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
Parris wants to be seen as a powerful figure of authority, and anything that can ruin his image is seen as an inconvenience. He wants to keep his name clear in the town so that he can keep his position as Reverend. In this way, he uses his high position to blackmail others, such as Abigail into confessing. Later on in the play, as Giles Corey points to his desposition, he tells Judge Danforth that “[Thomas Putnam] is killing his neighbors for their land!”(96) This is another example of how greed can lead to corruption.
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.
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
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.”
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.
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.
Salem was a town divided into two sides, the west side being poor, and the east side being where wealthy people stayed. Document E shows that the accusers were mainly on the west side, and the accused witches were mostly on the east side, this showing that the poor were the ones mainly accusing the rich and wealthy. Document E’s evidence is backing up the theory that another cause of the Salem witch `trial hysteria was Salem being divided, with one side accusing the other. “Although” statement where you agree there might be other contributing causes. It is true that other causes may help explain the hysteria.
The Salem witch trials were the prosecution of people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts from June to September 1692 by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Though the trials were held in Salem, the accused were brought in from the neighboring towns of Amesbury, Andover, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Gloucester as well. To this day the trials are considered the epitome of injustice, paranoia, scapegoating, mass hysteria, and mob justice. The results were almost 200 arrests, 19 executed “witches”, one man pressed to death, one man stoned to death, and two dogs killed because they were suspected to be familiars of their owners who were accused of being witches. (Familiars are evil spirits in the form of animals used by witches to cast spells and perform
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,
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
During The Crucible, the Witch Trials caused many court hearings. A good deal of the court hearings consisted of people over exaggerating outbursts of demons inside of them just to get somebody convicted. The Witch Trails also affected the church in many ways. Reverend Parris’ already had a wicked reputation as their minister, and the trials made it even worse. People wanted him out of the church.
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.
One cause of the witch trial hysteria was the story of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the two were cousins, they decided to visit a fortune teller. This occurred on February 29, 1692, shortly after receiving their fortunes Parris’s father, who was a priest, began to notice that his daughter was acting strange, he eventually found out about the session with the teller and was
The Salem Witch Trials The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England.
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.