Witch hunts were not uncommon in seventeenth-century New England. Although the 1692 Salem witch trials were the most infamous, prior to this event a number of alleged witches were put to death in various colonies. Religious fervor, interfamily feuds, judicial processes, and gender politics all played a role in the composition of the peculiar society that spawned the mass witch hunt hysteria in colonial Salem.
Witchcraft was an accepted way of life in New England, and by the mid-seventeenth century, many colonies already had laws forbidding its practice. A 1648 statute relating to witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony reads: ôIf any man or woman be a witch, that is hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death. Exodus 22:18 Leviticus 20:27 Deuteronomy 18:10-11.ö The Biblical texts referenced all originate from the Old Testament and admonish the faithful against tolerating the presence of witches within the community. Two of the passages are explicit in the appropriate method of punishment. For example, Exodus read: ôThou shalt not suffer a witch to live.ö
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a fairly isolated Puritan community. Puritans emphasized Bible reading, prayer and preaching, and they believed in grace, devotion, prayer, and self-examination to achieve religious virtue. They attributed almost all actions to the mystical powers of God or Satan:
ôAlthough belief in witchcraft and the DevilÆs evil power was not, in the seventeenth century, restricted to any single branch of Christianity, certain tenets made the Puritan in England and America especially sensitive to Devils and witches, and frontier conditions in New England aggravated this sensitivity.ö The Puritans believed that God allowed Satan to tempt and torment those who strayed from the path of righteousness and acted immorally or those, whose faith God wanted to test. These people suffered misfortune, sickness and g...