Historical Background

1. Historical Background

2. The Setting for the Story In 1692 the fear of witchcraft was declining in Europe. In a tiny town called Salem in Massachusetts, North America the fears of witchcraft were about to tear the community apart. Why?

3. Witchcraft in Europe • Most of those accused of being witches were women. • The 16th century was one of great social upheaval. Many women found themselves independent for this first time. Without men to “properly” guide them, they were treated with suspicion. • They were also people who did not fit in with the mainstream for some reason. • Women were seen as gullible, easy targets for the Devil

4. Malleus maleficarum(The Hammer of Witches) • Published by Catholic inquisition authorities in 1485-86 • "All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman. ... What else is woman but a foe to friendship, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, domestic danger, an evil nature,. ... Women are by nature instruments of Satan."

5. Evidence of Witchcraft One of the ways most witches were accused was with the use of “spectral evidence.” If someone said they had seen the accused with the devil in a dream, or that the accused had visited them in the night, or had hurt them, it was taken as evidence that the devil was at work.

6. What was a Puritan? • Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England • They believed in freedom of worship and the simplicity of religious life, wanting more emphasis on preaching than ritual or doctrine. X

7. The Great Chain of Being: The Puritan World View • God • Man • Woman • Children • Infidels, slaves • Criminals • Animals • Plants • Minerals

8. How to Spot a Separatist • Puritans hoped to reform the church within, the Separatists went further by breaking away from the Church of England and worshiping together in their own homes. • They did not believe that anyone should be forced to accept any sort of religion • Government can NOT compel religion by laws and penalties.

9. Puritan Life • High morals, earnestness • Strict observance of the Sabbath • Separatist services • “We begin with prayer; afterwards read one or two chapters of the bible, give the sense thereof and discuss it. The first speaker then announces a text and preaches on it for about an hour. Then the second speaker talks on the same text for the same length of time and after him the third, fourth, and maybe fifth.” • Oppressive, strict punishments • Being a Separatist is to be outside the law • Emigration to North America

10. “A City on a Hill” • Freely practice religious beliefs • Build a new, reformed, and perfect society • “Mourne together, labour, and suffer together, allwayes having before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke.” • This would be a special community: success or failure together. • They found a cultural and physical wilderness hardly imagined, which critically shaped later generations.

12. So, they sail to Plymouth in 1630

15. Puritan Values • They have a strict religion and their lives are full of hard work farming the land to provide for their families.

16. Punishment

18. Everyone was expected to attend church and know their ten commandments.

19. But all is not perfect in this new community . . . Despite the religious life there are many underlying tensions in the community Jealousy – especially disputes over boundaries and land ownership– was bubbling under the surface.

20. The Plot • Reverend Samuel Parris is a devout Puritan. • His slave from Barbados, Tituba, likes to tell the local girls about the magic of her home country. • One night, the girls are seen in the woods with Tituba. The girls know they will be punished. • Tituba fears being accused of witchcraft.

21. In those days to confess to witchcraft would result in imprisonment, to claim innocence would result in hanging. • Tituba confesses to being in league with the devil, but suggests others might be involved. • At this point, Betty and Abigail begin to see a way out of their punishment, as well.

22. Abigail Williams is the niece of Reverend Parris. She once worked for the Proctor family. • She is the leader of the girls and they are a little afraid of her. • Abigail has had a short affair with John Proctor of which he was ashamed. Abigail believes that it was the sickly Elizabeth Proctor who forced John to throw Abigail out. • Abigail begins to concoct a plan to have Elizabeth accused of witchcraft.

23. However, many will be accused. The hearings were shows, controlled by the girls who claimed to be possessed and tortured by various members of the community. The following painting shows what may have been a typical court scene in Salem.

25. Results of the Salem Witchcraft Trials • 20 executed • Between 175 to 200 imprisoned • Loss of land, other property

26. Why did it happen? It began as a way for the oppressed girls to avoid punishment. It then became an ideal way to get revenge on anyone whom you disliked. People started accusing their neighbors of being witches so they could claim their farmland.

27. Accused were most often found guilty. Sometimes they were tied to a rock dunked in a pond, and if they sank, they were declared innocent. Innocent. If they somehow survived the dunking, they were obviously witches, and they were executed. Most were hanged. One man was pressed to death with rocks because he refused to plead guilty, insuring that his sons still inherited his lands. Punishment

28. Why Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” • Arthur Miller lived during the 1950s and experienced the hysteria of the era. • Many Americans had an abnormal fear of Communists • Senator Joseph McCarthy made it his personal mission to find Communists and destroy their lives by bringing them before something called the House Un-American Activities Committee

29. Some of the Accused • Charlie Chaplin • Pete Seeger • WEB DuBois • J. Robert Oppenheimer • Orson Wells • Arthur Miller

30. The Red Scare Senator McCarthy accused many people— actors, writers, people in media, people in the military — of being Communists. He held hearings where people were commanded to give names of other Communists in order for leniency. Some accused their long-time enemies to get revenge. People who refused were afraid they could be accused as well. No one was safe.

32. “The Crucible” as a Protest • The Crucible was Arthur Miller’s way of protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. • He compared the Communist hearings to the witch hunts of Salem, where gossip, rumors, and fear were evidence enough to convict people. • The term “witch hunt” now applies to any activity where people are looking for a scapegoat or where they are using accusations to get revenge or to get personal gain or attention.

33. McCarthy went from great power to being completely discredited

34. “McCarthyism” Today