Comments on: “Early American Murder Narratives”

By: David Voelker

David Voelker — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:44:55 +0000

FINAL COMMENT

Most of you seem to accept the idea that the Puritans had a stronger sense of community than more modern Americans. This sense of community, rooted in shared beliefs, seemed to extend even to murderers who were being executed.

As New Englanders (and white Americans more generally) accepted a more positive view of human nature, they could no longer fit heinous criminals into their vision of humanity.

I would agree with Professor Halttunen, then, that contemporary horror films — and our labeling of some criminals as “sick” — help protect a shared faith in the general goodness of humanity.

The contrast that Halttunen sketches between the Puritan and liberal views might also lead us to question our modern-day picture of human nature.

By: Adam Klug

Adam Klug — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:18:37 +0000

I agree with Jordan on this one. The whole murder itself was always hidden, but they parade the offender out in front of the masses and execute them to hold the masses in check. I think they used it as a scare tactic, as in they are saying if you do the same thing this is what is going to happen to you as well.

By: Shawn Niemann

Shawn Niemann — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:59:53 +0000

I definetely see a strong sense of community in this article. As many others have pointed out as well, the actions of one person was directly correlated with the actions of the entire community. This idea is somewhat retained in today’s society. When someone acts wrongly, we tend to find blame in something whether its how they were treated by peers or what type of music or other media they were interested in. The only thing different is that today, when someone commits a horrible deed, we try to distance ourselves as much as possible, whereas the Puritans embraced the person and tried to help them [their soul] as best they could.

By: Eric Bansemar

Eric Bansemar — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:31:01 +0000

The shift in the social description of murder from the Puritan to the Gothic view seemed like an acknowledgement by many that punishment for murderers was to be the paramount concern, and that attempting to rationalize their action as the result of innate depravity was branding all people as evil when it was really only the murderer who was evil. And although this shift occured a couple of centuries ago, it is still the dominant line of thought on this matter, although there are still religious people whose thoughts would be more in line with the Puritans.

By: Matt Micksch

Matt Micksch — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:38:20 +0000

It is interesting how there is a dramatic difference between the portrait of murder today as it was in the timeline of this essay and within the lifestyle with the Puritans. With Puritans, murder was more of a sin for all who knew. It didn’t matter if the neighbor was the convict, or if it was someone whom no one knew. It was simply a social community sin. In this essay, Murder is more portrayed as a white lie would be. Individuals would attempt to “cover up” to protect one another. And today, murder is a social and governmental wrong. Reading this essay helped take a look at how communities change socially and ethically over time.

By: Thoams

Thoams — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:59:20 +0000

Agreeing with Michelle on the bases of the Puritans taking in the murderer as a social problem not an outcast is true. In today’s society we are too eager to point out a murderer as a social outcast and just send them off to die. As pertaining to question number two above I believe Halttunen set up Puritanism as a favorable way of life. She showed the Puritans as a community based society, not an individual one. When someone committed a murder it was considered to be the whole communities’ fault, by allowing that person to fall into the hands of the devil. So yes Halttunen did shed a favorable light onto the Puritans by show their strength as a caring and compassionate community for their fallen sinners.

By: Matt Streckenbach

Matt Streckenbach — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:27:33 +0000

Why not join in? In agreeing that Puritan’s blamed themselves for what happend in there own communities. In that they did look inward compared to what we do today in placing the blame outward from our own community and blaming those whom did it an not asking ourselves maybe it was us who messed up along the way? Personal self blame is a powerful thing and possible a tool for denial.

By: Ryan Heck

Ryan Heck — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:17:22 +0000

I agree with what most of the people are saying. The Puritans blamed themselves when a murder occurred. They supported the murderer to try and show them the right path. In today’s society we blame everyone else for mistakes. As a society we tend not to help people to get on the right path either.

By: Ben Wolf

Ben Wolf — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:53:42 +0000

Chase makes a fantastic point! We as a society today are not even close to what the puritan believed their role in executions were. They almost “rallied around” the killer. Today we look at the murderer as a monster and a person worth nothing to us. Are we really a tolerant and loving society for thinking this way? The puritans believed that they had certain responiblility for letting this person get this way. It would be interesting to see what kind of world it would be if we thought that way?

By: Chase Hedrick

Chase Hedrick — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:38:20 +0000

Puritan Murder Sermons were an interesting way in dealing with the execution of a community member who had fallen into evil and committed an atrocious sin. In contrast with the way we deal with murderer’s in today’s society, placing a strong divide between us and them, Puritans came together as a community with the convicted killer to recognize the “evil” that exists in the world. I agree with Richard that the community didn’t forgive the murderer. But by coming together they certainly realized a vulnerability that exists inside all of us to fall into sin, and with this perspective probably found more reason to live accordingly to Puritan practices recognizing the darkness which preys on individuals who are not strong in their faith.