Kira Castle

Dr. Burke
ENGL 414A
November 4, 2015
LSW Historical Fiction: Witch of Blackbird Pond
In The Witch of Blackbird Pond the historical time period plays
a large part in the major events of the story. The setting is New
England in the 1600s, in a time of major political and religious
separation. One of the most important pieces of the historical setting is
the major influence religion had at the time. Having different religions
was often a major point of dislike towards other people, even a source
of distrust. One very relevant example of this is Hannah Tupper and her
Quaker religion. Simply put, Quakers believed that God lives in
everyone therefore everyone can find God with an inner light.
Puritans contrarily believed that humans are sinful and hopeless in the
eyes of God. Essentially, Quakers had a very positive view on
humanity, while Puritans were highly critical and pessimistic of human
nature. It is even more useful to note that Puritans believed that the
devil was present in everyday life. Because Hannah is a Quaker, and
has a highly different belief than the majority of New England, she was
outcasted. This is essential to the plot, if her religion was the norm,
there would be no point for Hannahs character in the story.

Another very important part of the historical setting was the

common blaming of unfortunate events on the supernatural. This has
been seen all throughout history, before more scientific and medical
theories could be put to the test. It was easier to make up an
understanding for something and why it happens, than to just go on
living without an explanation. Because of this, supernatural entities
were created to explain the unfortunate happenings in peoples lives.
One small (unrelated) example of this was the creation of the myth of
the banshee in Ireland. The Banshee was said to cry when death of a
family member is impending. It was something that made sense to the
people of the time, and helped them to grasp an unexplainable
happening. Just like this example, the creation of the legend of witches
was the peoples way to blame something for death, disease, and
things that generally went wrong. It was much easier to understand
that a witch caused people to get sick in town, and focus on getting rid
of one person. Hannah and Kit were both targeted in this story. The
town chose to blame the outcastes for their problems, because it is
much easier to do than accept the fact that sometimes bad things
happen to good people.
Finally, another relevant piece to the historical setting was the
treatment of women at the time this story took place. Women were
known to be less than men. They were expected to be well behaved,
subservient to men, and act in a very specific way. This is crucial to

understanding why Kit was so different. She could read, write, swim,
and felt free to express herself, even to strangers. This was unheard of
for the women of the town. It was easy for the townspeople to see her
and immediately agree that she did not belong. This was just one of
the many factors that drove the plot of Kit and her journey from
outcast to accepted.