The Salem Witch Trials

Throughout History, women have long struggled and fought for the same equality, justice, and rights as males in society. Historians have two opposing views of what life was like in Puritan society. One side argues that Puritan society was a golden age for women as they worked alongside their husbands, had an important role in the household. However, opposing historians argue that Puritan women were inferior to men in the society for five main reasons. Women were inferior because they were supposed to be silent company, they only received half the inheritance of their brothers, they were meant to have and take care of the children, they received harsher punishment for their wrongs, and they had to follow strict rules. The most significant way

However, there is a multitude of evidence that argues the trials were simply a way to keep women under the control of men and encourage the dominantly male society. After reviewing many different accounts of life during the trails, how the actual trials went about and historians research and evidence that was found about the actuality of the trials all point to the Salem Witch Trials being a way to keep women under control. The Puritans found many useful reasons for the witch hunts to take place both psychologically, sociologically, and within criminology. Witch hunts have often spewed from the need for deviance, social control. Witch hunts throughout history have similarly had common theme of being instances in history where extreme behavior where an “evil is constructed, identified, and persecuted”. Most importantly, the witch hunts were often carried out by formal authorities within and the society. In Salem the conditions of the Puritan society were ideal for and gave way to witch hunts; the society contained disease, hardship, and distal war threats. Many historians refer to the time period of the Salem Witch Trials as the “perfect storm”

However, when taking a closer look at the time period in which the Salem Witch trials occur and just how close it is to the scientific revolution the reasoning behind the witch trials does not make sense or add up. Historians have done loads of research and very many have come to the same conclusion as they uncover the social control behind the unexplainable, horrific acts. Ultimately the Salem Witch trials were an indirect, discreet, disguised way of keeping women in Puritan society subordinate and under the control of men. From reviewing research done by multiple historians, firsthand accounts of what took place and court records of the trials it is evident that control of the social hierarchy is the real and true reason behind the Salem Witch