“Women were damned if they did and damned if they didn't…”
In seventeenth century Puritan
society women were presented with more opportunities and responsibilities than
European women due to “heavily imbalanced sex ratio” that led to “greater
independence through marriage and widowhood.”[1] Although women had more power
and influence domestically and in the community, women were still expected to
be passive and submissive. “Women
assumed that their despicable and rebellious souls would damn them.” [2] While
women’s passive and obedient qualities were receptive to Christ, adversely they
would be receptive to the devil. “The representation of the soul in terms of
worldly notions of gender and the understanding of women in terms of
characteristics of the feminine soul, led by circular reasoning to the
conclusion that women were more likely to submit to Satan.”[3] According to
Puritan’s the female body was considered weaker than her male counterpart. The
combination of a submissive soul and weak vessel led to the belief that women
are more vulnerable to the devil’s temptations.
Women in Puritan society were damned
for two major reasons, accusations and confession. “Because the court, the
accuser, the witnesses, and even the accused themselves all believed that women
were more likely to be witches than men, women had much more difficulty
establishing their innocence.” [4] Considering the belief the women are weaker
than men and more inclined to give into the devil’s temptation, one can see why
women were accused of witchcraft more often than men. But why would an innocent
woman of God confess to being a witch and conspiring with the devil?
The Puritans believed that salvation
and damnation were foreordained by God and not determined by individual actions.
Perhaps women believed they were sinners damned to hell and accepted accusations
against them. “Women were more likely to interpret their own sins, no matter
how ordinary, as tacit covenants with Satan, spiritual renunciation of God,
evidence of their vile natures.”[5] For example, Alice Dorchester stated prior
to her hanging she deserved her fate due to past sins, although innocent of
being a witch. Also, once a woman was
accused it was difficult for her to distinguish prior sins from the current
accusations. If a woman declared and maintained her innocence, she would be
convicted and hung. If a woman confessed, her life was spared and she could
repent. “Ironically, those who would not confess to witchcraft and allow
themselves to be forgiven, yet who did not admit to sin, as any good Puritan
should, were executed.” [6] Lastly, since Puritans valued receptivity, passiveness,
and submissiveness among women and believed it was necessary for salvation, a
good Puritan woman would confess and beg for forgiveness. “In confessing, these
women succumbed to the unbearable pressures of their own community’s
expectations of proper female behavior.” [7] Women were damned if they
confessed and damned they protested their innocence.
In Chapter 5 Reis explains that in
the mid-eighteenth-century after the Salem witch trials, Puritans begin to take
more responsibility for their sins. Satan is seen as temptation toward evil
rather than physical entity possessing human souls. Although the devil is perceived
as less of a threat, gender inequalities continue in regards to sin. “Men tend
to blame their sins for corrupting their souls; women more often blamed their
corrupt souls for producing sinful behavior. [8] Women are still seen as
naturally vile and ultimately guilty.
1 Elizabeth Reis, preface to Damned Women:
Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England (New York: Cornell University Press,
1997), xii
2 Ibid., 174.
3 Ibid., 94.
4 Ibid., 162.
5 Ibid., 124
6 Ibid., 137
7 Ibid., 136
8 Ibid., 165
