Was the Northeast REALLY that excited about Puritanism?

[Maddy McCall]

I mean, did they all wear black and white clothes, and did they all believe in predestination? Did they all really burn witches at the stake, like I've seen in so many movies about Puritans?

;-) :P

[WoodrowFan]

1. no

witches were HUNG, not burned.

[yardwork]

2. No no no - one was pressed to death. And he wasn't really a witch

In fact, none of the Salem witches were really witches, probably.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. my great grandmother certainly wasn't

She was a decrepit old woman who stopped attending church after the murder of one of her daughters by said daughter's husband. My 9-great grandmother duely confessed to all that was asked of her (after torture), except for one thing: she wouldn't say that her surviving daughter was a witch as well, and for that was condemned to death. She died in the Salem Jail before sentence could be carried out.

[RoyGBiv]

3. Hehehe...

Excited ... Puritanism

I'm sorry, but that made me laugh. :-)

[yardwork]

4. Sh. No laughing or that guy with a rod is gonna come over again

[JohnKleeb]

5. hahaha

:)

[JohnKleeb]

6. They also believed in banishing!

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

7. Totally! Being a Puritan was just so hip back in the day. n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. lots of misconceptions

first of all, the everyday clothing of the Puritans wasn't black and white. The reason we see these colors are that they were the ones the people wore who had their portraits painted. Black was one of the more difficult and expensive dyes to get-to wear black meant you had money. Most regular folk wore reds, browns, and greens.

Not everyone who lived in Plymouth was a Puritan, as most folks know. What most don't know is that the Puritans who arrived in the three years after the establishment of the colonies didn't all toe the Puritan line. Gabriel Wheldon, who came on the Ann in 1623, I believe, ran off to Cape Cod, where he lived with the natives, eventually marrying Chief Massasoit's neice. Other freethinkers in the area included Stephen Hopkins, who had sojourned in Jamestown ca 1611, gone back to England, and was hired to come aboard the Mayflower because he knew Pilgrim ways.

The great Puritan migration happened around 1630, when Gov. Winthrop's fleet dropped anchor in the bay by Boston. There were numerous ships in the fleet, and most of the people arriving were Puritans. But some did draw the line. When women were first accused of witchcraft around 1650, many spoke out calling it nonsense, and the hysteria was suppressed for a number of years.

The 'witches' that were condemned at Salem came not only from there but from neighboring towns, such as North Andover. At least one condemened witch wasn't hanged; she died of natural causes (probably old age and exposure) in the Salem Jail in 1693.

A few years after 1700, there was a general recanting of the hysteria, with the foreman of the Rebecca Nurse jury writing an explanation for the conviction that pointed directly to manipulation by the preachers who were also the judges. Families of many, if not most, of the witchcraft victims received monitary compensation (they had had to pay for their relative's incarceration in jail, as well as food, etc), and were also given a written apology.

If one studies the annals of the church records in New England, you find an awful lot of bickering, of people getting mad and deciding to move elsewhere-and this was in the Puritan churches! People like Roger Williams and others who didn't try to toe the Puritan line were exiled.

I can cite sources on this if you'd like-learned all this while doing genealogical research on my family.

[teach1st]

13. Fascinating!

When you have a chance, I'd like some sources. Thanks!

[Mr.Green93]

10. Name a movie.

[Cobalt Violet]

11. The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible

:shrug: That's 2 anyway.

[Mr.Green93]

12. The Crucible

was fiction. The Scarlet Letter concerned adultery.

[Cobalt Violet]

14. Both Fiction.

The Scarlet Letter was based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The Crucible was based on the book by Arthur Miller.

[SarahB]

15. In my college American history course...

I read a book that, in part, looked back at various census data. Nearly half of all Pilgrim brides were already pregnant. That goody goody business was all an illusion, just like it is with most ultra-religious people. Human nature is human nature.

[Placebo]

16. Damn you Maddy!

Damn you to blazes and eternal damnation!