- Puritan’s “well-ordered” communities
- large common area w/ church, minister’s home, and school
- rest was divided into lots for homes
- outside of the town, each family had a strip of land
- well ordered families, well ordered towns, well ordered communities
- chidren born in such conditions lived twice as long
- 1692 – several girls and young women claimed the devil had taken control over them
- accused three townspeople
- frenzy caused neighbor to accuse neighbor of witch-craft
- trials were held to determine who were witches
- jails were being filled with up to 150 accused persons
- Dozens of people under excruciating religious, civil and family pressures found themselves confessing to being witches
- Mass. Authorities ordered 20 people to die by hanging
So, what fueled the trials?
- politics
- religion
- family feuds
- economics
- the imaginations and fears of the people
