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Salem Possessed: The Salem Witchcraft Trials

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Between 1692 and 1693, in Salem Village, Massachusetts, the Salem witch trials were taking place. In the event, many were accused of witchcraft and some were even executed. This event had left many curious as to what caused the people to accept witchcraft and treat it as a crime. To explain the trials, Paul Boer and Stephen Nissenbaum wrote the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft in which they analyzed and broke down key components of the witch trials. In the book, Boer and Nissenbaum argues that the underlying cause of the tension between the Salem Town and Salem Village is that Salem Village wanted to make a separate town and church. That is because Salem Village felt that they were abandoned by Salem Town. During the whole witch trials, economic changes were taking place in both Village and Town of Salem. The Salem Town were changing into a more commercially involved Town. …show more content…

Boer and Nissenbaum believed that he could be one of what caused the witch trials because he was given wealth by Thomas Putnam, his father, who did not give any to his children from the first marriage after he had died. This caused resentment by Thomas Putnam Jr. and his siblings towards Joseph Putnam and his mother. Reverend Parris is partly to blame for this mass hysteria. His role as a minister was greatly debated as the whole village split into two factions that were the Pro-Parris and Anti-Parris. Boer and Nissenbaum argued that the witch trials could have begun because of the social tensions between the Pro Parris and Anti Parris. Adding to his sermon about Judas as a devil in the form of a man may have influenced the Salem Village people, especially close members of the church, mostly the Pro-Parris faction, to accept the notion that witchcraft was

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The village was having trouble because of Rev. Samuel Parris who got there a few years back before the trials to become the first local ordained priest. Some disliked Parris as rigid and greedy, and that had made quarrels which Puritans were inclined to see as the work of the Devil. People in the village had to give up the three women. A woman of the name Tituba confessed to seeing the devil she was a slave that said it looked like a hog or a great dog. Tituba confessed to the crime and even gave up some of the witches in Salem Village.

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Conservative Salem was not in agreement with the prosperity of Salem Town. There was also rivalries against the Putnam and the Parris’ due to the different beliefs in society. Many did not like the local power structure and the amount of influence Parris had over the town, many did not like his way of keeping Salem unmodernized and unchanged. The Trials ignited all the jealousy and ambition Salem had been cooking for

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parsonage. Even though the oppressed girls were among the main accusers during the trials, many historiographers believe the deranged girls parents, particularly Thomas Putnam and Reverend Samuel Parris, were inciting the situation with the girls and purposely influencing them to accuse certain people in the community they were not particularly fond of, to gain revenge or just out of spite. Cotton Mather was the minister of the Salem church, and truly believed in witchcraft. He had decided to investigate the unusual behavior of the children who belonged to John Goodwin, a Mason.

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The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

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They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house." After Betty wakening from a nap she had started naming names that she had “saw” when being powered over by the devil. After she had started to rattle off some names then Abigail Williams named off the same names plus more. After they had said the same names Reverend Parris believed the worse. After hearing what had occurred at the Procturs house he started to believe in the witch trials and believed it was happening to man and woman.

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These reasons are mainly rooted in the political affairs of the two communities as well as the wealth of certain accusers like the extremely wealthy Putnam family who was supportive towards Parris being in the pulpit. One of the larger points Boyer and Nissenbaum make about the trials is that many of the accused witches came from places outside of Salem Village, where the accusations came from in the beginning. Boyer and Nissenbaum carefully craft their argument using, and citing, many primary and secondary sources, performing numerous calculations on Parris supporters versus Anti-Parris supporters and townspeople’s wealth, as well as including many detailed maps that show the divide between the town and the village in accusation patterns and political views. These powerful pieces of evidence give this argument a tighter stand over Starkey as it is impossible to deny official maps and data collected from tax lists from the town. Yet, despite this strong stand, it still does not give any information about the events of the actual trials; it only discusses accusing patterns, and then stops.

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It can be said that because of Father Parris’s position he was able to influence the people of Salem. In the seventeenth century it was normal for these kind of people to held in this kid of high regard because religion was a big part of life and these people were seen as interpreters of god’s will. An example of this can be seen in the “Satan’s war” article, “Put on the whole Armour of god, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, Parris instructed. Christ fruniseth the believer with skill, strength, courage, weapons and all military accomplishments for victory. Thus did Parris convert the opposition to his ministry into a grand cosmic struggle the forces of good and evil between god and Satan.”

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This casued many friendships in the community to be destroyed. It divided the people of Salem against each other. In What Were the Salem Witch Trials? It says “They pointed fingers at one another and cried “Witch!”

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Salem was known for its dark events and history, the Salem Witch Trials was a great hysteria that happened during the spring of 1692 in Salem Massachusetts . This all happened because a group of young girls were said to be possessed by the devil in Salem Village. After this happened, several other women were accused of witchcraft. The first witch to be convicted was Bridget Bishop who, after many times, defended herself saying she had nothing to do with any of the events. But was hung on June 10th, 1692.

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A few years later the Putnam’s petitioned the town in an effort to obtain political independence for the village, and the Porters opposed them. The arrival of Reverend Parris intensified the Putnam-Porter conflict. I think the two families accurately symbolize and correlate with the division between Salem Village and Salem Town. Joseph Putman who arrived in Salem in the Early 1640’s was a large land owner. As his family continued to expand, the Putman land was broken up into smaller and smaller tracts.

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Salems Politics were also affected, the Salem Village committee was replaced with an anti-Parris committee. Parris tried to make peace and save his job but didn't do very well and agreed to leave the town. After the trials many of the townspeople didn't get along with the ones who accused their friends or family. These trials shook the town of Salem, they even changed the name of the town after that to Danvers because of how guilty

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