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 severe lack of government meant that there was very little stability in Salem village. A stable government was desperately needed to ease the fears and insecurities of the villagers being faced with Salem town's drastic economic changes. 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. This gave the villagers little authority to cling to for security. 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.
             In the midst of great instability, the villagers faced a severe shortage of good leadership. ...

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Salem Possessed. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:43, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/80769.html