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Her confession was then the pivotal point for the start of one of the most painful events in the history of the United States.
What is interesting to me personally is that Breslaw provides a much more global view of the witch trials and its influences than is generally available in books and documents regarding the trial. In my own view, the witch trials were the result of the mindset of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition; the subversion of certain sectors of society by Christian leaders by means of fear. However, I never realized that, for the witch trials, there was a much wider perspective. Indeed, Tituba's young life was informed by a religion that was as far removed from Christianity at the time as it was possible to be. According to the book, Tituba's confession was the result of the meeting of the two religious paradigms; Tituba's occult beliefs and the strict premise of Christianity.
Strong and justified as Tituba's rebellion was, however, I find it particularly tragic that many innocent men, women, and even children suffered as a result. On the other hand, one might also argue that Tituba and the men, women and children of her own culture suffered as a result of the slave trade, and that her confession was an appropriate response to what she had suffered throughout her life. In this way, the book has provided me with a much more balanced and universal view of the conditions and cultures surrounding the witch trials. In this, I think it is a very important contribution...
What happened as a result of Tituba's confession is also an important lesson about history and tolerance for the cultural roots of others. Had the Puritan church leaders been more tolerant of the cultures they encountered, the violence might never have occurred.
Historical interpretation is important for various reasons. The most important of these is the human capacity to learn from our mistakes. The Salem witch trials and other historical atrocities are an important lesson from history: no amount of faith is ever sufficient reason for murdering others.
As the author implies, without documentation, it is very difficult to verify historical fact. Indeed, there are many things the historian simply cannot be certain of. However, it is also our duty as human beings who are aware of the passage of time to make as much effort as possible to find and verify historical fact, particularly as far as human relationships are concerned, and most especially where these relationships were based upon violence and prejudice. This is the only way in which to ensure that atrocities do not repeat themselves.
In general, I enjoyed the book and feel that it provides an important contribution to our understanding of the Salem witch trials. Personally, I feel that my own understanding has been expanded and that I now have a more global view of the trials, their causes, and their underlying concerns.
E. industrialized (Greenberger, 2004) The appearance of uncivilized territories convinced many expansionists they had a God-given mission to take new territory and to spread Christianity and the benefits of European culture. The colonial powers did provide some benefits, one might say, as a result of this assumption. The powers "built new communications and transportation systems, established universities, and introduced modern medical practices." By making the colonized look, dress, behave, and hopefully
53). He points out that four countries (in 1917) -- England, France, Germany, and the United States -- own 80 per cent of the world's finance capital; thus, in his view, the whole rest of the world is subjugated, that is, indebted to and tributary to those four "international banker countries." Where once monopolists exported goods to other countries to make a profit, now they export finance capital. This is
52). Furthermore, Marx felt that money had "deprived the whole world, both the human world and nature, of their own proper value. Money is the alienated essence of man's work and existence; this essence dominates him and he worships it..." (Strathern, 2001, p. 52). From Marx's point-of-view, owners or holders of capital were in a position to exploit workers because of their "systematically privileged position within the market" (Pierson,
" (Capital, p. 915) Ecological damage is grounded in resource depletion and density of population. You can have 10,000 over a 1000 acre land and this might not hurt the ecological balance but when you have the same number of people on 10 acre land, the balance is seriously disturbed as water, minerals, and other resources of a very small area are constantly being used up. This is what happened during
Although economic, political, and social structures had been changing for at least a century prior, the Industrial Revolution did have a tremendous and far-reaching impact on reconfiguring socioeconomic classes. Industrial capitalism shifted the centers of economic power to the private sector, and economic systems became far more decentralized than ever before due to the emergence of market capitalism. The new economic regime necessitated new political institutions, which in turn transformed
He stated that France as a financial capital was richer than Germany and Japan combined. The rest of the section sees a return to the monopolies and their control over raw materials. Stating how the international monopolies controlled all the material necessary to manufacture and produce goods. He asserts that the monopolies created shortages in areas to keep the public from turning against colonization of other areas when in fact