- Nov 2013
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Charles Towne
Town outside of Boston and the Boston Harbor http://www.loc.gov/resource/g3760.ar088100/
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I was enformed by the Judges that they begun with this, but had humane testimony against such as were condemed and undoubted proof of their being witches, but at length I found tht the Devill did take upon him the shape of Innocent persons and some were accused of whose innocency I was well assured and many considerable persons of unblamable life and conversation were cried out upon as witches and wizards.
witchcraft was seen as a religious matter and a physical possession of a human by the devil or a demon. The Mass. Bay colony had been run by the Puritans and religion was an important aspect of life in every sphere, public or private. The knowledge that the colony was heavy on religion can tell us a lot about how each person in the community may have been treated based on their age, marital status, economic status and gender. We know that both gender was being tried for witchcraft but more than that is not known by this letter.
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Commission of Oyer and Terminer
Court that heard and tried those accused of witchcraft. the Term means to hear and determine. its a royally appointed court that tries crimes against the colonies.
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Sweden about thirty years agoe
about 30 years before the salem witch trials in the american colonies, Torsåkor Sweden had its own witch hysteria following the trial of Märet Jonsdotter in 1668. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsåker_witch_trials )
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Gov. William Phips
Gov. WIlliam Phips was the royally appointed Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colonies. When the witch trials were brought to him, he appointed a new court that tried the rest of the accused witches with out the use of spectral evidence. None of the accused were found guilty and the trials were ended.
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scalded with brimstone some had pins stuck in their flesh
One method for testing whether or not a woman was a witch was by pricking her teats to see if she had any feeling in it or if it bleed. If neither happened then she was a considered a witch.
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- Sep 2013
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With knowledge of the Salem Witch trials it is known that primarily women were the ones charged with witchcraft and no one else. Other than that, Gov. Phips makes no mention of who was being tried for witchcraft and why. No gender is ever defined outside of the knowledge that men were the only ones who could hold public power. This document does not really tell us much about what the lives of women were really like.
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