Date of Award
2023
Degree Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
History and Archival Studies, MA
Program
School of Arts and Humanities
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Matthew Bowman
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Nicola Denzey Lewis
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2023 Andréa D Diane
Keywords
colonies, Puritan, witch, witchcraft, women
Subject Categories
United States History
Abstract
Within this thesis, I examine several historians who discussed the social, historical and political, and religious contexts of witchcraft accusations in 17th Century colonies, particularly in New England. Additionally, I take as my case study an examination of the Elizabeth Garlick case in 1657. Elizabeth Garlick lived in the Long Island town of what is today East Hampton. However, from the town’s beginning in 1649 until 1664, the half of Long Island settled by the English was considered part of the Connecticut Colony and submitted to all the laws and appurtenances thereof. Several historians have commented that despite its geographic distance from New England, the Long Island colonies remained much in attitude and “flavor” the same as New England. Therefore, I apply the contexts of New England witchcraft accusations in the case of Elizabeth Garlick to see if the ideas put forth resonate with her case. I contend that the social, historical and political, and religious contexts of 17th Century Puritan colonies together created conditions for Elizabeth Garlick to stand trial as a witch. In terms of social, I specifically include consideration of demographics, economic status, social interactions, and popular beliefs shared by Puritan society. I combine historical and political to discuss the wars and events that affected Puritans even on a psychological level along with the political consequences of those wars and events. Finally, by religious context I mean the belief system of Puritanism with its conviction of war between God and the devil, the role assigned to heresy, various crises that threatened Puritan views such as Antinomianism, and the special role of women within the Puritan belief system.
ISBN
9798342763349
Recommended Citation
Davis, Andréa Diane. (2023). 17th Century Colonial Witchcraft: Before Salem. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 871. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/871.
