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Title: Damned women: sinners and witches in Puritan New England
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Historians agree that the book deals with a significant topic. When investigating the course of events at Salem, historians guess the suppositions about gender - maleness and femaleness – being presented in Puritan cosmology. The writer of this work explores how gender systems intersect in religious issues, during the courts, depicting the proscription of women's "sinful natures" and men's "natural sins". She discusses that men saw their sin as particular ungodly acts, while women understood their sin as inborn in their natures, far less easily opposed.
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In her description of the cultural formation of gender in early America, Elizabeth Reis examines the influence of Puritan theology, Puritan estimations of women. She finds in that impact the essential for comprehension why women were accused of witchcraft more frequently than men, why they confessed more frequently, and why they often accused other women of being witches. Women and men were afraid of hell equally but the Puritan culture further women to believe that it was their evil natures which would take them there rather than the specific sins they may have done.
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In her book, Elizabeth Reis starts from the question," What was it about New England Puritanism that connected women more tightly with the devil?" Reis thinks that the answer can be found in Puritan comprehension of the physical: "The body, for the most part, also entangled women. Puritans believed that Satan attacked the soul by assaulting the body. Because in their view women's bodies were weaker, the devil could reach women's souls more easily and breach these “weaker vessels” with greater frequency".
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Reis also explores the Puritan comprehension of women's souls as more unprotected to the forces of darkness: "Women were in a double bind during the witchcraft episodes. Their souls, strictly speaking, were no more evil than men's, but the representation of the vulnerable, perpetually unsatisfied, and yearning female soul, passively waiting for Christ but always open to the devil as well, implicated corporeal women themselves.
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It should be noticed that historians have estimated the religious context of the witchcraft courts, so the author examines how Puritan theology acted as a lived religion. Her description concentrates on "the darker side" of Puritan religious showing that she believes was a spring of high anxiety for the laity. Both men and women lived with the sense of original sin. Reis's investigates Puritan belief about the devil by examining what ministers preached to their parish about their great nemesis Satan. Puritans gave great power to Satan who "was a real presence on the supernatural landscape".
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