Summary Of The Salem Witch Trials By Marc Aronson

Witch-Hunt Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials by Marc Aronson, is a text about the intricacies of the Salem Witch Trials. The author explains how the trials were started for various reasons. One factor leading to the trials was the lack of scientific knowledge to explain natural phenomenon paired with the people’s extreme faith creating a culture of fear. Another factor that influenced the trials were family feuds.These two factors family feuds and lack of scientific understanding together made up the root cause of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were partly caused by lack of scientific understanding. Today, people believe less in religion and more in science, and that the common belief is science

When the people migrated from England, “the Old World” to New England, the Putnams, primarily farmers could not farm well due to New England’s very rocky soil and swampy lands, which could not be used as pastures for cattle. Therefore, the Putnams could not earn money. Meanwhile, a family named the Porters, who were farmers like the Putnams found a way to make money through trade with distant lands, taking advantage of Salem’s location as the second largest port in New England. And with the Porter’s trade came new luxury foreign goods, which caused the rules to lighten and people to live by newer, much more lavish living standards. This caused tensions between the Porters and the Putnams. As a result, the Putnams and their allies wanted to split a large portion of land from Salem Town called “Salem Village”, where the original Puritanism was preserved and free from contamination of merchant life. However, the leaders of Salem Town did not want such a large chunk of land and a large source of tax revenues secede from the Town. Later on though, the grandson of John Putnam, Thomas Putnam Jr, was of the generation that did not do so well economically. After the death of Thomas Jr’s mother (Thomas Sr’s wife), Thomas Sr remarried a woman named Mary Veren, the widow of a ship captain. Together, Thomas Sr bore a son with Mary named Joseph, and when Thomas Sr died, Mary and Joseph got his vast inheritance, not Thomas Jr. And when Joseph Putnam grew up, he married Elizabeth Porter. Therefore, what originally belonged to the Putnams was now Porter property, which meant their dreams of “Salem Village” were crushed. Thomas Jr’s daughter, Ann, tried to get revenge at the Porters based on this quarrel and many others. For example, the text states, “The danger of deception and falsehood was everywhere, even in one’s own family, because devils, witches, and evil