Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft is a historical study by Paul Samuel Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum , first published in 1974. The two scholars examine the existing social and economic divisions in the Puritan community of Salem Village, Massachusetts that served as the basis for the witchcraft trials of 1692. In doing so, they explore the lives of the men and women who were involved in the process and try to fathom its dynamics.

Research interest

The infamous Salem Witch Trials began in the spring of 1692 after a group of young Salem girls claimed they were possessed by the devil. As a wave of hysteria spread across colonial Massachusetts, a special tribunal convened in Salem to investigate the cases. As a result, several residents were accused of witchcraft. In June 1692, Bridget Bishop was the first to be convicted of witchcraft and hanged. Eighteen more were killed on the gallows. A total of 150 men, women and children were indicted over the next few months.

In September 1692 the charges abated and public opinion gradually turned against the trials. The Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned the judgments against accused witches and declared them null and void. Reparations were made to the families. The bitterness within the community persisted, however, and the consequences of the witch trials in Salem continued to have an effect for centuries.

Using Salem Village as an example, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum try to understand the social and cultural context of the witch trials. Using different sources such as the secular Salem Village record book, the church pastor's book, legal acts and tax records, the two historians tried to reconstruct a social and mentality history of Salem Village in the sense of a histoire totale according to Marc Bloch . Their analysis offers an insight into the social history of New England in general and into the different factions of Salem Village in particular: their division and acting against one another would have ultimately led to the tragic events of 1692.

content

A group of girls met to practice fortune telling and learn more about their future. From February 1692, the parents of these girls reported that they had begun to behave conspicuously. Two of these girls were the daughters of the local minister, Reverend Samuel Parris. At the same time, Parris was the uncle of the girl who initiated the alleged practice of witchcraft. A married couple from the West Indies who worked as slaves in the Parris family home, would have served the girls as conveyors of magical knowledge .

Under the pressure of torture, the girls named other Salem residents who would practice witchcraft in secret. Boyer and Nissenbaum point out that Salem was divided into two different factions. Those who supported Samuel Parris as pastor and those who opposed him. These two camps were organized around two large family clans, those of the Putnams (Pro-Parris) and those of the Porters (Anti-Parris). The people accused during the witchcraft trials all lived in the vicinity of the Porter family, but tended to be outsiders. None of the powerful families themselves have been charged.

The book is divided into eight chapters, a prologue and an epilogue. The spatial and social structure of the village is illustrated using seven maps, six graphics and the family trees of the two dominant families. The first four chapters are the cornerstone and tell the story itself, the last four focus on the biographies of the influential residents and the accused. According to Nissenbaum and Boyer, the Putnam and Porter camps divided the village into two parts, both socially and spatially. The Porters and their followers lived near Salem Town (the closest town), along Ipswich Road. Since their lands were closer to the city and connected to it by a road, the porters traded more widely with the city dwellers. As a result, the Porter clan became wealthier. In turn, criticism of the pastor's administration grew from those around the porters.

In their book, Nissenbaum and Boyer meticulously show how the social and economic conditions and the criticism of Parris' administration were reproduced in the witchcraft trials. The trials followed the logic of rivalry between the two powerful families. Boyer and Nissenbaum call the antagonism a resistance of the back-country farmers to the pressure of commercial capitalism ("the resistance of back-country farmers to the pressures of commercial capitalism", p. 180), a social and political conflict (p. 187) that develops discharged in the allegations of the witchcraft trials. The main victims of the conflict were outsiders who were loosely associated with the powerful they wanted to meet.

reception

The work was received in large numbers. The American historian Timothy H. Breen calls the book provocative because it offers a challenging new interpretation of the outbreak of witchcraft in Salem Village. He found it interesting that Boyer and Nissenbaum assumed a direct causal relationship between socio-economic conditions and individual behavior. However, he criticizes their interpretation of the witch trials, as the authors only offer clues and their analysis is therefore speculative in nature.

Another American historian, Cedric B. Cowing , complains that the authors have not undertaken any comparative studies. Of the 150 people charged in the witchcraft trials, only 25 were from Salem Village. A comparison with the social structures of other villages and cities - and a socio-historical localization of the other defendants in their specific environment - would therefore have been helpful. The historian Collin Brooks , who criticizes the analysis of the relationships between the village and the surrounding cities in the book, is of a similar opinion .

Carol Karlsen of Yale University appreciates the portrayal of the role of merchants and their influence on political, economic and social circumstances. However, she criticizes the lack of investigations into the justification for the predominant allegations of witchcraft against women and criticizes the portrayal of women as passive actors in the political struggle between the competing groups.

The American history professor E. William Monter , who researched witchcraft and witch trials in early modern Europe, appreciates the book for a very detailed local analysis of a "witch panic". He recommends using the work in courses on American history or the history of witchcraft.

Nonetheless, all critics agree that the seven maps and six diagrams were among the most valuable parts of the book. All in all, Salem Possessed is an impressive book that gives a new depth to the events in Salem and opens up a special perspective on the history of New England society .

output

  • Salem Possessed: Social Origins of Witchcraft . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, Cambridge 1974, ISBN 0-674-78526-6 .

credentials

  1. ^ Salem Witch Trials website of the History Chanel. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  2. ↑ The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan. 1975), pp. 137-139 website of the JSTOR. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  3. ↑ The American Historical Review, Vol. 80, No. 5 (Dec., 1975), pp. 1381-1382 website of JSTOR. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  4. ↑ The English Historical Review, Vol. 91, no. 358 (Jan. 1976), pp. 202-203 website of the JSTOR. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  5. ↑ Journal of Women in Culture and Society Vol. 3, No. 3 (1978), pp. 703-704 University of Chicago Press website. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  6. ↑ The History Teacher, Vol. 9, No. 3 (May, 1976), p. 514 Website of the JSTOR. Retrieved August 3, 2019.