“Women were damned if they did and damned if they didn't…”

“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