The Salem Witch Trials: Two Interpretations

To learn more about the Salem witchcraft hysteria, Historian Paul Boyer, and Professor Stephen Nissenbaum sought to further understand the accusations of witchcraft. During the late 1600’s life in colonial New England was one led by religion and politics. Salem was broken up into two factions, Salem Village, and Salem Town. Salem Village, which was led by the Putnam family was a rapidly growing

Samuel Parris was the new reverend of the Salem church and he knew that Abigail and the three girls weren’t possessed by demons. He was a horrible man who sabotaged people’s trials so that they would die because he didn’t want to lose his job. In the end Samuel Parris was driven out by Sarah's husband who took over the town. The people of Salem were afraid. They didn’t want to cause harm, but they did want to stay away from witches. About 100 people were accused of being witches but were never killed,

Today if one was called a “witch,” most of us would take offense, yell, scream, or simply just ignore it and walk away, but over 300 years ago that was not the case. The 1600’s were full of controversy and uncertainty that led to cruel consequences due to even the simplest claim of witchcraft. By the time 1692 came around not much had changed, in fact, it was much worse. The town of Salem, Massachusetts became the spot of the most infamous witch trials of all: the Salem Witch Trials.

The beginning of the Salem Witch Trials started in the home of the Parris family. Before all of the witch crisis started, Samuel Parris was living in London with his father a “cloth merchant”. His father died when Samuel was in his early twenties, he did not have any money so he decided to move to the “New World”, America, to start his new life as an owner of a sugar plantation. His business soon failed. When it failed he went to school to become a minister (Ragosta). He went to Salem to find out that they were in need of a new minister and after “a year to make his decision” (Ragosta) he became the minister of Salem. He was high maintenance man when he became the minister “He saw his position as something demanding and deserving respect

In the late 1600's Salem, Massachusetts, the Salem Witch Trials was conceivably thought of as terrifying or even unjustified. Left and right, convictions on witchcraft were put on other villagers in Salem. Abigail and the girls, Tituba, Proctor, etc.. could be blamed for the events and deaths in Salem, but Reverend Parris seems to have the bigger faults. Parris’s childish and avaricious characteristics caused the deaths of many innocent

As a struggling minister with a generally low-public opinion by the residents of Salem, the trials filled Parris’ meetinghouse with distressed congregants looking for guidance and support to deal with the events overwhelming their community. Without the existence of the trials and the fear they induced, the conclusion can be drawn that Parris’ worries of possible ousting as town minister may have come true. (In fact, a few years after the end of the trials, when the villagers’ finally felt confident that their troubles with witchcraft were finished, Parris’ concerns proved legitimate when the town voted to oust him as their minister.)

It is universally understood that the majority of humans are skeptical, if not reluctant to understand or accept that which unknown or different from what they previously considered being true, right, or normal. Such was the case in 1692 when over a hundred people from the Salem Town, Salem Village, and surrounding areas of Massachusetts were accused of witchcraft, leading to numerous arrests and even executions. The events that transpired in the small New England colony have intrigued, seduced, and baffled historians since their occurrence hundreds of years ago. The majority of these historians have conducted extensive amounts of research with the goal of determining the origins and factors that prompted these witch trials. While many attribute the 1692 accusations and trials to past beliefs in the supernatural that have remained since the fourteenth century, historians Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum conclude that the Salem witch accusations and trial were the result of tensions regarding wealth, residential location, and morality along with spirituality. However, their approach in their research differs from that of other historians. In their publication, Salem Possessed, Boyer and Nissenbaum support their argument that the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials occurred due to geographic, economic, and moral tensions using maps, journal entries, and tax records.

It may have been possible to avoid the trials if the citizens of Salem Village had not made such hasty judgments and had possessed more skepticism when everyone suspected witches. Nevertheless, the history of New England is incomplete without the Salem witch trials. “Salem endures not only as a metaphor but as a vaccine and a taunt” (Schiff 413). Encouraged by fear of the devil and losing salvation, the Puritans’ witch paranoia and political disputes helped fuel the trials and the many resulting deaths. Though it started only because of the girls’ ailments, the Salem witch trials exemplify one of the biggest cases of mass hysteria in American

For over four centuries, the enigma of what truly happened during the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts has befuddled many professionals in their respective fields. Salem, Massachusetts, before the witch trial conundrum, was a small city with regular stresses, such as strong religious beliefs, a small-pox outbreak, and factions among the townspeople. A rather large portion of the townspeople, which were the local farming families, believed that Salem’s “thriving economy would make [Salem] too individualistic” (Sutter). Besides the fact that the small village of Salem was not as united as it could have been, it was still a very religious village. In fact, due to this strong belief of Puritanism, the village people were strongly against devil— worshiping people. Those individuals with the ability to perform witchcraft were believed to have a pact with the Devil and therefore considered witchcraft a major sin. Puritanism in Salem allowed the practice of witchcraft to entice young girls in wicked witch hunts.

Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum examines the economic and social differences that existed between Salem Town and Salem Village, and how these differences ultimately resulted in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Boyer and Nissenbaum state that increasing tensions between Salem Town and Salem Village lead to the formation of two factions, each with differing goals for the community and headed by

The Salem Witch Trials was a devastating event in which 19 people and dogs were killed due to the cry of witchcraft. The outburst of these events could be blamed on several things. Certain things like economics, medicines and culture have to be taken into account when trying to understand the events of the Salem Witch Trials. People like Franklin Jr. Mixon, Linnda R. Caporael, Dr. Allan Woolf, Elaine G. Brewslaw, and Isaac Ariail Reed take into account one of the three: economics, medicines and culture and explain as to why or why not the event happened the way it did disregarding all the other factors.

In the 1600’s a town known as Salem underwent a horrible fate. The year of 1692 was a year filled with death, accusations, and betrayal, but that was just the start of their story. During that time, 150 townspeople were accused of performing witchcraft, but of those 150 only 31 of them actually went to trial, 16 of them were male. Although rumor would disagree, no witches were actually burned at the stake, but were rather stoned to death and hung. The studying of the Salem Witch Trials is done to further understand how the witches were treated during and after the trials, along with the responsibilities of the townspeople to protect their homes and community from a perceived threat. The horrible ways that the accused were treated along with the ease in which anyone could suddenly become a witch showed how little the townspeople actually valued human rights and the well-being of others.

The minister of Salem’s church was Reverend Parris. He is a greedy man that only cared about money, and materials. In the beginning of the play he was agreeing with the girls saying there was witchcraft going on in Salem but, towards the end Parris is frightened because someone threatens him with a

In 1960's Massachusetts, after two little girls exhibited very strange and abnormal behavior, it was decided that the cause was witchcraft. In search of who was responsible for bewitching the girls, multiple people were accused. The book was very informative and did a great job at making what some people would find boring seem interesting. It was very successful in getting its facts across to the audience.

People fear what they don't understand. We as a people are very superstitious and bias toward certain ideas, places, or people. One thing that has unsettled humans throughout all the ages is magic and the unexplainable. It may not freak us out as much as it did in 17 century but the supernatural still spooks us. An infamous example is the Salem Witch Trials, “Between 1692 and 1693, more than 200 people in colonial-era Salem, Massachusetts were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft, and 19 of them were executed.” (Kiger 1) The implications of this historical event reflect the social, political and religious tensions of that day.