Enders Anthony Robinson

Pathway to Witchcraft Enders Anthony Robinson

The Puritans voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean to establish a new model of Christian fellowship which they called the "New England Way." The people continually had to review what qualities distinguished them from the rest of mankind. The history of New England in the seventeenth century is dominated by three great crises. These three calamities are Antinomian, Quaker, and Salem witchcraft. The seriousness of these crises was demonstrated by the Puritans' strong reaction to them. They were objects of wide public concern and they affected the young settlement in decisive ways. Throughout recorded history, witch hunts have occurred from time to time. They are all impostures, sanctioned by the governing authorities, and playing upon the fears of the people. It was not the leaders of the colony but it was the people themselves that resolved the Salem witchcraft crisis. In fact, in was that resolution that helped to form the position of New England in the world as whole. In trying to reconstruct how the people thought about things, it is still useful to search the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). In fact, his ancestor William Hathorne was active in the maltreatment of the Quakers and his ancestor John Hathorne played a decisive role in the atrocities of the witch hunt. His accounts of his ancestry have ambivalence, with shame felt for their cruelty coupled with pride in their importance. Nathaniel Hawthorne was free to write and produce his great works, not because of these two poor representatives of his ancestry, but because of the struggle of many Americans, some of whom were martyrs, to achieve freedom for all. We can only admire Nathaniel Hawthorne for his genius in preserving this American drama in literature, despite the personal pain incurred in feeling the guilt he attributes to his ancestors.