Violence In 17th Century America During The Seventeenth Century

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The large amount of diverse interactions that went about during the seventeenth century set the stage for a clash in culture and beliefs that ultimately caused enormous amounts of violence. While in some senses violence was a necessary act for survival for settlers, the main four reasons for the enormous amount of violence in the time period were, greed, entitlement, and fear. The violence happening during 17th century America ranged from wars, to witch hangings and acts of terrorism. It was a time of very little mercy for people who were not culturally the same. One of the most basic reasons for the violence in early part of American history, was the need for survival. People who were armed and ready for violence were the ones that were going to survive the frontier of the new world. Even women in the time period were expected to contribute to survival . They knew how to how to plant, and how to use canoes among…show more content…
Fear is what was the driving force behind violence such as the Salem witch trials. The pilgrims were afraid of the unknown, they believed that the woods were where demonic forces lived, they were overall very paranoid and looked for things to be afraid of. This was primarily due to the need for explanation of the harshness of pilgrim life including things such as crop failure and disease. They needed to blame misfortune on someone so they turned to blaming women who were supposed “witches.” There was so much violence in this time, that people were constantly afraid of someone attacking them. One example of setters actions based on fear was the destruction of the praying towns they had set up. They were so afraid that the Indians they had taken under their wing would retaliate against them that they executed almost all of
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