other suspects set into motion a seemingly never-ending cycle that consisted of more confessions and more accusations, and set up a precedent that assumed the afflicted could see the “spectres” of the witch assaulting them. Since the Indian woman initially denied that she was a witch, and then upon further questioning confessed, her confession is questionable. The two girls had already accused her of tormenting them, but one must wonder whether their accusation arose from their fear of Native American culture itself. Mather’s statement, “The New Englanders are a people of God settled in those, which were once the devil’s territories,” illustrates the colonists’ ideas of Native American religion. The colonists believe that when the Native Americans lived on the land that they currently occupied, the devil himself owned it. This terrifying idea of differing religious practices were a primary motive behind wars between colonists and Native Americans. These wars and the consequent witch trials were also deeply rooted in the idea that colonizing the New World would help the barbaric people, but even colonization could not eliminate the fear of unconventional religious practices and their supernatural repercussions for the