Because the white religions condemn him, the "black woodsman" or "old scratch" seems to revel in the persecution of whites. He notes that the Indians, who first settled the woods where he lives, would sometimes burn a white man as a "sweet-smelling sacrifice." He's also proud of persecuting Quakers and Anabaptists. He calls the whites savages. Since he is the devil, however, he does not reserve his evil just for religious whites, but is also...
Because the white religions condemn him, the "black woodsman" or "old scratch" seems to revel in the persecution of whites. He notes that the Indians, who first settled the woods where he lives, would sometimes burn a white man as a "sweet-smelling sacrifice." He's also proud of persecuting Quakers and Anabaptists. He calls the whites savages. Since he is the devil, however, he does not reserve his evil just for religious whites, but is also linked with slave dealers who oppress blacks and as a "grandmaster" who sat in judgement at the Salem witch trials. The fact that he is described as a "black man" does not mean he is African. He is black because that is a color associated with evil. At the end Tom Walker is taken away by a black man on a black horse. That whites are now the predominant population in the area around his woods makes them his prime target. He lures white men such as Deacon Peabody and Tom Walker into a pact whereby they exchange their souls for great wealth. He does seem to have some kinship with the Native Americans in the area who "consecrated" the woods in his name. Of course, the Native Americans have all been "exterminated" by the whites, another deed that he probably had a hand in.
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