America has a history that has been dark and disturbing at times. People have been oppressed and persecuted for their beliefs, their religion, their color, and their sex. It is sometimes hard for young people to understand or appreciate the significance and importance of remembering our past. One such dark time occurred during the sixteen hundreds in Massachusetts. Cotton Mather was a leading Puritan religious leader who was responsible for many positive scientific advances, but is primarily remembered as a leading proponent of the dangers of witchcraft.
He was a prolific writer as well, and one of his works, "Memorable Providences", was widely read at the time. In this work he chronicled his experience when he was asked to intervene in the family situation of a local mason. His children had suddenly become plagued with strange aches and pains and exhibited fits of crying and wailing in unison. The minister blamed their behavior on a washerwoman he considered a witch.
The Puritan culture and belief structure made many easy prey for those who preached the dangers of witchcraft, which they began to believe was all around them. Sermons were full of stories of the sin of impurity. It didn't matter whether the sin was an action or a mere thought. Both were equally evil.
By the time the Salem witch trials got underway, hundreds of people, predominantly women, were accused or under suspicion. It became a way to settle old scores between rivals and feuding family members. They would simply accuse someone of being a witch and then watch as the rest of the town turned on that person. Many even believed smallpox infection was the result of devil worship.
Not even household pets were safe from accusations of performing witchcraft. Hundreds of innocent animals were destroyed just because they had some link to accused individuals. If you had freckled skin, you could be in trouble as skin blemishes were considered an indication of evil and could get you arrested.
Eventually twenty people, mostly women, were put to death. Many others either died in jail, escaped, or were eventually pardoned. In one instance, an ex-minister, George Burroughs, who had been convicted and sentenced to hang, recited the Lord's Prayer on the scaffolding, which he shouldn't have been able to do if he was truly demon possessed. The crowd called for a stay in the execution, but Mather insisted that it go on.
It is interesting to note that all the women who confessed to being witches survived and those who refused to plead guilty were put to death. In later years, as accused survivors began to recant their guilty admissions, Mather had doubts about some of his actions. He attempted to minimize his involvement, but history remembers differently.
Unfortunately today we live in a country where some people mistrust and fear individuals because they worship differently or look a certain way. Some want them deported or forced into confined and patrolled areas. These ideas are just as dangerous today as they were three hundred years ago.
He was a prolific writer as well, and one of his works, "Memorable Providences", was widely read at the time. In this work he chronicled his experience when he was asked to intervene in the family situation of a local mason. His children had suddenly become plagued with strange aches and pains and exhibited fits of crying and wailing in unison. The minister blamed their behavior on a washerwoman he considered a witch.
The Puritan culture and belief structure made many easy prey for those who preached the dangers of witchcraft, which they began to believe was all around them. Sermons were full of stories of the sin of impurity. It didn't matter whether the sin was an action or a mere thought. Both were equally evil.
By the time the Salem witch trials got underway, hundreds of people, predominantly women, were accused or under suspicion. It became a way to settle old scores between rivals and feuding family members. They would simply accuse someone of being a witch and then watch as the rest of the town turned on that person. Many even believed smallpox infection was the result of devil worship.
Not even household pets were safe from accusations of performing witchcraft. Hundreds of innocent animals were destroyed just because they had some link to accused individuals. If you had freckled skin, you could be in trouble as skin blemishes were considered an indication of evil and could get you arrested.
Eventually twenty people, mostly women, were put to death. Many others either died in jail, escaped, or were eventually pardoned. In one instance, an ex-minister, George Burroughs, who had been convicted and sentenced to hang, recited the Lord's Prayer on the scaffolding, which he shouldn't have been able to do if he was truly demon possessed. The crowd called for a stay in the execution, but Mather insisted that it go on.
It is interesting to note that all the women who confessed to being witches survived and those who refused to plead guilty were put to death. In later years, as accused survivors began to recant their guilty admissions, Mather had doubts about some of his actions. He attempted to minimize his involvement, but history remembers differently.
Unfortunately today we live in a country where some people mistrust and fear individuals because they worship differently or look a certain way. Some want them deported or forced into confined and patrolled areas. These ideas are just as dangerous today as they were three hundred years ago.
About the Author:
When you are looking for information about Cotton Mather, pay a visit to our web pages online here. Additional details are available at http://billbenson.net/about.html now.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire