Salem Witch Trials Book Report

Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum explain how Salem Town and Salem Village had social and financial issues between each other which was like a war between the two leading up to what we know as the Salem Witch Trials. Salem Possessed sheds more light on the Salem Witch Trials, than that of what we learned in school and of what I thought I knew. The Witch Trials were mainly caused by the feuds between the Town and the Village about the village becoming its own entity and being independent, money, land, growing economical colony and the petty disputes between the people from either place predominantly the Putnam and Porter families and their problems with each other.

The first half of the book focuses on the church and how ministers prior to Samuel Parris and after him were not able to really fix the issues of the town and village. Salem …show more content…
The comparison of Thomas Putnam's children from his first marriage viewed their stepmother Mary Veren Putnam to that of Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Mary Veren Putnam nor her son Joseph were never named witches. Dreams or apparitions were leading people to point the finger and accuse certain persons of witchcraft. "Here are but two parties in the world: The Lamb and his followers, and the dragon and his followers.... Here are no neuters. Everyone is on one side or the other." "Devils and idolators will make war with the Lamb and his followers. But who shall have the victory? Why, the lamb (I.e., Christ) and his followers." 1 One of Samuel Parris sermons given on September 11, 1691 the first one he had written since March of that same year. To him it was what it was with the people they were either with him or against him, the good and the bad. The ended explaining that when people were named witches it would usually take on other members of that persons' family whether it was a sibling or their