The Salem Witch Trials - How Did it Lead to a Less Religious Society - Research Paper Example

The Salem Witch Trials - How did it lead to a less religious society? The phenomenon of “witch” is carved out from the Celtic word Wicca, which symbolized, “the wise one”, or “the magician”. It is being acknowledged by renowned scholars that witch is a person presumed to have special powers that are not common to other living human beings. Since the medieval times, people all over the world have provided adequate evidence of their belief in witches. As enlightened by efficient and well known scholars, more than half the people of this world have the belief that witches and witchcraft influence their life in an essential manner (Wilson, 7). During the year of 1692, the Massachusetts Bay colony was deemed as an isolated but emerging puritan community in the wilderness of North America. The population in the area was significantly scattered. People inhibiting the isolated communities of the Salem village, were efficiently threatened due to the wild animals present there, and also the frequent attacks by the Native Americans. The most essential and interesting scenario of the Salem community was the spiritual beliefs and aspects of the members of the community. The vulnerable nature of the puritans inhibiting in the Salem village was deeply due to their religious beliefs, methods, and practices. The fundamentals of the puritans stressed on the fact that everything was in the hand of the almighty (Wilson, 7). It is god who determines the good fortune and prosperous health of a human being. Salvation was a gift from god. The puritan’s practice of worship included worship services, devotion, prayer, and self examination to achieve the blessings of the almighty. The puritans also effectively believed in the fact that god permitted Satan to cause temptation and torment the ones who deviated from the path of righteousness and acted immorally or those whose faith the almighty wanted to test (Wilson, 7). It was believed that the people who failed to follow the path of righteousness was subjected to misfortune, sickness, and endured with a prominent period of grief. It is also to be notified that the puritans had the belief that a Satan might also enter a person’s life in the form of a witch. This was very much prominent in the era of Salem’s witch trial, which was also a significant cause of the evolution of the American civil society (Wilson, 7-8) The thesis acknowledges the fact, “Salem Witch Trials was a significant factor of the evolution of American civil society. Separation of Church & State, and a breakdown of the strict puritan codes led to a less religious society, improving the justice system which later allowed for fair trials.” It is essentially problematic to actually ascertain the fact about what had occurred in Salem during the year of 1962, but a majority of historian and scholarly sources suggest that the Salem’s witch trial originated due to a particular incident. A group girls from the Salem village was diagnosed with unpredictable fits, followed by hysterical reactions, laughter and crying which was not intentionally provoked, incoherent babbling, attempts to fly, and also in some cases a hypnotic trance. The thing that preceded these incidents of bizarre fits were presumably a secret enchanting session with a woman named Tituba, a salve of the Indian origin from the Caribbean What preceded these bizarre fits apparently were secret enchanting, during which the woman Tituba, accompanied by several girls from the village practiced folk magic in order to predict the nature and identity of their husband before they are married. When the girls were diagnosed by the local doctor, no effective physical cause was found for such bizarre behavior. Due to the attitude and beliefs of that era, it was concluded as no logical explanation could be concluded, then there has to be a disturbing influence of the Satan. Due to the fact that two of them were from the house of a local minister, reverend Parris, he subsequently called the ministers from the neighboring parishes to consult the matter. These consultations lead to a series of interrogation, which subsequently resulted in the accusation against a number of inhabitants of the Salem village (Goss). Due to the accusations, Trial was conducted on the majority of the accused, and harsh punishment was enforced which included conviction and execution of nineteen individuals. The affected girls became the main affected girls turned to be the main accusers and witnesses on the basis of whom the judges controversially and effectively used the spectral evidence, which signifies the evidence e given by the witness who claimed to have seen the spirit or soul of an accused person committing act of witchcraft (Goss). This phenomenon of mass hysteria soon started spreading to the neighboring areas of Salem village as well, and also the number of accused increasing drastically. But the significant turning point in the situation came when a number of women belonging to a high social status were blamed of practicing the evil methods of witchcraft. Although, after much disputes during the trial, significantly due to the allowance of spectral evidence in court, the governor of Massachusetts decided to impose a ban on the trial process (Kosic, 1-2). The governor issued a statement which signified that all remaining accused are to be pardoned, and those waiting the trial process to be granted amnesty. However, these events not only deeply undermined the Puritan order in New England, but also became an important historical point against which many contemporary events would be measured. Furthermore, bearing in mind that a majority of the accused and convicted were women, as well as that all of the accusers were women, this episode was important for the (re)definition of the role of women in New England (Kosic, 1-3). The Salem witch craft scandal during the year of 1692-1693 was treated as an embarrassment of the society and people rarely discussed the matter (Gagon, 43). It is potentially possible that with the emergence of the new era or prosperity in the Massachusetts Bay colony, most of the inhabitants would essentially desire to move on with their lives. Although very people discussed on the topic of hysteria during the period of 1792 and 1892, there is significance evidence that enlighten the fact that attitudes of the local people about witchcraft hysteria had begun to change effectively (Gagon, 43). It was significantly evident when a number of theories regarding the history of hysteria were published during that period. Another example of the changing attitude was the writings of renowned scholar Nathaniel Hawthorne, in which he portrayed how the government and the local people buried the ugly truths of Salem’s witchcraft trial. The prime reason for the changing attitude was a minor group of the inhabitants of the Salem village who refused to forget the bizarre tragedy. This particular group endured a tough fight to ensure the memorial of the persons who died for the wrong reasons, and who did not deserve the demise that they were subjected to. They demanded the names of the victims to be cleared in the public eye (Gagon, 44-45). This group of people did not achieve or attain the real reward for their work until two hundred years after the trial began to process. it was precisely during this phase that the people in the Salem village began to sense a change of direction in their respectable lives. The town on the whole was subjected to a phase of growth and the puritan faith had significantly faded away. The church, which was once upon a time, an essential and important figure in the village and in the lives of the people in the Salem village, saw its effect fading away from people’s lives. Although the people yet believed in a minor amount in witchcraft, the actual fear that triggered the tragedy of Salem witch trial did fade away significantly. The beliefs and religious practices had change, the harmful impact of the harsh fundamentals of religion diminished with time (Gagon, 43-47). It is essentially noted that all civil religion is not a threat to the civil society, nor should a civil religion be neglected and looked down upon under any circumstances. But it is acknowledged that when a civil religion portrays a sense of National Exceptionalism that results in prudent Augustinian limits on state power, it threatens the civil society and the liberty of the people inhabiting the society (Moots). This was the phenomenon in Salem village that triggered the Salem witchcraft trial. Religion in a civil sense is a set of moral imperatives that is expressed in religious language and is thoroughly intended towards framing and motivating public policy. These moral imperatives are cast in religious terms and implicitly supplant the historical work of civil society with intervention by the civil magistrate (Moots). A variety of civil religion is enlightened when the combined obligations of individual consciences are so united by circumstance that they organically take on the force of law. This implies that customs and habit assume the force of law. Due to the existence of profusion of faithful people in a civil society, like in America, such melding of laws and customs are expected (Moots). With the teleology’s of church and state not being entangled, the existence of this phenomenon in a religion is most tolerable and essentially justifiable (Moots). The American writers of the nineteenth-century undoubtedly stamped the national spirits as key figures who participated in the apparent metamorphosis of puritan colonial America into a self confident and more liberal nation (Guetin, 50). Nathaniel Hawthorne was amongst the famous writers who portrayed the movement in his writings. The dissenting voices of the writers, undermined the destructive driving force of Puritanism, denouncing its rigorous moralism, and lack of ethics. Hawthorne emphasizes on the predicament of the sinners who feels less condemned by god’s judgment than by a punitive society (Guetin, 50). It is evident from Hawthorne’s works that the puritan was subjected to religious intolerance in their own country, so they had come to the new world to escape from the harsh prosecution. Although when they landed on the American soil for the first time, they also took to the same measures of inhuman behavior based on the fundamentals of the almighty, which effectively triggered the scenario of Salem’s witch trial (Guetin, 50-51). The attitude of the people towards inhuman and impractical witch trial had changed rapidly, was clearly evident from the fact that Hawthorne himself regrets and expresses his guilt as he acknowledges that his grandfather was amongst the judges in the witch trial, during the Salem witch trial era (Guetin, 50, 51). As foreseen in the Salem witch trial, the accused were compelled to name other witches. Over a hundred people among the accused were arrested and subjected through intense trial. Among which, nineteen were hanged, and one crushed to death using stones, only because he did not permit to enter a plea in response to the charge of witch craft. The Salem witchcraft trial came to a sudden end in the autumn of 1693 (Tuck, 7). Since then no inhabitant of the Salem village and the Massachusetts Bay colony was ever subjected to trial in the witch craft case. This bizarre and sad even the history of American society came to an abrupt end. The end of the witch trials also marked an effective end of the puritan’s respect, control, and authority in the colony (Tuck, 7). A significant decline in the church membership was evidenced and the power of the puritans faded away eminently in New England. The diminished and fading of the puritan era marked the emergence of other settlers in America to obtain more religious freedom. Learning from the mistakes that puritans had made during their era enabled other religious groups to prosper and grow (Tuck, 7). The events that had occurred during the era of the puritans lead to emphasizing and giving ore importance to religious freedom in America, and led to the subsequent rise of the American civil society, where individuals had the option to worship, and were not compelled to religious practices. In order to survive and prosper, religious freedoms needed to be given to all whom wanted to worship or not worship (Tuck, 7). Works Cited Gagon, Elizabeth Heather, Scandalous Beginnings: Witch Trials to Witch City, 1997, April 9, 2012 from: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/public/etd-204516459731541/ETD.PDF Guetin, Nicole, Religious Ideology in American Politics: A History, McFarland, 2009 Kosic, Ana, SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS: THE PERCEPTION OF WOMEN IN HISTORY, Literature and Culture (2010) 8.1, April 9, 2012 from: http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal201001/lal201001-01.pdf Moots, Glenn, The Protestant Roots of American Civil Religion, Humanitas (2010) XXIII. 1, April 9, 2012 from: http://www.nhinet.org/moots23-1.pdf Tuck, Darrell (n.d.), The Evolution of the Puritans, April 9, 2012 from: http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/dtuckera3.pdf Wilson, Lori Lee, THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS, Twenty-First Century Books, 1997 Read More