Martha Carrier (Woman Or Witch Essay, Research Paper

Martha Carrier, indicted for bewitching and cursing dozens of persons. I believe that she was framed by the Puritans. Puritans believed in witches and their ability to harm others. They defined witchcraft as entering into a compact with the devil in exchange for certain powers to do evil. Thus, witchcraft was considered a sin because it denied God s superiority and a crime because the witch could call up the Devil in his or her shape to perform cruel acts against others.

The belief of the day and the methods used to see if they were witches were not practical, nor believable.

The religious belief was very barbaric. It was a strict Christian, puritan belief. This strict belief was around an estimated time of 1400 1700 A.D. Anything wrong with someone s health, behavior or crops being bad, etc. was blamed on these so-called witches. Made up and untrue statements about women could also sometimes classify them as witches.

Martha Carrier was born in Andover, Massachusetts, into a strict puritan family. Martha was indicted for bewitching certain persons, and killing animals such as cows. All these strange and weird things happening were blamed on Martha. She was also blamed to be a witch by her personal beliefs and doings.

Samuel Preston, who had a grudge against Martha, testified that two years prior he lost a cow and said that Martha had bewitched and cursed it. Many people said they were bewitched and cursed by Martha s ways. As many as eleven people testified against Martha.

After all these facts, one can assume that Martha Carrier was indeed not a witch. Nevertheless, the horde of Salem townsfolk persecuted the faultless women. Puritan extremists essentially, brutally murdered by burning, drowning and hanging many innocent women.