Salem Possessed
The Salem Witch hysteria of the 1690's can be prematurely discerned as the result of a deranged society consisting of insane individuals. However, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed, do an excellent job of demonstrating that the citizens of Salem in the 1690's were not all that different from people today. In the presence of revolutionary change and anxiety, many Salem residents let themselves fall victim to irrational behaviors and thought patterns which allowed the Salem Witch trials to gain momentum and continue for several tragic years. To begin with, there was a severe lack of organized government in Salem. Salem Village was one of the first communities to gain legal recognition for its desire to be independent. However, it failed to receive any real authority or decision making power. In fact, the merchants of the town outnumbered the farmers by six to one as Town selectmen during 1665-1700 (87). This meant that the villagers were "left to feel their way through unfamiliar and even alarming terrain" (52). For the most part, villagers had to answer to the authorities of Salem town. This was unfortunate since they faced a severe shortage of representation in the town government. This sever
By creating such black and white divisions within the village, people became afraid to question his sermons or the witchcraft hysteria. Many times, instead of getting to the root of the problem, people try to clear their consciences or obtain a quick resolution to a problem by placing the blame on others. Racial conflict is probably of most concern today. However, this same type of behavior exists today. Much of the village population consisted of people like the Putnams who were so entangled in their own difficulties and deranged religious thought that they refused to see the world in a larger perspective. However, Parris was quick to denounce the opposition as wicked and Satanic which assured his followers of his purity. The psychological stress and disorder caused by this great instability laid the groundwork necessary for such irrational behavior as that represented by the witch hunts. The most recent and largest example of this occurred on September 11th. In the late 1600s, Salem Town underwent great economic and mercantile expansion and became a much more urban existence focused on commerce and trade. The bigger world did not exist for them. While families like the Porters enjoyed a "rapid assimilation into the top echelon of the Town hierarchy", others felt trapped and captive in their agrarian existence. The Putnams were forced to continue their dependence upon agriculture while the economy shifted towards mercantilism. It was in this harsh climate that the innocent were hunted and destroyed. Given the enormous amount of tension and anxiety experienced by village families like the Putnams, it is no wonder that these embittered villagers began expressing their frustration in the form of witchcraft accusation. The fact that Salem village was not constructed as a separate entity from the town meant that there was no central town common or meetinghouse.
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