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Escaping Salem Essay

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Escaping Salem:
The Other Witch Hunt of 1692

American Economic and Social History
September 26, 2012

The seventeenth century was full of challenges; political, social, and economical. Across the board individuals struggled to live, although the conditions had much improved from the beginning of the colonies. Women in particular had a difficult time fitting into this patriarchal this society. Women were defined by men and were seen as an accessory to men. In the colony of New England women were learning how to have a silent voice, while still maintaining the proper role of time. The way women were seen by men, who ran the colony, and the way men thought, not only about women, but also about the world would sculpt the society and the …show more content…

Although in this case (Kate Branch) the Enlightenment thought directly influenced the process of the trail, still the testimony of the women involved held less value than that of a man. Any women seen challenging the thought of a man was at a greater risk of being accused of witchcraft. Daniel Wescot and other men describe incidents involving Goody Disborough and Elizabeth Clawson. These events started with an argument between a man and a women; the man later accused the women of cursing livestock, children, or themselves by witchcraft. (Godbeer, 2005) The reason that women were accused was that they disagreed with a man’s point of view.
Sadly enlightenment thought did not enlighten the thought that women were intellectually equal to men. The Enlightenment was a primarily a period of intellectual growth, steaming from science to free thought. Science and the judicial system seem to be on opposite ends of the intellectual spectrum, in Escaping Salem however that is disproven. Science is all based on evidence similar to the judicial system. New England’s court system may not have been as advanced as our Supreme Court is now but they still used evidence to prosecute or unfortunately persecute. Stamford’s court systems require two eye witnesses to ever event used to convict. (Godbeer, 2005) Similarly science must have an outcome happen multiple times for

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