Salem is present-day Denver and it's located near the coast of Massachusetts. During the 16th and 17th century, a group of Protestants known as Puritans at the time situated in this small town. According to the people at that time, this town is called either Salem town or Salem village. Although this is a small town, many important events had occurred such as the Salem witch trials of 1692 which had about 200 people accused of witchcraft, 24 deaths in the hangings plus many others that had died in prison. When these trials were occurring, the people were in a frenzied state because they're very paranoid that the Devil is among them and he should be rooted out no matter what the cost is. 24 out of those who were accused were hanged at a place known as Gallows Hill and a man named Giles Corey was killed by heavy stones placed on top of him because he didn't confess to practicing witchcraft. Eventually after the pleas of Cotton Mather and Governor Phipps's own wife being accused, the trials ended and those who were accused were released. Also money was given to the heirs of those that died and the innocents were given their good names back. That still wasn't enough to repay those that had suffered in this tragedy and surprisingly it wasn't until 1957 that Massachusetts apologize for this event. Now people might be wondering, how come they waited such a long time to apologize?
The people of Salem at the time were known as the Puritans as stated in the previous paragraph but what you may not know about these people is that they follow the teachings of John Calvin and tries to root out all parts of Catholic influence from their lives. Also their beliefs were mostly based on Doctrines of Grace written by James Arminius who was a follower of John Calvin. Basically in their minds, one sin condemns you to Hell because Adam and Eve committed the sin of eating from the tree of knowledge so humans as their descendants have to live a life of moral perfection in order to atone for the sins by their predecessors. Also they established a government based on the idea of theocracy so moral imperfection was considered a crime such that if you committed adultery or "believed" to be a follower of the Devil, you should be executed. That's what brought about the tragic Salem witch trials that had taken away the lives of many who were believed to be witches or more explicitly as followers of the Devil.
Well now, let's get back to the present and talk about how the Puritans views of the 16th and 17th century have on present-day America. Nathaniel Hawthorn, a relative of John Hawthorn who was one of the judges that had convicted many people during the Salem witch trials as witches wrote a book known as The Scarlet Letter which depicts Hester Prynn being punished by society due to adultery. The punishment she received wasn't comparable to how Mary Latham and James Britton who were hanged because of adultery in Massachusetts. Even if the laws today doesn't hang people for adultery, I still think it's unnecessary for adulterers to be punished by the law. If marriage is a sacred bond between two people as influenced by Puritan thoughts, shouldn't it be their business to take care of their relationship instead of having the public be involved in a private matter which doesn't even resolve the couple's problem at all? Why should other people besides the couple need to know about the affair anyway? Laws should only be used to punish those whose actions undermine the idea of an ideal society such as murder instead of adultery. Overall many other laws and views of the people in America had been influenced by the Puritans views from the past such as murder and giving false testimony being a crime that's morally wrong but adultery as stressed before isn't a crime worthy of punishment by the public.
The people of Salem at the time were known as the Puritans as stated in the previous paragraph but what you may not know about these people is that they follow the teachings of John Calvin and tries to root out all parts of Catholic influence from their lives. Also their beliefs were mostly based on Doctrines of Grace written by James Arminius who was a follower of John Calvin. Basically in their minds, one sin condemns you to Hell because Adam and Eve committed the sin of eating from the tree of knowledge so humans as their descendants have to live a life of moral perfection in order to atone for the sins by their predecessors. Also they established a government based on the idea of theocracy so moral imperfection was considered a crime such that if you committed adultery or "believed" to be a follower of the Devil, you should be executed. That's what brought about the tragic Salem witch trials that had taken away the lives of many who were believed to be witches or more explicitly as followers of the Devil.
Well now, let's get back to the present and talk about how the Puritans views of the 16th and 17th century have on present-day America. Nathaniel Hawthorn, a relative of John Hawthorn who was one of the judges that had convicted many people during the Salem witch trials as witches wrote a book known as The Scarlet Letter which depicts Hester Prynn being punished by society due to adultery. The punishment she received wasn't comparable to how Mary Latham and James Britton who were hanged because of adultery in Massachusetts. Even if the laws today doesn't hang people for adultery, I still think it's unnecessary for adulterers to be punished by the law. If marriage is a sacred bond between two people as influenced by Puritan thoughts, shouldn't it be their business to take care of their relationship instead of having the public be involved in a private matter which doesn't even resolve the couple's problem at all? Why should other people besides the couple need to know about the affair anyway? Laws should only be used to punish those whose actions undermine the idea of an ideal society such as murder instead of adultery. Overall many other laws and views of the people in America had been influenced by the Puritans views from the past such as murder and giving false testimony being a crime that's morally wrong but adultery as stressed before isn't a crime worthy of punishment by the public.
Nice blog. Lots of information about the Puritans, the witch trials, and Hawthrone. I felt like I learned a lot about them from this. What I found the most interesting was the part on how Massachusetts took until 1957 to apologize for the witch trials.
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