>> From the Library Congress in Washington, D.C.
[ Silence ]   >> Mary Lou Reeker: Hello.
My name is Mary Lou Reeker [assumed spelling] and on behalf
of the Library of Congress' Office of Scholarly Programs
and the Kluge Center, I want to welcome you to a talk
by Dr. Dmitry Galtsin entitled "A Train of Disasters: Puritan Reaction
to the New England Crisis of the 1680's and '90's."
Dr. Galtsin came to Library as a Fulbright Fellow.
At home in St. Petersburg, Russia it is a researcher
in the rare book department at the Library
of the Russian Academy of Science.
He graduated from the history department
of Petro Sivosk State University in 2005.
And in 2009 received a Ph.D. in History
from the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy
of Science in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Dr. Galtsin has published broadly on topics related to his dissertation,
the Fall of the New England Theocratic Regime, 1685 to 1695,
as well as on other topics related to religion, literature
and has done a -- quite a bit of translation work as well,
particularly in the areas of music and musicology.
Here at the Library of Congress he is working
on a book concerning the New England Puritan Theocracy
of the late 17th century and he has used many primary resources,
particularly from the manuscript division and worked closed
as well the Humanities and Social division of the Library.
His aim is to draw closer attention to the field of American studies
in Russia and to contribute new insights into the Puritan phase
of U.S. history, particularly for a Russian audience.
By digging deeper into what the Puritans really thought
and to how they acted as politicians.
So help me please today to welcome Dr. Dmitry Galtsin.
[ Applause ]
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Thank you very much.
Can everybody hear me?   Can everybody understand my accent?
I will try to make it as distinct as possible and short as I can.
Yes, okay.
Great. So first of all, I want to thank the John W. Kluge Center
for their warm reception and for the opportunities I had for this half
of the year for research and for sharing just --
well, the experience and the things I was finding here.
I want specially to thank people from Rare Book Division
and from the Manuscript Division, especially Julie Miller
who paid attention to my work and carefully read my text.
Also I want to thank Cheryl Adams my supervisor
who is unfortunately not here also for her attention and for her care.
I think I will just get into the topic itself.
So I'll be talking chiefly about mantle reaction to political events.
First, I will have to dwell on some political issues
and then the main part of my talk will be developed the spiritual
atmosphere, especially to the area of sentiment and felling.
I must say -- I think -- I will be clearing it up the process.
So first of all, the starting point
of my talk is the concept (inaudible) Puritan theocracy.
I'm using it so here the -- well the land we will be dealing with so
in the 1th century this region
which is now still New England comprise several colonies both
at corporate and [inaudible] colonies including Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth, New Hampshire and Maine.
In a number of these colonies, especially Massachusetts, New Haven,
Connecticut and for some time New Hampshire and Maine,
historian's distinct political regime,
which is usually denoted as theocracy.
It's what you may call an essential intuitional term.
It means that everybody's using the term without trying
to clearly define it and maybe we shouldn't.
It will suffice to mention
that theocracy meant the official declarations
that the colony was established mainly for religious ends,
which meant that it was actually established
to practice the Puritan church discipline.
Then it has [inaudible] fixation for maintenance
of Puritan congregations, compulsory for everybody who were
and were not members of the congregations.
Then in at least two of the colonies, Massachusetts
and New Haven the right of freeman ship the electoral rights were
restricted to the church members, members of Puritan congregations
and then Puritan Bible [inaudible] served as source of law
as actually -- well as a lord so.
Some of these trades persisted even beyond the 17th century,
some even as far as the 19th century.
I will be dealing with the crisis
that actually brought the classical theocracy into collapse
in the end of 17th century.
The crisis is quite broadly covered in the scholarly literature,
but however, only as part of the narrative.
I'm trying to focus on it --
to focus on the period and to see what it was
for the people themselves.
The forces that shaped the crisis and the reaction to it
for the following; first of all, their end of relative isolation
of union colonies, which they enjoyed for half of 17th century.
In 1686 royal -- the crown has launched an administrative
experiment in New England placing several New England colonies --
well, actually all of them under one royal government, Sir Edmund Andros.
This was an experiment over which the contemporaries themselves
defined as French government.
It was a very central -- well very straightforward government
by a governor only without the assembly or any representative body.
And probably no wonder that it actually collapsed in --
not very violently in a Boston Revolution of April '89.
This military coo was styled revolution
by the contemporaries themselves as it --
well, to some extent coincided with the process
of glorious revolution in the mother country.
The Governor Andros with dominion officials was incarcerated.
And well, the separate colonies resumed their virtual independence
from the mother country for a short period.
Then in a short time in three years a new political also experiment came
from London where [inaudible] matter Boston pass
through you can see there.
One in huge order for the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
This was a political compromise since the Province
of Massachusetts Bay had royal appointed governor [background
noise] and a colonial assembly; however, most historians and well,
the contemporaries themselves feuded as the end of theocracy
since from 1691 and forward New England was under a very close --
well, sometimes not so close eye of the crown of London administration.
The isolation of the Puritan colonies has finally ended.
Though the first governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay,
Sir William Phips tried to embody the old actually theocratic ideal
of a godly ruler.
He was member of [inaudible] Matters Church a full [inaudible] --
well a converted saint.
Well his governorship was quite short
and it wasn't a great success actually, probably the worst
for not even in his governorship,
but in his political career was his defeat under Quebec when he tried
to seize and capture in 1690 and failed.
This expedition was actually part of King Williams' war, the first French
and Indian war that broke out in 1689
and the hostilities didn't well end in 18th century.
It also caused a financial crisis of 1690 when the first paper money
in America were issued in Boston in the same year.
And then of course Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692
and '93 the most notorious of all the events
of the crisis and of the decade.
I -- to some extent my report is actually centered it,
but I don't mention it very often.
So I look upon it as -- well, the -- the apex of the crisis.
Some sort of culmination which actually ended both the crisis
and probably the New England theocracy
as we know it in the 17th century.
I focused mainly on text written by New England [inaudible]
where I find instances of perceptional crisis.
I called it perceptional crisis my hypothesis is that actually all
of the events of the decade of the late '80's
and early '90's were too stressful for the Puritan elite to place it
in a working perspective.
They came too short a time and well, there were too many of it.
So I'm trying to see into very probably very complex,
intricate web of their sentiments and I don't know how I succeeded
in that so I would like your opinion on that.
So this the components of the action I will try to focus on.
Of course, this is not the reaction as is, it is only well, I --
maybe I should say the negative side of the reaction,
since the positive one is incorporated into the progressives
out in the -- out into the progressives scholarly paradigm
that's familiar and more recent historians
up to this date are employing when talking
about the political sentiment in Massachusetts and New England
and [inaudible] history of ideas in American --
in early colonial America.   So I will focus on several instances
that I think are overlooked in the literature.
So first of all, apocalypticism I think that indeed apocalypticism
in the decade was probably the most strong influence --
most strong of all the influences.
New England Puritans actually lived in a world that was very,
very soon to end in a final battle.
I will go to [inaudible] matter, he's one of my chief characters.
The '90's were his -- time of his command.
He was in his late 20's early 30's and this was the time when he
and his father and his mother actually enjoyed a very strong
political influence, though it was quite short in the early '90's.
So in the end of 1689 he said, in a sermon addressed
to the general court, "Whether we shall not shortly see the vintage
of the Papal Empire, whether the loss
of the second war trumpet be not just expiring
and the Turkish power be not within two or three years of that end
which will make him incapable of disturb Europe anymore.
Yea, whether the ghost of the Lord Jesus will not quickly have liberty
with an efficacy, not only in Papas countries,
but also in Pagan countries within these few years.
Whether the days not at hand when the kingdoms
of the world shall be the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
The same expectations persisted in the end of the decade;
however though their final victory was close,
it always darkest before dawn and so the world was perceived to be
in a very grievous condition.
So we'll look in their enemies more closely.
Just -- it's enough to say that the Puritans perceived themselves
as a lonely island of [inaudible] Christianity all
of American continent.
Riners Mulinsky spoke of an [inaudible] fever of the decade.
So I agree with him in that respect [inaudible] calculated
that the end will occur at 1697 and in this very year Samuel Sewell,
another prominent [inaudible] wrote a track [inaudible] where he tried
to prove that America was actually the place
of the new Jerusalem to come.
Then Boston Revolution not against Andros, but actually against Rome,
against Pope and it's [inaudible] it was Rome as anti-Christ was made
into subvert both new and old England and Salem witchcraft
of course was an instance very visible proof
that actually sentenced millions were close at hand.
From the end of the '80's there emerged a new general
in New England discourse .
I call it an upfront offensive sermon.
It probably sprung from the Jeremiah sermon that derailed the wolves
and backslide in generation of New England.
Now, it mostly dealt with goats [inaudible]
with the folds of New England.
First of these folds was [inaudible].
When dominion was launched as an administrative experiment
of course there came Anglican officials and Anglican ministers.
At first in New England Anglican parish
against chapel you can see it here, was founded in Boston
and before that, you can also see it here and we can use one
of the meeting houses of the congregation is
to conduct their services.   This was of course and outrage.
Such Anglican customs for example [inaudible] used the Christmas guy
folk's night was perceived by the elite by the pastors
as superstitious and idolatrous.
A lot of pamphlets came which condemned the formal worship
of Anglicanism even under very strict censorship
that existed here in the dominion.
They came out in London, in Boston -- well serendipitously printed.
[Inaudible] matter, [inaudible] matter, Joshua Muddy,
Samuel Willard all the most prominent preachers of Boston
of that time were preaching against Anglican service as Papas,
idolatrous, superstitious and so on and so on.
The interest attest that their flocks were interested
in the service probably because of the ritual and pageantry they used
of the new service of the new lifestyle.
After the revolution, well exactly on April the 18th of group
of King's Chapel's members were imprisoned,
had nothing to do at all with government.
They were imprisoned together the hated dominion officials.
So solely on their -- account of their being advocates.
After the revolution under the transitory period before the new
charter a lot of complaints came out of Boston from the Anglicans
from the Anglican ministers, from members of King's Chapel.
I'll quote some of them.
Some Bostonians and they were [inaudible] England adherence
and publicly hindered and obstructed the minister
and performance the funeral rights to such as had lived and [inaudible]
in the communion of the Church of England.
Such instances are actually --
well even corroborated by the Puritan pastors themselves.
Another quote, "Young Mr. Matter --
Courtland Matter, informed the people that the reason
for our calamities is permitting the little chapel
of the Church of England and monarchs.
It is insufferable for it to stand according
to him though it is battered and shattered most lamented already."
So [inaudible] that a mini wave
of iconoclasm it was actually probably the first instance
of iconoclasm in Boston
when Bostonians broke the windows in King's Chapel.
It persisted for the decade -- broke windows and damaged the buildings
and probably did some sort of psychic filers to the adherence
of the Church of England.
However, after the charter came out -- the new charter of 1691,
the Puritans reconciled to this Anglican parish
in the midst chiefly, probably
because William the III granted the charter to [inaudible] Matter.
Also informally promised that common prayer worship --
Anglican worship will not be pressed on New England.
This was actually the point of all Puritan aggression
and when they came to understand that it was not impressed
on them they ceased and Anglicans actually ceased
to be the fifth colony of New England.
However, the Quakers becomes the king's fifth [inaudible].
Shortly before that only in 1682 Pennsylvania was established
as a colony just very close to New England
and of course it launched sort of a crusade
of the Congregationalist ministers against the Quakers.
The Quakers throughout the decade --
the decade of the French and Indian war were not only condemned
for their cold and nonsensical blasphemy's and heresies,
but also for their passivism when they are called there
to defend the Indians and their bloody villain
and revile the country for defending itself against them.
So unlike the Anglicans the Quakers were actually not perceived
as just other, but the alien being made
in the discourse no better than the Indians.
So I come to the second point of their actions in a forebear.
New England tended to be homogenous throughout 17th century.
Not only in respect of religion, but also in respect of [inaudible].
And in the end of the 17th century when Boston trade prospered
and went -- well, when all this happened they demographical picture
was changing rapidly.
The French Huginaught immigrants -- the Irish immigrants --
well the resident Indians who have always been there.
And the black slaves whose number has increased greatly
in the last decade of the 17th century represented a non-English
and non-Puritan alternative for the region.
And of course the war in the condition of war
who are actually the [inaudible] and the hated people
of course they're enemies.
And those identified with the enemies.
Measures were taken to check both the praying Indians
who were always living under Massachusetts jurisdiction
and the newly come French Huginaughts were living there
against them.
Well so that there probably collaboration with the Indian
and French [inaudible] was checked and excluded.
The destruction of a little town of Salmon Falls
in March 1690's launched a wave of anti-Indian sentiment
that didn't find it later [inaudible] until 1699
when Courtland Matters [inaudible] looked towards them came
into the print.
This tract is variable because it has a lot of legal novellas in it
that to some extent probably represent the popular sentiment.
Anti-England sentiment was very [inaudible] example
for the Salem witch trials.
Mary Beth Norton author of a bestselling book
on Salem witchcraft argues that actually it was all the Indian fears
that helped to create the whole history and the whole crisis.
Indians were always perceived as living in the wilderness,
living close to Satan --
well, servicing the devil with their devilish practice,
but on in the '90's and well largely due to Courtland Matter they came
to be viewed as inhuman as devilish as well not English at all
and not actually well, very like, the English.
Right in about -- I [background noise] have here a picture
of an Indian woman [inaudible] from an early book,
[cough in background] 1659, but probably it is a good representation
of the image that 1690's pamphlets and sermons represent.
Indians were usually styled first things in the shape of man, bears,
tigers, [inaudible] and wolves, dogs and so on and so on.
Courtland Matter once asked very [inaudible] reader
who are the fathers of this [inaudible].
They were portrayed as treacherous, as ruthless as aggressive
and as always subversive to their order --
to the order of the society.
They didn't share the English notions of what was good and decent.
It may seem like some sort of a common place
because actually the Indians were always both very prominent
in New England apocalyptic
so in 1650 Joseph Meade the English man wrote
that America is actually the seat [inaudible] it will never be saved
and [inaudible] the Indians are created by God just
to attack the city of God at the end of saints millennial reign.
Though of course New England intellectuals could not agree
to this pessimism about America, still [inaudible] was very prominent
in the sermons that was read to the soldiers, to the magistrates
of the decade, the entire Indian rhetoric.
I'll quote from an early sermon preached to the soldiers,
[humming] "At the first appearance
of the 20 Pagans they encourage brave hearts, for one courageously.
[background noise] Yeah, but go the tract
of those ravenous [inaudible] wolves, then pursue them vigorously.
Turn them back until they are consumed.
Wound them that they shall not be able to rise, though they cry.
Let there be no one to save them, but be them small
as the dust before the wind and pass them out as the dirt in the streets.
Let not their expressions seem harsh if I say unto you, sacrifice them
to the ghost of the Christians whom they have murdered.
" So these were actually the words of a Christian minister on --
well probably not on a Sabbath, but at least on Christian meeting
on a Puritan meeting and this very minister would agree
that the chief aim of New England was
in America was actually to convert the Indians.
So you may just the mood in which they like to convert them.
Both David Lovejoy, the author of Expressions [inaudible] the Indian
and Seizing Gesture -- all ready cited,
tend to portray the anti-Indian sentiment
of the 17th century as invariable.
However, I think that only in the '90's --
only in Phillips war this topic of the devil is --
became actually prominent.
When we compare the writings of Courtland Matter and the sermons --
the anti-Indian sermons of the decade with for example,
the Captivity Narrative of the first -- well, the second Indian war --
King Phillips war of the 1670's, we see this difference that even
in the Captivity Narratives in the most famous narrative for example
of Mary Rolinson of course the Indians are brutal,
of course they are well sort of strange, but they're still humans.
And Mary Rolinson actually praises the kindness
that sometimes her captives showed
to her during her captivity while Courtland Matter
who probably never saw Indians, but in a slave market portrays them
as absolutely not human or under human.
And this was actually a decade maybe it was an instance
of an inner guilt towards the Indians because the chief --
the official aim of the Puritans was always to convert the Indians.
We go to America to convert the Indians and now in the end
of the 17th century, John Elliott, the outgoing king have died.
The praying towns were the converted Indians live were in decline.
Generally the mission for conversation of the Indians seemed
to be failing and so that was --
that could have been sort of a compensation.
However, despite the dominization of the Indians --
they were not the only folds,
they real brains behind the Indian attacks were the new France --
Roman Catholics.   The way of life of the French
and their religious practices were perceived probably as alien
and to some extent as harmful as wrong as those of the Indians.
I quote from a little passage from the [inaudible],
"One of the dead French have about his neck a pouch
with about a dozen relics ingeniously made up
and a printed paper of indulgences and several other implements,
but it seems none of the [inaudible] about his neck would have save him
from a mortal shot in the head.   " So they were both superstitious.
They both actually serve in the same master the [inaudible] --
the Indians are serving the [inaudible] by their Pagan practice
and the French are antichristian.
And the French probably were perceived even as more dangerous
and as more important as folds.
For some scores of years the Puritans in the sermons were hearing
that Rome was antichrist and flesh and blood.
That the [inaudible] Roman Catholicism was actually the very
powers of darkness with which the saints are bound to fight and now
in the '90's for the first time
in New England history they actually faced -- well physically the folds,
the French and of course their action was quite predictably.
William Phipps, before he was a governor, when he led an expedition
to [inaudible] in Nova Scotia,
he writes well they did there [inaudible] we cut down the cross,
rifled the church, pulled down the aisle to breaking their images.
Later in the same year 1690's during the siege of Quebec,
life was [inaudible] were aiming at a picture
of the holy family hung on a Belpre.
So also iconoclasm, also these religious [inaudible]
which also had political demonstrations
because actually the Roman Catholics were perceived as plotting
against New England and James the II who was deposed
by William the III during the Glorious Revolution was a Roman
Catholic and so this was always -- this also had a political import.
Another thing probably is that it was part
of a more broad English sentiment against the French.
The French became the dominant power of the Papal Empire
and all the forces of darkness since 1685
when the additive nun was revoked and the Huginaughts,
The French Huginaughts refugees who came
into New England were quite a few
of them actually though they were considered as co-religion is
to the Puritans, they were restricted.
They were prohibited to inhabit the frontier and the [inaudible] regions
and towns during the war by the general court.
There was also a sentiment against the Irish, but I will not dwell
on that since the Irish were probably less prominent
in the discourse then, the French and the Indians.
So for the first time in the history
of New England [inaudible] they majority of [inaudible]
that probably came from grassroots level occur
in the high style text written by the elite so they refer
to the Indians, to the French and to the Irish.
In the face of this culturally alien the New Englanders very often forgot
that they were actually distant from the corrupt --
the religiously corrupt mother country and fought
in New England a very separate and very special land --
special for its godliness and for its mission
in the perspective of sacred history.
So this is a phobia of the decade is probably also part of this coming
to terms with itself as New England was formulating the new identity
in the face both of the Anglicans, the British and the enemies,
the French and the Indians.
Now I come to quite the opposite sentiment, which is Shane.
Shane was always a part of New England life
since Puritism [inaudible] a very deep [cough in background] concern
about the state of one's soul and therefore the understanding
of one's guilt, but in this decade there emerged a shame
of some other sort .
I have here -- well the title page and two [inaudible]
from Riders British [inaudible] an almanac printed in London.
Yes?   >> What happened [inaudible] ?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Okay.   >> [Inaudible].
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Okay.
Thanks. So this is Riders British [inaudible] an almanac for 1691.
This is from [inaudible] Matter's papers
from Manuscript Division of Library of Congress.
What is interesting in this almanac is
that here we can see a general geographical descriptions
of the world including [inaudible] African American.
And under the head of America, New France, California
and other lands are mentioned, but not New England.
So you may imagine how a Puritan who came to London to plead the cause
of New England may have felt when he opened this description and say
that his very peculiar country was not even mentioned.
Yes.   >> It's still hard to hear.
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: You still can't hear me?
>> Yeah. Can you speak louder and [inaudible].
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Okay.   Now, can you hear me?
[Background noise] Okay.
So a new tone emerges in the literature of the 1690's.
The tone of the Provincial ashamed of their own backwardness.
The preface to attract that is addressed to --
well a prospective British reader -- sorry.
"And if a war between us and a handful of Indians" --
this is the King Williams word.   Yes?
>> [Inaudible].   Okay. Let's see if that works.
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Now, can you hear me?
>> Better.   >> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Okay.
"And if a war between us and a handful
of Indians may seem no more --
appear no more than [inaudible] to the world around us,
yet unto us at home it had been considerable enough
to make it a history."
[Inaudible] the battle of frogs and mice,
so this is how the New Englanders perceived
that they were perceived abroad in England.
Courtland Matters of course was quite neurotic,
but this was not only Courtland Matter,
the old party Courtland Matter, [Inaudible] Matter, Joe [inaudible],
even Samuel Willard to some extent were writing about the decline
in degradation that was quite normal.
That feat with the rhetoric
of Puritan Jeremiah, but they're opponents.
Thomas Brattle who was the first to write
against this Salem witchcraft trials.
Gresham Moultly was writing
against the revolution that over threw Andros.
They concurred in the notion that New England was actually degrading
and that it was a general moral
and political decline going on in the region.
I can also quote; however, for instance when Xenia phobia added
to the bitterness of the -- of this guilt.
Courtland Matters says to his flock when speaking about the Indian war,
"Shout our heavenly Father, put a road into the hand of base Indians
and be them to scorch his children should a child
of yours be a refractor in you sir should beat an Indian slave
in your house.
Go take that child and scorch him till you fetch blood of him.
Surely this will be to humble him to the uttermost."
[Background noise] And finally, I come to the conspiracy sentiment,
which actually probably the main trait of the decade.
Boston Revolution was justified by a Paupish plot.
It was represented as a self-defense of the colonies against Andros
and the dominion officials who were thought to be engaged
in a plot including the French and the Indians
to over throw the Protestant religion and probably
to butcher the Protestants of New England.
It was not only in the declaration of gentleman of Boston that was read
on the first day of the revolt, but also in the so called Andros tract
that came afterwards to justify the revolution and people who did it.
There we find several depositions of the mariners
who were supposedly taken captive by a French fleet
and learned some details about the plot.
The essence of their depositions is that
"This is the largest Andros tract revolution New England justified.
Sir Edmund Andros, late governor of New England has sent
to the French king for them the French fleet to come over
and he would deliver the country in their hands.
The French, however, having lost several of their ships
in their voyage and hearing that Sir Edmund Andros was taken and now
in hold, would not proceed at present, but threatened
that they would do next summer."
This 1689 so the war is just starting
and no one is expecting a short war.
Even more numerous were the positions found at the sort
of literature that accused Andros of complicity
with the Indians against New England.
Andros was not only accused of giving gunpowder and bullets
to the [inaudible] which actually did as part of a truce,
but also "haven't hire the macaws to find the English and set a plot
to destroy first Boston, then other New England towns
with the united forces of Indians, French and Irish."
Andros was also portrayed
as preaching Roman Catholicism to the [inaudible].
The depositions represent a vision of a very intricate conspiracy --
well of all anti-Puritan, New England forces aimed
at the destruction of the religion and of the colony.
And probably these rumors were chief force that made people desert Andros
in 1689 and come to Boston to participate in the revolt.
All these depositions -- all these accusations were actually perceived
as hoax even in the days of revolution,
but still the Salem witchcraft shows
that such conspiracy narratives were very deeply imbedded
in the [inaudible] imagination.
Out of a few mentions of religious meetings that the witches had
for worship and Saturn was first made
by Abigail Hobbs in April of 1692.
Then by July there came a very elaborate representation
of the plot.
Ann Foster, "Heard some of the witches say that there was 305
in the whole country and that they would ruin the place --
the village and that the discourse among the witches at the meeting
at Salem village was that they should afflict there
to set up the devils kingdom."
William Barker of [inaudible] put it straight.
The Saturn's design was to set up his own worship,
abolish all the churches in the land, to fall next upon Salem
and so go will the country.
He said the devil promised that all his people should live bravely
and all persons should be equal.
That there should be no date of resurrection or of judgment
and neither punishment nor shame for sin.
So this he received the same conspiracy
that the soldiers Andros feared.
And to conclude I think I must mention the very paradigm I was
hinting at the beginning.
So the picture as historian present it of the decade is quite optimistic
so from an isolated a Puritan traditional community
in New England is moving towards a more open an Old Atlantic community,
but however, we see that the whole of the theocracy,
the hold of these Puritan thinking and of the concepts
that were also imbedded in the preaching
of the years before the '80's and the '90's was very active
and it was actually put into real life
so Salem witchcraft is actually the Jeremiah,
the Puritan sermon come true.
When you can actually see the force you've been told
about for some score of years.   So this is probably it.
I would be happy to listen to criticism, your questions and so on.
Thank you.   [ Applause]
>> Yes.
>> [Inaudible] what level of literacy did they have?
Meaning did virtually all of Puritans were they literate,
could they read not only in English [inaudible] Latin?
Was the King James version number one Bible
that they were using [inaudible] so forth, is this [inaudible]?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Thank you for the question.
Yes, actually the level of literacy in New England was higher
than in England -- in Old England, but we still can't say that it was
like all the Puritans were literate.
Of course it was actually policy of the bureaucracy to spread education
as -- well as far as they could.
At least -- well, the majority in the town should be able
to read, probably not write.
So for example, the governor Sir Williams Phipps found it very
difficult to write.
So the reach of the schools of the schools established by towns was not
as far as one give the expression --
the impression from reading the tracts --
the [inaudible] tracts of the Puritans.
The literacy probably in an average, not in Boston,
but an average New England town -- I mean, the --
wellbeing versed in the New England [inaudible] came not
from the printed book or from a written word, but from a sermon.
It was very much a hearing culture --
a listening culture and people could see
to it two hours later well probably much easier than we can.
And in this respect even the illiterate girls from Salem,
illiterate girls and illiterate housewives they represent
that they were actually acquainted with the concepts
that the Puritan divines wrote in the tracts because of the sermons
because all the preachers
to some extent were well quite sophisticated.
Most of them were from Harvard and Harvard was actually made
to make preachers in this New England village of towns.
And to this extent we can say that it was a culture of the book.
There are very good studies of the literacy in New England.
David Holt wrote a lot about that.
And speaking about the Latin literature,
of course Harvard had Hebrew, Greek and Latin classes.
Latin was probably second reading and writing language
for all the pastors, especially the leading pastors like Matter
or Willard and Joseph Meads tracked on apocalypse
that was very prominent that was widely read in the decade
by Samuel [inaudible], by Courtland Matter,
that was well that haunted the imagination of the Puritans
that decade was initial written Latin -- in Latin.
So English version came a bit later so probably it is special to find
in the text the instances of some well references to Latin works
that they could have read Latin works of their -- of the decade.
And also, well the exchange -- the book exchange between Old
and New England was actually amazing so because Samuel Paris pastor
of Salem Village was very prominent.
In the witchcraft trials says that he read a book in 1692
that was issued in London in 1691.   So it was very quick.
Well taking account that the voyage took from three to six months.
>> Hundreds of books maybe hundreds of books,
maybe even thousands [inaudible] different books come
over and were available?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Well, I can't say about hundreds and thousands --
I don't remember [inaudible] Matters library it's about that.
And this was one of the largest.   Harvard Library of course had more.
>> [Inaudible]?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Well, the same accusations were against women
and men alike that they -- though they contracted with the devil
that they signed a pact --
a [inaudible] with the devil that they worshipped he and as part
of that worship that they tortured other innocent people coming to them
as specters will as phantoms.
So this spectral evidence was the main distinctive feature
of the Salem trials that when a certain person said that the spectra
of such and such is torturing me and then the judges took
that for granted -- took that as evidence
of guilt of this such and such.
>> [Inaudible] I was just wondering [inaudible]?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: To the others?
>> Yeah.   >> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Yes.
>> Could you repeat the question?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Repeat the question.
>> [Inaudible] --   >> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: So okay.
So the question was about the Salem trials and whether it was a sort
of mass hysteria or it actually was aimed
against well probably new sentiment in the mosque like [inaudible]
but some doubts concerning Congregationalist doctoring
or even again some, you said for religious group?
And it was also mentioned that it is sort of curious because the Puritans
that were persecuted at home now started to persecute others.
So actually concerning
which [background noise] witchcraft trials,
probably we don't know what it is and perhaps we will never know that.
So there are lots of theories -- lots of scores have read thousands,
probably thousands of books over --
all pieces of about that -- about Salem witchcraft.
Of course it was -- so we can be sure
that there was no witches there.
So well in the respect that there was probably no harmful magic
perpetrated in Salem witchcraft.
The only magic actually performed during the Salem witchcraft was
defensive magic against the witches to protect oneself.
And about the [inaudible] so on I don't think
so because all the both the accusers and the accused
in the witchcraft cases they show a very well deep commitment
to the Congregationalist outlook.
So it was probably from the point of view of Courtland Matter
or [inaudible] Matter, of course --
or from the point of view of such laymen at Joshua Scott [inaudible].
It was a good point to say to the [inaudible] that Luke,
you're doubting and here we have a proof
that the invisible world actually exists, but it was only sort
of a byproduct of the whole process and it was not the main
because actually Salem witchcraft aroused a lot
of shame in the Puritans.
The shame came not -- came first of all from the fact
that these trials gained Old Atlantic publicity
so everybody will.
In England, for example in the Caribbean --
the English Caribbean people were talking
about what was happening in New England.
And the picture was like this, they,
the Puritans say they are a godly community.
How come that in a godly community there are witches
who actually hurt their neighbors?
That there are so many of them and so on and so on and so on,
whether they are not a godly communities and actually hypocrites
or well something has gone wrong.
So the rationalization of the Puritans themselves was
that we're attacked by the witches because we're the best.
So the devil has special [inaudible] towards us.
Yes, please.
>> You just mentioned the Caribbean, but when we looked
at Virginia [inaudible] .
The way I understand it [inaudible] mostly there to be militant
by the colonial power [inaudible] .
New England as theocracy totally contradicts this mission
of [inaudible] because it seems to me that [inaudible] of a future --
everything that you've just described in any way conducive
to producing of [inaudible] .
So is there a part [inaudible] about that,
especially the way how the mother land reacts the Puritans
[inaudible] ?   >> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Okay.
Thank you for the question.
Well, actually yes, for the mother country, New England was a very,
very, troublesome region.
They said that the Puritans well the New Englanders were famous
for their -- or infamous for their thievish humor.
So that they would not tolerate
for example a royal governor an Anglican.
They want one of their own.
They won't tolerate when people came and just pointed to the fact
that they are doing it wrong in the courts.
They actually before the dominion they didn't have an oath to a king.
They had only to the commonwealth so to Massachusetts
or to Connecticut -- in case of Connecticut [cough in background].
And in respect of Americantolism probably
and New England have these period of isolation during virtually the whole
of the 17th century, due to the fact that they had not staple goods.
So they had nothing to offer actually the broad British Enquirer.
Then in the late 17th century Boston became a --
sort of a turning point for the Atlantic trade
and this attracted just the crown officials and the colonial theorists
of the Charles the II era.   So there was given a new way
of building an empire -- the navigation acts.
The new system of trade or exchange of goods
and probably people inside the Atlantic world.
New England was like -- there was a project of New England,
what New England should be, but it was very difficult to carry it
out so the dominion of New England was an attempt to make a huge colony
that will be ruled directly from London actually
and that will be well that will be submissive --
that will do what it must do in well in the whole system and it failed.
It failed due to many facts not just because of New Englanders
but for other -- because of William the III,
because without William the III they really would probably [inaudible].
They committed high treason.   They jailed a royal governor.
And it also happened that it never happened and even
in the 18th century -- placed in the start of the 18th century,
as far as I know New England remained sort
of a blind spot in this whole Empire.
>> [Inaudible]?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: So were they actually carrying for profit?
Well, were they working?   Well, yes actually.
There was a whole class of Boston merchants who were very skeptical
about the Puritan cause and who actually interested in profit
and they became very influential in that decade.
They helped to overthrow Andros because they didn't
like his regulation of trades.
And while there generally an alternative that actually won
in the long run because it was the Boston merchants
that they then shaped the post Puritan face of New England.
>> I actually was thinking in terms of [inaudible] and thinking
about the Spanish [inaudible].
And some of the issues that you talk about in terms of their reaction
to the Puritans you can find as well in the [inaudible].
So I'm wondering what happens [inaudible]
in this particular event [inaudible] ?
>> Dr. Dmitry Galtsin: Thank you for the question.
Yes, apocalyptic is most actually very important in the life
of 17th century Europeans and Christians generally.
Well 17th century's a very disturbing century,
a lot of things happened that may [inaudible] the very end.
Their unprecedented before.   Take for instance the [inaudible] ,
so people were actually making just making bets whether [inaudible] we
will succeed and whether the Jewish kingdom will be resumed
in Palestine.
So and there were lots of other events, for example the creation
of the French Empire, the plagues, the upheavals, the Turkish Empire,
the ultimate empire that was [inaudible] that was stopped
in its progress and I think that at apocalyptic is
such could not be the distinctive feature of New England, but however,
New England had their own intellectual history of well
that was mainly formed by the 17th century and in 17th century
that had certain stereotypes of themselves.
And in '80's and '90's these stereotypes were very --
severely tested against the reality.
And so this is where from both Xenia phobia and Shame came
so they thought they were godly people so we have the witches.
How can witches be torturing the godly people.
They thought they were immune from the enemies
that God actually kept them and here they see the French and the Indians
who are trying to destroy.
So will God permit to do that, maybe we are too sinful to do it.
I tried to focus on the very reaction on how they tried to manage
with the crisis with the ideas they had,
so with a very New England ideas they had.
Of course I think it you compare -- if you compare to what was happened
for example in New York under Jacob [inaudible],
there was also well a coo, there was also a transitory government.
I don't think you can find their --
this sort of [inaudible] you can find this for example this interest
in the view of itself, what we are.
So this question of who we are indeed.
How do we stand in the eye of God as a community?
So I don't think it troubled much for example the Virginians or people
in Maryland even the Puritans in Maryland or in New York.
>> Mary Lou Reeker: Dmitry, I'm afraid I'm going to have
to say it's [background noise] time.
I know that there's more questions we're going to have to do
that afterwards and wrap this up.   I'm sure you'll stay around .
Okay. Thank you very much.   [ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.