![]() The stereotypes of the time held that women were predisposed to sin: they were seen as more sexual, more tempted by material goods and more in need of a guiding authority, “specifically in the form of the church or a father or husband,” Howe says. But, perhaps more importantly, there were social reasons for women to be more frequently accused. ![]() Part of the reason, as historian Elizabeth Reis has written, was physical: Puritans believed that the Devil had an easier time gaining access to women’s physically weaker bodies. One element that the prevailing wisdom does get right, however, is that most people believed to be witches at the time were women-though not because gender was part of the definition of a witch. When children got involved, it was usually as the object of a witch’s interest. ![]() And though Salem is noted for the youth of the accusers, Howe says that more often “accusers were women who were peers of, often longstanding acquaintances of or neighbors of, the woman being accused.” Suspected witches and their accusers were also more likely to be middle-aged. “It was actually kind of hard, believe it or not, to try somebody as a witch.” According to one calculation, the conviction rate-excepting Salem and confessions-was under one in five. The extent and intensity of the incident in Salem have helped it remain famous, but Howe says that fame gives us a skewed view of the history of witches in the U.S.Ī more typical witch trial “would usually be one woman, or occasionally two, often who’d had a bad reputation for quite some time,” Howe says. But what happened in Salem was also “highly anomalous,” says bestselling author and witch expert Katherine Howe, who edited and annotated the Penguin Book of Witches.
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