We just do not appreciate some daunting figure telling us if we love our children (you were supposed to have this distant separation), like to dance, read, sing...etc... maybe work in the garden on a Sunday afternoon...we are going to suffer in the depths of hell for an eternity. Especially when you have no idea if you were one of the select who only knew they were one of God's chosen few to go to Heaven by WANTING to adhere to such tight restrictions.
Oh man...and did it have a bad effect on their daily lives.
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| We love starving and walking through the snow NOT to dance or sing |
One negative effect of such a restrictive lifestyle manifested itself a few times in the new world with Puritan and puritan-like peoples in Massachusetts AND Connecticut. I know most people are aware of the witch hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, but it was not a singular event.
From the late 1640s until the end of the century, people in Connecticut also faced the charge of witch and just like in Salem...turned to hysteria and murder (I am sorry, hanging and executing people for witchcraft is murder so I am just going to be honest here and call a spade a spade).
Let me preface... I do not care if a 100% lunatic in an official manner (COTTON MATHER I AM TALKING TO YOU SIR) writes memoirs of his escapades as a crusader against the Devil's war against American colonialism and describes bad Exorcist style scenes to legitimize his fantasies and delusions of grandeur, these people were charged, jailed, and often executed because they were poor, disliked, or proved to be an obstacle for someone else's success in a town and Mather with his various cronies contributed to straight up murder in my eyes... no sympathy for the real wicked here.
" One while their Tongues would be drawn down their Throats; another-while they would be pull'd out upon their Chins, to a prodigious length. They would have their Mouths opened unto such a Wideness, that their Jaws went out of joint; and anon they would clap together again with a Force like that of a strong Spring-Lock. The same would happen to their Shoulder-Blades, and their Elbows, and Hand-wrists, and several of their joints. They would at times ly in a benummed condition and be drawn together as those that are ty'd Neck and Heels;' and presently be stretched out, yea, drawn Backwards, to such a degree that it was fear'd the very skin of their Bellies would have crack'd. They would make most pitteous out-cries, that they were cut with Knives, and struck with Blows that they could not bear. Their Necks would be broken, so that their Neck-bone would seem dissolved unto them that felt after it; and yet on the sudden, it would become, again so stiff that there was no stirring of their Heads; yea, their Heads would be twisted almost round; and if main Force at any time obstructed a dangerous motion which they seem'd to be upon, they would roar exceedingly. "
-Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689)
By the way, this complete horrible excuse for a human being, riled up Salem so bad that after he appeared to help more people were arrested and executed. Good going Cotton, good going!
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| Oh look what the moron just so happened to Publish and make money off of.... |
Back to Connecticut...
So of course, the practice of anything even akin to witchcraft during the 17th century was a capital crime in the colonies and please let me be clear... if you walked into a friend's house in 1650 in Connecticut and accidentally said something to the effect of "Hey I was walking outside and it was so glorious that I wanted to marvel at the magic of nature." There might be a chance that a day later your best friend who you shared bread recipes with and sat by in church might be pointing their finger at you in a frenzy because moments after you left (you heathen nature worshipping demon) she came down with a sharp pain in her head...placed there by you of course and the DEVIL (also know as a headache).
Oh and that is all it took by the way.... you caused a headache, froze the cow's milk (does not matter if it was 19 degrees outside in February in Connecticut), or looked at someone funny. All it took was one annoyed person and the utterance of witchcraft and your butt was toast.
Like Salem, dozens of people were accused and executed for witchcraft in the late 17th century... Puritans man...Puritans. This happened decades before the tragedy at Salem and proceeded throughout the rest of the century, until the late 1690s when new laws were implemented in colonies to restrict the prosecution of witches (probably because of Salem)...but still, these people Mary Sanford, Lydia Gilbert, and John Carsington were killed in part because of the restrictive nature of an overbearing theocratic rule that deprived early colonists of any sort of free thinking or will.... the Enlightenment could not come soon enough for these people.
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| Massachusetts witch execution |
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