n 1689, Increase Mather was instrumental in helping imprison and try the former Governor of Massachusetts who was seen as a Tory sympathizer. After that rebellion, the words of one of the former Governor’s supporters, Francis Brinley, give a general picture of not only the divisions but also the chaos in the Massachusetts colony at a time just a few years before an environment would be developed wherein the witch trials could take place, “Unless some divine providence or human power relieve us, nothing appears but ruine and confusion, property and privilege (so much talkt of) will be destroyed, and all things else set up that may make a people miserable…An oppressive government is to be preferred before…anarchy” (Hall 236).
The witch trials would be a culmination of the fear, suspicion and warring ideologies in existence in 17th century Massachusetts. In part, one of the underlying reasons it occurred was in order for one paradigm (Puritanism) to prove itself superior to any other. However, new and progressive paradigms focused on secularism, commerce, and nature were beginning to emerge. However, a century before America’s successful War of Independence no central ideology existed to unite the inhabitants of the country. However, to better understand that this period represents merely a parallel of ancient societies or modern society, we need only look at the fact that all societies that evolve in a progressive fashion have periods of paradigm stability, followed by paradigm conflict until another period of stabilization occurs. It is a never ending cycle and studying the witch trials demonstrates this. It does so not only because of its own dynamics, but also because those dynamics can be paralleled to the decline of Rome, or, more recently, the McCarthy Red Scare of the 1950s in America.
In this analysis, we will explore the lives of two individuals, Increase and Cotton Mather, both ministers, both Harva...