... you consider ninety-five per cent of all formal accusations for witchcraft in North America and ninety per cent of all executions for witchcraft in North America, all happened in puritan New England, puritanism can not so easily be dismissed. New Englanders had a wide range of beliefs we would now most probably term superstitions or myths. These, for example, included the belief in mermaids. One of their principle beliefs was the belief in providential magic, that is searching for signs in the natural world for God's approval or disapproval. Everything, they believed, had a meaning and thus in their thinking there was no such thing as an accident or co-incidence. On top of this we can add their firm belief in the Devil, whose work was carried out on earth by witches. When everything has got a greater meaning, bad luck can look like witchcraft. Puritanism was a highly individualistic creed. The ...

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