Historical Debate: Were Socioeconomic Tensions Responsible for the Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem?
In 1692, a town called Salem had one of the most debated and dark times of the colonies. Mass hysteria became a real problem for this town, with around twenty people murdered and over two-hundred more accused of witchcraft. It began when three girls played a fortune telling game, people noticed they started acting strange, and one of the girls claimed that she was working for the devil.
Many people and scholars debate on what the real cause was of the hysteria associated with the Salem Witch Trials. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum disscuss in their book, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, that two factions of the town, jealousy, …show more content…
One group who did well off the land and grew into a thriving commercial port, resisted the efforts of allowing more Christian and political autonomy. The other group felt threatened by commercialism and were weary of strangers and isolated from the commercial side of Salem. They were considered a “peasant- based economy”.
Because Salem had no institution of government was established in Salem, the two conflicting groups’ issues were allowed to get worse without …show more content…
Both authors can agree that the people of Salem were using witchcraft as a scapegoat situation, blaming others for reasons of their own resolve.
The evidence that Boyer and Nissenbaum use “assume a direct causal relationship between socio-economic conditions and individual behavior.”. They used evidence of peoples “pocket books” to correlate with the thesis of the trials and hysteria were caused by people’s jealousy and social standings.
Carlson uses the scientific evidence of a known disease that was spreading through the Americas, as well as the whole world. More than five million people were affected or died from this disease. It supports her thesis in the fact that the probability of Salem having an illness was likely, due to the massive global outbreak of encephalitis lethargica.
Reading about Carlson, Boyer, and Nissenbaum’s views about the Salem Witch Trials changed the way I understood the subject by making me realize there could be many reasons to why the people of Salem were wretched with hysteria. I was shown that many of the town’s issues could have led to the accusations, that there is not just one single reason why it
In 1692, a town called Salem had one of the most debated and dark times of the colonies. Mass hysteria became a real problem for this town, with around twenty people murdered and over two-hundred more accused of witchcraft. It began when three girls played a fortune telling game, people noticed they started acting strange, and one of the girls claimed that she was working for the devil.
Many people and scholars debate on what the real cause was of the hysteria associated with the Salem Witch Trials. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum disscuss in their book, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, that two factions of the town, jealousy, …show more content…
One group who did well off the land and grew into a thriving commercial port, resisted the efforts of allowing more Christian and political autonomy. The other group felt threatened by commercialism and were weary of strangers and isolated from the commercial side of Salem. They were considered a “peasant- based economy”.
Because Salem had no institution of government was established in Salem, the two conflicting groups’ issues were allowed to get worse without …show more content…
Both authors can agree that the people of Salem were using witchcraft as a scapegoat situation, blaming others for reasons of their own resolve.
The evidence that Boyer and Nissenbaum use “assume a direct causal relationship between socio-economic conditions and individual behavior.”. They used evidence of peoples “pocket books” to correlate with the thesis of the trials and hysteria were caused by people’s jealousy and social standings.
Carlson uses the scientific evidence of a known disease that was spreading through the Americas, as well as the whole world. More than five million people were affected or died from this disease. It supports her thesis in the fact that the probability of Salem having an illness was likely, due to the massive global outbreak of encephalitis lethargica.
Reading about Carlson, Boyer, and Nissenbaum’s views about the Salem Witch Trials changed the way I understood the subject by making me realize there could be many reasons to why the people of Salem were wretched with hysteria. I was shown that many of the town’s issues could have led to the accusations, that there is not just one single reason why it