Holy Conjuring
Religion and the Creation of the Colonial American Witch (1647-1706)
Gender Analysis
- Cotton Mather, Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, 1692
English colonists brought their beliefs about women and witches with them from England. Early modern people believed that women, by their very nature, were more inclined to sin due to their weak, flawed bodies and minds. Eve’s transgression in Eden condemned women to suffer in childbearing and to submit to fathers, husbands, and sons. Carol Karlsen argues that female nature made women more susceptible to religious transgressions and accusations of witchcraft. “In Puritan thought, the witch-figure was a symbol of the struggle between God and Satan for human souls. In Puritan society, witches (who as we have seen were usually female) were known by behavior closely or exclusively associated with the female sex.” It is interesting that what makes one a female also makes them eligible to be a witch. Most New England witches were known for their sins of anger, envy, malice, seduction, lying, discontent, and pride. These were not only sins against the order of Godly creation but these were acts that women resorted to by their weak nature. Women were seen as weak and vulnerable to acts of sin and the Devil himself. To rebel against God was grounds to be under suspicion. With witchcraft, women became closely associated with religious dissent.
In Puritan belief, anger, bitterness, and envy were all gateways to sin. Most women accused of witchcraft were associated with these characteristics. Any spells cast or threats made were grounds for suspicion. Karlsen reports that one person testified that a woman was bitter since she could not marry the man she desired. In 1653, Elizabeth Godman of New Haven was reported a witch because she was discontent with the status of her land. Since there were no male heirs in her family, Godman’s land was turned over to a man in the colony. “Like Godman, many women were accused of witchcraft after relatives or neighbors gained possession of all or part of their estates or otherwise intervened in their affairs in ways they interpreted as hostile,” Karlsen concluded. The women who were “wronged” within society were then easily lured by Satan’s promises of riches, land, and future husbands. Agreeing to a pact with the Devil was easy for women: they were weak.
In the colonies, there is a hierarchy within religion which projects itself onto the social hierarchy. To examine this, sermons and cases must be textually analyzed with Voyant. Instead of searching for religious words in the clouds and the context of certain terms, this section examines sermons and cases with a gendered point of view. The sermons are once again taken from different resources. Various sermons from Connecticut are taken from Matthew Grant’s Diary in the Connecticut State Library. Matthew Grant was Windsor, Connecticut’s first surveyor and second town clerk. Grant copied sermons from 1638-1654 given by Thomas Hooker, sermons with no date given by John Raynor, sermons from August 15, 1647 given by John Warham, sermons from August 27, 1654 given by T. Hanford, and sermons with no date given by T. Booker. The sermons from Edward Taylor, pastor in Westfield, Massachusetts, are taken from his work “Christographia.”. Samuel Parris, Puritan minister during the Salem witch trials, has’ sermon excerpts are available from the Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris: September 11, 1692 from the Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. They include cases from 1647-1692 in Connecticut (Goody Ayers; Catherine Branch; Elizabeth Clawson; Mercy Disbrough; Katherine Harrison; and Elizabeth Seager), cases from 1665 in New York (the Halls), a case with no year recorded in North Caroline (Pheobe War), cases from 1683 in Pennsylvania (Mattson; Hendrickson), and a case from 1698-1706 in Virginia (Grace Sherwood).
Colonial Sermons
The first word cloud represents all sermons within the colonies. Of course the words “Christ” and “God” are the major words in the cloud. However, there are smaller words peppering these two main terms. Words such as “sin,” “truth,” “power,” and “authority.” Sin was not something taken lightly in the colonies. To have power or authority over those who sinned was a goal of many.
The second link text analysis represents all Connecticut’s sermons into one tool. This visual is powerful. All sermons revolve around one word: “dangerous.” There was a sense of danger within the colonies. Each witch was brought into court because they were considered a danger to the society and the order of society. The proper names surrounding the word are mainly those preaching the sermons to colonists. This is the image they painted. Dangerous is linked to every book, person, and character here. It seems that the topics being taught within sermons linked back to danger. Since these people were so new to the colonies, they no doubt feared many things which possibly manifested into witch scares.
The next word cloud represents a sermon conducted by John Warham of Connecticut. “Church” and “God” are among the most frequent words. Words such as “members,” “covinant,” and “men” are all present as well. These words seem to speak towards a few subjects. First, “members” and “covinant” are words to describe aspects of a community. “Members” make up the town and churches while a “covinant” is a promise made not only to God but to a community. These colonists had to be dedicated, ideal citizens who made their promise to be holy. Within every group there remains a hierarchy and this is no different. This speaks to the religious hierarchy as well as the gendered hierarchy. As seen in the sermons within the Religion Analysis, there becomes a hierarchy of God and then men. This word cloud may not explicitly show male proper names, but there are the words “men,” “father,” and “child.” Women are left out of this word cloud. This could speak to the gendered order in society and the order imposed by religion. As Merry Weisner contends in her work “Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe,” men decided how women lived. The primary documentation we can explore were written by men and thus were all in their point of view. These sermons are all conducted by learned men who share their ideas on a platform. Religion heavily influenced the colonies and these sermons shaped how they lived. They shaped how women were viewed and they shaped ideas of evil.
The next word cloud represents excerpts from Samuel Parris’ sermon notebook. Samuel Parris was a Puritan minister during the Salem witch trials so it comes to no surprise that the terms in this word cloud are catered towards witchcraft. These excerpts were taken from 1692, in the midst of the Salem trials. The terms “devil,” “witches”, “lamb,” and “fight” are all present. They form an image of the devil and the witches against the lamb. Lambs are known as innocent and docile creatures. The lamb as a person is easily cheated. The Lamb is also referred to as Christ. The devil preyed on the weak and created the damned. There seems to be a “war” with the devil and Christ, similar to the war between witches and the colonists.
Choosing a particular term to look at within these sermons tells us how they are being used. Continuing with Samuel Parris’ sermons, the text includes the word “witch” directly instead of alluding to witchcraft. For this reason, we must explore the word “witch” within this document. One passage reads, “Yea, & in our Land (in this, & some neighboring Places) how many, what Multitudes, of Witches & Wizards has the Devil instigated with utmost violence to attempt the overthrow of Religion? The Reason, that in a word is from the enmity of the Devil & his Instruments to Religion.” Here we see the phrases “in our Land” and “to attempt the overthrow of Religion.” These excerpts were conducted during the time of the Salem witch trials, but you can see just how much influence sermons held over the public. For many, religion gave the ultimate answer to rid evil and to attain order. Another passage reads “The Jews after the Returne of their captivity, woefully degenerated even unto the horrible sin of Sorcerie & Witchcraft. … The Devils prevalency in this Age is mostclear in the Marailous number of Witches abounding in all places. Now hundreds (sais he) are discovered in one Shire; & if Fame deceive us not, in a Village of 14. Houses in the North, are found so many of this Damned brood.” This reinforces the idea of Jeffrey Richards’ work, “Sex, Dissidence, and Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages.” Richards identifies the minorities – Jews, witches, heretics, homosexuals, prostitutes, and lepers – the groups singled out as the undesirables in Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These ideas carried on in the colonies. As Ralph Pyle and James Davidson found in their article, “The Origins of Religious Stratification in Colonial America," very few Jews resided in the colonies, but some felt that they still had the power to infect the new world. By comparing witches to Jews in these sermons, all sharing the same European history, these colonists began the full fledged cycle of weeding out the last minority group: the witches.
These sermons illustrate that colonists hoped to create an orderly, godly community in the New World. The sermons also make clear that the colonists saw the world as a dangerous place and Samuel Parris’ sermons reflect the sense that godly colonists were at war with the forces of Satan. Intriguingly, women and female-related words do not figure prominently in this sample. This may simply reflect the general disdain that early modern intellectuals had for women and the assumption that women’s identity was subordinated to male concerns.
Colonial Witchcraft Cases
This first word cloud shows all cases combined and textually analyzed. While sermons reference women, here “man,” “woman,” and “child” are represented. These words are amongst others like “god,” “devil,” and “court.” What seems to be occurring here is the idea that anyone could be in league with the devil. Anyone in the colony could be a witch. Most importantly, these evil people were amongst the colony all along. The witch and the Devil were hiding in plain sight. The table of terms following the all cases word cloud represents the most used terms. Witchcraft was used 739 times in all documents. The term “man” is used 330 times while “woman” is used 219 times.
The next word cloud represents the case of Ralph and Mary Hall from New York. New York was a Dutch Reformed colony and within its charter has no representation of the word “God.” This is the only witchcraft case that occurred in New York and what is most interesting with this case is the fact that Ralph Hall was accused of witchcraft before his wife. Most know that if men were accused of witchcraft, it was because their wife had corrupted them and turned them against their will to a life of sin. The husband was guilty by association. In this case, Ralph is accused of witchcraft and Mary is accused of conspiring with him. The fact that Mary was a woman reinforced the likelihood that she was also a witch.
The next word cloud represents the case of Elizabeth Clawson. The word cloud and the term table showcase the word peace. One passage reads, “Eliezer Slawson aged 51 years he said he lived near neighbour to good wife clawson many years and did always observe her to be a woman for peace and to counsel for peace and when she hath had provocations from her neighbours would answer and say we must live in peace for we are neighbours and would never to my observation give threatening words nor did look at her as one given to malice and further said not…” This reinforces Briggs’ idea of European neighbors in “Witches and Neighbors.” Being in close proximity to neighbors mixed with social and political tensions creates a problem. Elizabeth Clawson understood, and her neighbor Eliezer Slawson testified, that Clawson acted as a good neighbor even though she had been accused of witchcraft. The accusation and Slawson’s defense suggest that the village, and perhaps the colony, was divided over her guilt, offering a rare view into local gendered politics.
A comparison of the sermons and witch trial cases indicate that the elite discussed and preached about witchcraft in sermons as a general danger, but the witch trials case records display the distinctly gendered nature of actual witchcraft accusations. The threat of witchcraft and witches as servants of Satan dominated public discourse, but when witches were accused, they were women. The focus on women as the linchpins of an ordered society becomes clear and, as the case of Elizabeth Clawson suggests, colonists argued over the actions that constituted disorder and what made a woman a witch.
