Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England

By Elizabeth Reis

Book Overview

In her analysis of the cultural construction of gender in early America, Elizabeth Reis explores the intersection of Puritan theology, Puritan evaluations of womanhood, and the Salem witchcraft episodes. She finds in those intersections the basis for understanding why women were accused of witchcraft more often than men, why they confessed more often, and why they frequently accused other women of being witches. In negotiating their beliefs about the devil's powers, both women and men embedded womanhood in the discourse of depravity.Puritan ministers insisted that women and men were equal in the sight of God, with both sexes equally capable of cleaving to Christ or to the devil. Nevertheless, Reis explains, womanhood and evil were inextricably linked in the minds and hearts of seventeenth-century New England Puritans. Women and men feared hell equally but Puritan culture encouraged women to believe it was their vile natures that would take them there rather than the particular sins they might have committed.Following the Salem witchcraft trials, Reis argues, Puritans' understanding of sin and the devil changed. Ministers and laity conceived of a Satan who tempted sinners and presided physically over hell, rather than one who possessed souls in the living world. Women and men became increasingly confident of their redemption, although women more than men continued to imagine themselves as essentially corrupt, even after the Great Awakening.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801486114
• ISBN13: 9780801486111
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Amazing new context for the Salem trials and Puritanism

Reis manages to make us look at the Salem trials as a religious event that takes place in a religious society. Rather than concentrating upon the petty squabbles that may (or may not) have provided the immediate catalyst for accusations, she shows us how Puritan women were taught to view sin and how they increasingly thought of themselves as inherently sinful. Somehow, she manages to make us understand the terrible torment that the accused women suffered in their trials but also in their souls. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Salem episode or women and religion.

Very illuminating book on Salem witchcraft trials

I've always been fascinated by the Salem witchcraft trials, read all the books, seen all the movies. I didn't think there was much new to be said that I hadn't already heard, but I got this book anyway. And it was fabulous! Reis has a whole different take on the witchcraft trials. It was always puzzling to me why these women, who obviously weren't guilty, gave such convincing confessions in their trials. Reis put this all in the context of how the Puritans thought about religion and about gender. Great book.