The second theory, I will be talking about involves the Salem Village and Salem Town . This is also one of the theories because even though Salem Village and Town have similar stuff. The areas were still considered one in the late 1600s . But they still did have there differences such as, Salem Village people had more farmland , they were generally poorer, and had more conservative values that the people in Salem Town. In Salem Town people were educated, prosperous, and were more respected. But besides their differences and similar stuff, both Salem Village and Town had a resentment of each other which was why Salem Village asked for independence from Salem Town .Salem Village produced the food in the area, but at the end the businessmen
in Salem Town set crop prices . Also, when salem Village appointed a new reverent . So the reverent started talking about how the devil is powerful . After that the first accusation of witchcraft was placed , but mostly all the accused were from Salem Village . So, after reading about Salem Village and Salem Town,I don't think that the accusations were caused by the jealousy and division between the two communities.
Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer. This book was published in 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Richard Godbeer examines the witch trials in the seventeenth century. When a young girl Katherine Branch of Stamford, Connecticut is stricken with unexplainable convulsions, her master and mistress begin to think it is caused by something supernatural. Godbeer follows the incident without any bias and looks into how the accusations and trials are handled by the townspeople and the people in charge of handling the trails. Godbeer’s purpose of writing this book is to prove that Salem was not the norm. Godbeer’s approach of only one using one case, slightly weakens his effectiveness that Salem was not the norm.
Boyer and Nissenbaum believe the main cause of the hysteria was due to the villages divide into two factions: those who followed the Putnam family, who pushed for Salams autonomy, and those who followed the politically focused Porter family. Although their attempt to explain the numerous witchcraft accusations in Salem as a problem due in most part to socioeconomic and political factors is drawn upon a wider range of sources than most other texts at the time, their strict focus prevents them from being able to see the true impact of other factors, such as
The thoroughness is one of its key strengths, allowing for people of varying knowledge about Salem to gain an understanding of the events and background of the witch trials. The author includes multiple sources to show the exceptionally varying ideals and their effects on Salem. “the peace that came under Joseph Green's conciliatory leaders... the important role religious strife played in the events of 1692”(Latner, 2006, 118). Joseph Green completely paralleled his predecessors, he was responsible for restoring order to Salem. This is significant because it shows the impact that ministers had, they had the power to change the town completely, Green was one of the first to not cause strife. Compared to Christine Leigh Heyrman’s “Witchcraft in Salem Village: Intersections of Religion and Society” Latner’s article correlates with the central idea that religious leaders and religion itself started the witch
While Salem Village remained an agricultural community, Salem Town transformed into a mercantile town. These factions created strained relations and high levels of anxiety among the residents which led to accusations of witchcraft. Tensions exacerbated as Salem “experienced two different economic systems, two different ways of life, at unavoidably close range” (437). Within Salem Village, witchcraft accusations steadily increased as “the first twelve witches were either residents of the Village or persons who lived just beyond its borders” (435). However, witchcraft was not confined to a specific, geographic location as it spread beyond Salem Village and into other geographic boundaries. In fact, the majority of the people accused of witchcraft came from the surrounding villages. The outgrowth of conflicts and bitter disputes between the people of the rising mercantile class and the people of the land-based economy continuously led to witchcraft accusations. The accusations were not limited to farming communities, but also extended to political representatives and people higher up on the social ladder. For example, Boyer and Nissenbaum mention the accusation of Daniel Andrew and Phillip English who were two elected Salem Town selectman. As more
While most people are familiar with the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1692, many people are unaware that similar events were taking place in other parts of New England in the very same year. The book, Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, takes readers through an intriguing narrative of a young girl with claims of being bewitched. Although I was concerned at first about the book being in a narrative style, the author was very concise and used actual evidence from the trial to tell an accurate and interesting story.
One cause of the witch trial hysteria was economic status. According to historian Paul Boyer, the eastern half of Salem was prosperous and gained political influence, whereas the western half was poorer and lost political power (Doc. E). Many of the accused witches were on the eastern half, while the accusers were
The play described Betty as a young girl, nine years of age, who began showing symptoms around the same time as her cousin Abigail Williams. Betty accused many people, and testified against them in multiple court cases. From the evidence that the Witch Trials shows, Betty was most likely pretending to be possessed in order to gain attention, or rebel from the strict lifestyle the Puritans followed. “She could not concentrate at prayer time and barked like a dog when her father would rebuke her. She screamed wildly when she heard the ‘Our Father’ prayer and once hurled a Bible across the room” (Walsh).
The Salem Witch trial and the Holocaust were very similar event because the people in both of these event were oppressed and were treated under harsh conditions, but the people that were affected by the Salem Witch trials were in better conditions than the people living during the Holocaust and the concentration camps. During the Salem Witch trials, the people involved it were given proper living conditions, while in the Holocaust, they were unbearable for most people.
In today’s society, American citizens tend to believe that America has been, “American” since the day that Christopher Columbus set foot in the Bahamas. This is a myth that has been in our society for a multitude of years now. In A New England Town by Kenneth A. Lockridge, he proves that America was not always democratic. Additionally, he proves that America has not always been “American”, by presenting the town of Dedham in 1635. Lockridge presents this town through the course of over one hundred years, in that time many changes happened as it made its way to a type of democracy.
More than two hundred years have gone by since the discovery of the new world. People of with all types of backgrounds and problems came flocking over the ocean to start anew. Jamestown, Virginia and Salem, Massachusetts, were very early settlements, and perhaps two of the most known names of colonies. Jamestown was known for many things, including Bacon’s Rebellion. And Salem was known for one reason, the Salem Witch Trials. These two pieces of history reflect the tensions of the unstable society and of their beliefs.
Salem Witch Craft In 1962 the penalty for witchcraft was to be hung or smashed. There was a big outburst of witchcraft and spells that were going around among the people of Massachusetts in 1962. Some of the women of Salem began the witchcraft, many people started to catch on and follow them. A lot of these people were hung up to what the Bible said about the wrongs of witchcraft.
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of prosecutions of men and women who were accused to practice witchcraft or have associations with the devil. The first Salem witch trial began with two girls in 1692, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams who started to have “fits”, in which they would throw tantrums and have convulsions. The random outburst of the girls threw the town of Salem into a mass of hysteria. Although historians have not found a definite reason or cause for the witch trials, they have taken different approaches to explain the hysteria that took over Salem. Some historians approach a psychological theory by proposing the girls suffered from diseases that made them act out. Other historians refer to factors such as religion, economics, and weather to explain the beginnings of an unforgettable time in Salem, Massachusetts. For over 300 years, historians have tried to reveal the truth about the beginnings of the Salem Witch Trials, but in order to do so historians must look at both the way of life in Salem in the seventeenth century and use knowledge that is available now to explain the phenomenon.
Since all of these people fled to the Salem Village, the Salem people blamed several of them for everything that happened in Salem. They believed that all of those people brought the Devil to the Salem village (Blumberg, par. 3-4)
The Salem Witch Trials was a period of mass paranoia in Salem, Massachusetts that lead to not only deaths but a long lasting impact on the people. Government should not be run by or influenced by belief in religion and higher beings but in law and justice. Also, trials and cases should be carried out on a logical basis with the use of credible and concrete evidence, unlike the Salem Witch Trials. However, in Salem from 1629 under the reign of puritans, law was created with the contribution of beliefs, mainly in the devil and God. The idea of theocracy ruled in Salem.
Salem, Massachusetts was a peaceful village where many puritan men and women lived. That is, it was peaceful until, early in the year of 1692, a young woman in the town changed the lives of everyone there. Abigail Williams and a group of girls from the village were caught dancing in the woods with a slave by the name of Tituba. Shortly after two girls in the group fell ill. People in the town heard what had happened and began to assume the girls were ill because they had been exposed to witchery. When the parents of the girls began to question Abigail, to save herself from being punished she told them that Tituba and one of the girls had been conjuring spirits. The people believed her and when Abigail saw this she saw an opportunity to get revenge on people who had angered her.