American Colonies

There were various reasons why the American Colonies were established. The three most important themes of English colonization of America were religion, economics, and government. The most important reasons for colonization were to seek refuge, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. To a lesser degree, the colonists sought to establish a stable and progressive government.

Many colonies were founded for religious purposes. While religion was involved with all of the colonies, Massachusetts, New Haven, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were established exclusively for religious purposes.

Massachusetts's inhabitants were Puritans who believed in predestination and the ideal that God is perfect. Many Puritans in England were persecuted for their nihilist beliefs in England because they felt that the Church of England, led by the Kind, did not enforce a literal enough interpretation of the Bible. Persecution punishment included jail and even execution. To seek refuge, they separated to go to Holland because of its proximity, lower cost, and safer passage. However, their lives in Holland were much different than that of England. The Separatists did not rebel against but rather preferred the English culture. They did not want their children to be raised Dutch. Also, they felt that Holland was too liberal. Although they enjoyed the freedom of religion, they decided to leave for America. Pilgrims, or sojourners, left for America on The Mayflower and landed in Cape Cod in 1626. They had missed their destination, Jamestown. Although the climate was extremely rocky, they did not want to move south because of their Puritan beliefs.

William Burns from class gives a good analogy of how it was back in the Puritans day. "It is always easy to look back and say it must have been tough, while sitting at your computer, fully clothed, and warm, but trying to put yourself in that position is much harder. Try going outside without your coat on, and see how long you can stay out there on a cold winter day. Then try to imagine having to feel like that constantly. Or as another test, boil an old belt (or some other piece of leather that you may have) in water, and see what it looks and smells like. I do not recommend drinking it, but imagine what it would be like if you actually had to, because that's what the pilgrims did, just for something to drink. It makes you thankful for the things you have, that's for sure"(Burns).

When the Puritans moved to the New World they created a new society based upon perfect adherence to the strict and intolerant Puritan philosophy. However, the moral center of their universe could not hold because the people themselves although normally English, were blends of their European ancestries and the folk culture of generations before them. Puritan philosophy was rooted in the search for spiritual perfection. Puritans viewed witchcraft as evidence of the man's spiritual weakness. Therefore, Puritan philosophy, as later reflected in The Crucible, was the natural enemy of witchcraft.

A Puritan's first responsibility was to serve God. The Bible was a Puritan's road map toward that duty. While Puritans respected authority, they did not revere tradition or ritual. Their churches were plain and unadorned. Prayer and listening to sermons were constant companions to the righteous Puritan. The family was a homage to God. A man's gift to God was a happy, prayerful family centered within the church.

Witchcraft evolved in many parts of the world at different times and in different ways. But essentially, witchcraft served its developers as a system of explanation for the ways of nature and as a scheme by which man could gain control over his life. The Northern European belief in witches was a holdover from a pre-Christian time when cause-and-effect reasoning was not at its best. Two events, which occurred in the same timeframe, were often misconstrued to have a cause-and-effect relationship. For example, if a farmer cut wheat on the full moon, and the wheat went bad, the farmer might blame the moon phase for the molding of the wheat; or he might blame his neighbor's jealous spirit for cursing the wheat. Superstition is the basis of witchcraft.

Witchcraft bases much of its belief system on the oneness of man with the world. Many of its rituals place great emphasis on the place, man holds on the planet. This, according to the pagan tradition, would mean that man was just another species in Nature's spectrum. And witches would view man not necessarily as the most important species. This is definitely at odds with Puritan philosophy, which would place man just below God, but clearly as master over the world God made. As much as Puritans would wish to distance themselves from the pre-Christian European beliefs, their own abhorrence of witchcraft is proof that they themselves were strong believers in witchcraft. Much of the information the Puritans had about witchcraft came from a book published in 1490. Malleus Malefic arum (translated to "The Hammer of Witches"), by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, and it was used by members of the court in the prosecution of witches during the 17th century. These authors described witches who could "fly on broomsticks, change into animals, and kill or wither a person at a glance"(Spenger 20). These witches were Satan-worshipers, said the book. And thus, the Christian church in all its various denominations felt justified in ferreting out and murdering those suspected of being witches. The Puritans brought these fears and superstitions with them from the Old World. As Arthur Miller writes in the early explanation of The Crucible, the Puritans felt that they were the only light for God in the New World. If they let down their guard for one moment, the Devil would rush in and crush them out of existence. The existence of witches in the New World made perfect sense to the Puritans. They were