side of the Atlantic. In addition, although men filed most of the charges of witchcraft against women, many came from other women. These might have been women who shared a distrust or dislike of nonconforming women. More likely, such considerations played little or no role in their charges; women accused other women because they sought to punish those causing harm in their community. Finally, according to one survey of seventeenth-century material, “no colonist ever explicitly said why he or she saw witches as women.” (Karlsen, 1987, p.153). Perhaps the tendency to single out women reflected the seventeenth-century assumption that women were morally and intellectually inferior to men and as a consequence were less able to resist Satan.
2.2. Age and Wealth
Age and wealth were also significant factors in witchcraft accusations. The young seldom had to fear suspicion or formal charges. The overwhelming majority of the accused were over forty. While older women of all levels of New England society might be accused, a higher proportion came from the ranks of the poor, but not the very poor (Aronson, 2003, p. 79).
2.3 Reputation
Many of the accused witches shared unsavory reputations. Some were known for their contentious behavior (Aronson, 2003, p. 88). For example, during Elizabeth Morse’s trial, several witnesses testified to heated confrontations with her. Also, like Morse, the accused often revealed special healing powers. It had become commonplace by the late seventeenth century for people to suspect spiteful, poor, older women of being witches. A witness of a witch hunt in Chelmsford, England, contended that villagers had come to suspect “every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy