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¶ … Salem Witchcraft Scare
The social tensions that influenced the Salem Witchcraft Scare were based in politics and social class. Among the group that wanted Salem Village to be independent from Salem proper, were the Putmans, who formed their own church with Samuel Parris as its minister. Many of the wealthiest members of the village were among those who refused to attend meetings at Parris' church, and "refused even to assess taxes for the payment of Parris' 1692 salary" (Pestana 63).
The gender role had particular significance in the Witchcraft Scare. Seventy-eight percent of those accused of witchcraft in New England between 1620 and 1725 were female, and roughly half of the accused males were "suspect by association," meaning that they were the "husbands, sons, other kin, or public supporters of female witches" (Pestana 66). While, women who incriminated themselves were generally punished by death, men who incriminated themselves were whipped or fined "for telling a lie" (Pestana 66). Moreover, a substantial majority of the accused females were women without brothers, sons, or no children at all, thus "as women without brothers or women without sons, they stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to another" (Pestana 68).
The typical woman accused was middle-aged, married with few or no children, practiced a medical vocation, and was considered outspoken, and "abrasive in style, contentious in character and stubbornly resilient in the face of adversity" (Pestana 71).
Salem had the largest concentration of Quakers in the county, thus a substantial number of the witches accused by the "afflicted girls" came from families or households that included Quaker members (Pestana 72). Since most of the accused lived in the more prosperous section, many villagers may have feared the "shorter physical distance separating the residences of the accused from the Salem's Quaker enclave" (Pestana 72).
Work Cited
Pestana, Carla Gardina. "The Salem Witchcraft Scare." Pp. 63, 66, 68, 71, 72.
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