- 1. ArE you A womEn? Do you own lAnD? CAn you rECitE thE lorDs
prAyEr?Think before you answer anyquestion; especially if you lived
inseventeenth century Salem. Youcould face the gallows. Onemight
even wonder today-How thiscould have happened?
2. In the book Witch-Hunt author Marc Aronson reveals, the
possible truth of why so many women were accused of Witchcraft My
Thesis statement:In my opinion Marc Aronsons goal in writing this
book was toreveal new possible theories of what really led to the
bizarrehappenings that inflicted the people of Salem. 3. The reader
of this book will learn "Studies of the witchcraft cases in
sixteenth-and seventeenth-century England forwhich court records
have survived show that 80 percent of those accused werewomen"
(Aronson, 10). The accused witch possessed the following
qualities-She was a woman who hadfew or no children or was past her
childbearing years, and yet owned property. Shewas a person, in
other words, who lived outside the pattern of life peopleexpected
of a woman, in which her role and her assets were devoted to her
family.And she was especially suspect if she was outspoken, not
modest and quiet(Aronson, 11). Why Goody Carrier-A women of low
moral conduct according to the Puritans, wasaccused of witchcraft.
Quote in reference to Goody Carrier, The accused is apoor,
unpopular woman from Andover, who had her first child before she
wasmarried (Aronson, 4). 4. One might be surprised to learn
Possible Ergot poison my have led to hallucinations.These
hallucinations are similar to the affects of LSDuse. Encephalitis
Lethargica could also be an assumptionwhich led to the symptoms of
demonic behavior. The saddest realization, possible
schizophrenicconditions may have led to accusations of being
awitch. This photo was found under a PBS web interview- Ergot
Poisoning the cause of the Salem Witch Trials PBS "Secrets of the
Dead II" Witches Curse 5. The following slides will sharedetails
about key charactersfrom this bookTituba-A Caribbean slave that
admitted to witchcraft, Titubasperformance in court made her story
believable, and it saved herlife"(Aronson, 82). She alone was able
to stir more fear in thepeople of Salem with her descriptions of
the devil from Aronsonsbook, "The devil came to her in the form of
a hog and also a giantblack dog. In his human guise the devil had a
yellow bird that wasa kind of pet" (Aronson, 83). Tituba-1878
drawing on the nextslide. 6. Caption: "Tituba and the
Children."Description: Scene showing Titubaperforming acts of
sorceryacts for Betty Parris, Abigrail Williams,and other children
in the kitchenof the Rev. Samuel Parris household.Source: A Popular
Historyof the United States.Vol. 2. By William Cullen Bryant,New
York: CharlesScribners Sons, 1878,p. 457. Artist A. Fredericks 7.
Cotton Mather wasa young minister that mustprove Glover is a
witch.Glover- an accused witch putto death because of
culturaldifferences. She was Irish andcould not recite the Lords
Prayer.Also she had cloth dolls,the Puritans perceived as
demonicdevises, she used to cause fits in the Goodwin children.
Could shehave been schizophrenic? Date c.
1700ourcehttp://www.columbia.edu/itc/law/w itt/images/lect3/ 8. My
final thoughts about thisbook: Reading this book allowed me to see
how destructive forcing ones beliefs on others can prove
disastrous. Just as history shows, people can destroy lives if they
do not have a sensible understanding of womens rights, religious
differences, cultural diversity and mental illness. While reading
this book my thoughts often turned to Hitler and how his hatred for
one religion led to the Holocaust. He also lashed out at others for
differences and mental illness. Marc Aronsons assumption sums up my
feelings as well, "There was simply too much danger of using faith
to destroy innocent people" (204).Mary Hutchinson
