What started as curious young girls playing with the idea of mysticism quickly escalated into one of the most infamous trials in United States history. The puritan community of Salem has become married to notions of hysteria, mystery, and dark magic. However, through the investigation of Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum in their book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, the roots of the trials are revealed to be community based. If the events of the witch-trials are seen as symptoms for socio-economic tensions between the Salem Town and Salem Village, a clearer picture begins to form of the events’ true motivation. By focusing on the divisions in the area within the set up of the town, factions within the village, and WHATEVER
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No one knows what the precise apparition the young girls saw that day was. How strange that it would be merely, “Young girls who met in small informal gatherings to discuss the future,” (Boyer Nissenbaum xx) who would send the newly colonized New England into a frenzy. They were like most girls of the time, concerned with questions of what occupations their husbands would have. In Salem village they, “Devised a primitive crystal ball— the white of a egg suspended in glass— and received a chilling answer: in the glass there floated a ‘specter in the likeness of a coffin,” (Boyer Nissenbaum xx). From that strange apparition sprung a terror in the young girls who would carry out strange acts, and convince their caretakers of possession. Reverend Samuel Parris, the father of one of the two girls first afflicted, and a key player in the division of the …show more content…
On one side of the debate were the Putnams, a traditional agricultural family. They supported the minister Samuel Parris, who shared their goal of separation from Salem Town. Conversely, there was the Porter family, who rather valued and identified with the Town. Boyer and Nissenbaum view this division as the split within the Village, one of the key aggravating forces in the Salem witch-trials. Several sets of petitions, primarily those addressing Increase Mather, a minister and vocal contributor to the trials, offer data about these oppositional forces. The documents show, “Of the sixty-two people who belonged to the Village church in May 1695 (not counting Parris himself and his wife) forty two signed the pro-Parris petition and only eight the anti-Parris document,” (Boyer Nissenbaum 80). Salem Village church held devotion, and is seen as a marker for the support of prosecution against witches. Yet another such distinguisher was wealth. Naturally, those who were better off would rather promote ties to the wealthier Town rather than the farming Village. Of the twelve most prosperous men among the petition signers only four supported Parris. As the authors put it, “The richest men in the Village opposed Parris by a margin of better than two-to-one, while the poorest supported him in almost precisely the same proportion,” (Boyer Nissenbaum 81). Finally, the last key factor in choosing
No one knows what the precise apparition the young girls saw that day was. How strange that it would be merely, “Young girls who met in small informal gatherings to discuss the future,” (Boyer Nissenbaum xx) who would send the newly colonized New England into a frenzy. They were like most girls of the time, concerned with questions of what occupations their husbands would have. In Salem village they, “Devised a primitive crystal ball— the white of a egg suspended in glass— and received a chilling answer: in the glass there floated a ‘specter in the likeness of a coffin,” (Boyer Nissenbaum xx). From that strange apparition sprung a terror in the young girls who would carry out strange acts, and convince their caretakers of possession. Reverend Samuel Parris, the father of one of the two girls first afflicted, and a key player in the division of the …show more content…
On one side of the debate were the Putnams, a traditional agricultural family. They supported the minister Samuel Parris, who shared their goal of separation from Salem Town. Conversely, there was the Porter family, who rather valued and identified with the Town. Boyer and Nissenbaum view this division as the split within the Village, one of the key aggravating forces in the Salem witch-trials. Several sets of petitions, primarily those addressing Increase Mather, a minister and vocal contributor to the trials, offer data about these oppositional forces. The documents show, “Of the sixty-two people who belonged to the Village church in May 1695 (not counting Parris himself and his wife) forty two signed the pro-Parris petition and only eight the anti-Parris document,” (Boyer Nissenbaum 80). Salem Village church held devotion, and is seen as a marker for the support of prosecution against witches. Yet another such distinguisher was wealth. Naturally, those who were better off would rather promote ties to the wealthier Town rather than the farming Village. Of the twelve most prosperous men among the petition signers only four supported Parris. As the authors put it, “The richest men in the Village opposed Parris by a margin of better than two-to-one, while the poorest supported him in almost precisely the same proportion,” (Boyer Nissenbaum 81). Finally, the last key factor in choosing