History 326 Readings Wiki

You've loaded an old revision of the document! If you save it, you will create a new version with this data.

====== Vexed with Devils ======
Erika Gasser is posing the argument that witchcraft and possession in the 17th century was a language of power where gender can be validated through disorder. Ministers were able to reaffirm the patriarchy by turning these "irrational episodes" into moments of religious and patriarchal authority.(Tea Aliu)
===== Witchcraft in the Colonial Context =====

===== Trial and Execution of George Burroughs =====

George Burroughs had been an unordained minister in Salem, but, at the time of his arrest in 1692 was living in Maine. Accused of leading a group of witches in worshiping and attempting to take over New England for the Devil, he was brought back to Salem for trial. The evidence brought against him consisted both of accounts of witchcraft from the possessed or from confessed witches as well as accounts of his behavior that challenged his position as a patriarchal authority figure as a member of the clergy. (Cameron Spivy)

==== Witchcraft ====
There was a sense that the ministers and magistrates had a pre-agreed upon notion of what bodily affliction and spectral visions look like and how they function in puritan society. (shared culture scripts on witchcraft- and agreed upon behaviors.) (Tea Aliu)
==== Excessive and Deficient Manhood ====

==== Connections between Manhood and Severity of Witchcraft  ====

Accusers connected Burroughs' position of authority within the church to his witchcraft by placing him as a leader in a conspiracy of witches across New England. His masculine authority position, rather than defending him, exposed him to further accusations about his crimes and involvement with witchcraft more generally. (Cameron Spivy)

===== Post-Trial Responses to and Debate over Burroughs Case =====

Edit summary

Note: By editing this page you agree to license your content under the following license: CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International