Religous Aspects

The Puritan lifestyle was influenced heavily by the church and Christian beliefs. According to Discovery Education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.” Puritan laws were extremely rigid and the members of society were expected to follow a strict moral code. Due to this fact, anything that was believed to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. The Puritans also believed strongly in the wrath of God and did everything they could to prevent themselves from receiving it. This is why the witch scare was taken so seriously and the accused were punished harshly. The first women to be accused as witches were those who strayed from the Puritan lifestyle and were considered to be social outcasts. The afflicted girls tended to single out the “social deviants, outcasts, merchants, tradesmen and others who threatened traditional Puritan values”. For example, one of the first accused women, Sara Osburn, had been previously scandalized by the community for having premarital sexual relations and not regularly attending church, whereas another woman, Martha Corey, was shunned for having an illegitimate child (Phelps and Lehman). The fact that these women were considered sinners played a huge role in their accusation and conviction. The members of the community felt that it was their duty to rid the community of such sinners, since they were believed to be working for the Devil. The Puritans believed that the Devil was as real as God and that those members of society who were the weakest at upholding Puritan values and morals, specifically women and children, would be selected to carry out his work. Witches were believed to do just this, and therefore were deemed punishable under Puritan Law (“Salem Witch Trials”). The accused women mentioned above had failed to uphold the community values, and were therefore easy targets for the Devil and witchcraft. This argument played a huge role in their conviction by