The Role Of The Puritan Church In The Salem Witch Trials Essays

The Role Of The Puritan Church In The Salem Witch Trials The Role of the Puritan Church in the Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials were a time of confusion, where half a dozen girl accusers threw the town of Salem on its head. The end result was 19 hung and one crushed to death for failure to admit or deny witchcraft and 150 more were imprisoned throughout the course of the trial (Hall p38). The Puritans came to the ?New World? for their religious freedom to fallow their ideals for a new way of life, the ?perfect way of life.? They were issued charter--to live on the land--. The King Phillip's war labeled as ?[t]he bloodiest war in America's history ?which?took place in New England in 1675? (Tougias par.1) had a dramatic effect on the Puritan society. Their charter was revoked and reinstated at least twice throughout the course of the war. This stress of having their land revoked and reinstated without a doubt placed pressure on the society as a whole to develop and become self-sustaining entity free from England. After the war people would look to the church even more than they had in the past for guidance. This set the seen for the problems to come. The churches relentless attempt to maintain the society that they had established was the cause of the Salem witch trials. Even before Salem Village was established there was a separation between its future inhabitants. The people on the western part of Salem Village were farming families that wanted to separate from the Town (Sutter Par.2). On the east side of the Salem Village were the people who had made a living on the rich harbor and were strongly apposed to leaving the security of the larger Salem Town (Par. 2). By 1672 the inhabitants of Salem Village had separated from Salem Town, built a meetinghouse, and hired their own minister (Witchcraft in Salem Village Par.1). ?By 1689 the villagers in a seemingly unusual spirit of cooperation pushed hard for a completely independent church, while at the same time hiring their fourth successive minister, Samuel Parris?(Trask p. xi). ?The residents of Salem were after all, Puritans, which means they viewed their community not just as a group of individuals, but as a single entity united under God? (Possible Causes? Par.3). The social tension caused by the d iffering opinions on the separation of the village from Salem Town strongly contradicted their religious ideals that they were all supposed to be as one. The farming people in Salem Village thought that the thriving economy of the harbor in Salem Town made it far to individualistic (Sutter Par.3). Samuel Parris has a long and eventful history that shaped his views and actions while he was preaching in Salem Village. At the age of 20 Parris inharated his fathers sugar plantation in Barbados while he was attending Harvard (Linder ?Parris? Par1). The wealth that Parris had accumulated while in Barbados was sufficient enough to support him and his new family when he moved to Boston (Par.2). Unhappy with his life as a merchant Parris decided that it was time for a change in his vocation. In 1691 he began to substitute for absent ministers and speaking at informal church gatherings (Par.3). After the birth of his third child with his wife Elizabeth Eldridge, Parris began to have formal negotiations to become the preacher for Salem Village (Par.3). The marriage of Parris and Eldridge linked him to multiple distinguished families in Boston, including the Sewalls (Par. 2). His true self could best be seen threw the way that he preached in his congregation. ?It is as though the most imp ortant issue in the New Testament were the Son of God's fragile ego. In reality, of course, the fragile ego was Parris's. He was more obsessed wit his standing in other peoples eyes? (Armstrong p.12) William Stoughton was born into a family that had a great deal of land in the Massachusetts Bay area (Linder ?Stoughton? Par. 1). Even from an early age Stoughton showed a great deal of interest in the ministry (Par.1). From 1674 to 1676 and 1680 to 1686 he served as the Deputy President of the colony's temporary