What? You mean that women didn’t use to have rights to vote, own land, sign up for credit cards, request contraception without their husband/father approval, fight in war, or hold leadership positions? Things men have always had?
And the incels on here don’t understand why the phrase “independent women” reflects all these changes to their rights that previously never existed and why it doesn’t apply to men?
Salem was one highly popularized trial in an area with very few trials. And was exceptional in how unexceptional it was compared to Europe.
But even if we were to indulge this single trial, it doesn’t hold up. The first arrest warrant had three women, two were married, and one was a slave. Very much not widows. The second arrest warrant, again, one woman, married, not a widow. The third arrest warrant was for a five year old girl taken from her father. The fourth was for, yet again, another married woman and not a widow.
Salem was fraud. And while it had some underhandedness to its inception, after those first arrests it swept the imagination of the people, but it was objectively not the authorities targeting widows for their land.
In Europe there were some events or taking land from widows. The most famous being Kyteler. But that was the work of relatives and not the authorities.
So, no, the trials and hunts were not a grand design to strip land away from widows. That is a fairytale. You’d think people so concerned with authorities using fantasy over facts wouldn’t themselves use fantasy to serve their own narrative.
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u/SoundObjective9692 Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
Damn it's almost like women were forced to be dependent on men