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Word Count: 925
The history of witchcraft during seventeenth century New England is inherently a history of direct confrontations within communities where relationships become tainted with suspicion revenge and anger The documents in Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England have retold the events and stories of Puritan New England to give the modern reader an understanding of the repressive social institutions of religion and family structure which were controlling factors that lay behind the particular cases discussed in the book However in order to really interpret the structure of witchcraft it is important to consider that social tensions most likely a dispute or argument combined with personal or familial bad luck were the root of all these occurrences In New England the term witch in New England served as identification used for punishment revenge or both For the most part townspeople used this term to belligerent or troublesome people These witches were accused for making children sick causing animal deaths and inducing pain and suffering Or they could have been accused due to evidence of strange events or their mysterious character Perfect models of this characteristic would be Hugh and Mary Parsons Mary and Hugh Parsons lived in Springfield Massachusetts In chapter 2 of Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England the introduction clearly conveys that relationships within the Parson family were filled with problems With the towns houses built so close to each other it could be assumed that neighbors were able to hear every argument and fight that took place within the Parson household In the Puritan community the kind of behavior that was observed of the Parson was out of the ordinary Consequently when Mary accuses Widow Marshfield of witchcraft for an unknown reason it seriously damaged the Parsons social reputation something that the Puritans took very seriously Hall 29 From then on suspicions and lack of trust started to be associated with the Parsons Accusations of witchcraft often followed arguments that would increase the
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