Salem Possessed: The Social Origins

Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft by Stephan Boyer

In "Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft" Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum have produced one of the most comprehensive and objective analysis of the Salem witch trials of 1692, using various demographic data in supporting the following idea: the events had as main cause economic-political differences and the struggles between new and old economic development models. What the authors might not have addressed properly, by looking mainly on socio-economic causes, is the religious influences in the witchcraft accusations. The book provides a model of understanding the witchcraft accusations from a different point-of-view other than the religious one. Obviously no single explanation can be considered as unique, many factors contributing to the 1692 events.

The authors explain the conflicts that lead to the 1692 trials and executions by entering a conflict between two main families -- Porter and Putnam. The Putnam's held a position of more autonomy for the Salem Village from the Salem Town. Their position, geared towards traditional economical models (agriculture) comes into contrast with that of the Porter group. Closer to the Town, the Porter's argued for more collaboration with the Town into what regards commerce and manufacturing.

The transformational path towards a more capitalist economy therefore created antagonist groups that, inevitably, collided. As the authors show, many of the 1692 trials accusers belonged to the Putnam group, as many of the persons trialed belonged to the Porter.

As the authors point out on the basis of records from sources like the minister's book, Salem official records or tax records, the trials were one episode of the communities' social problems. The trials were not an isolated episode of violence, but more an outburst of years of growing antagonism. As Boyer and Nissenbaum point out, the community did not evolve into a common Massachusetts Bay one -- more closed and unite, but contrary into a fractional one. The Porter family, taken as a symbol of villagers in close relations to the town, were, in general, wealthier than the Putnam traditional agricultural community. Also, their relation with the Village Church was weak and their involvement into the more autonomy movement inexistent.

The book introduces in a very comprehensive manner the trials and the road to trials with concrete examples and an easy to read construction. The 1692 story begins with the presentation of gatherings that young girls had in the village where they were discussing and playing spell games on issues like love, the way their husbands would look like and their social status. What began as a girls' game transformed into a social problem. As more and more girls' behavior began to be different from social norms and their relation to the others different, two explanations began to emerge: one that it is the work of Evil, and second, appeared from the first one, that evil witches were inflicting spells on young girls.

After three women were incarcerated for witchcraft, the perceived effects of their spells continued, as more and more people began to disengage from social norms. Similar events took place in other communities and by incarcerating suspects the community returned to normality. Yet, the Salem Village witchcraft did not stop and took a more dramatic turn. As the number of cases of "infected people" continued to rise, more and more women and even men, began to be arrested, trialed and executed. One of the factors that the authors discovered to be substantial in assessing the socio-economic causes of the trials lies in the geographic and social pattern of the accused. Most of the individuals accused and executed not only were not unknown to the accusers, but lived at opposite sides of the Village, and beyond. What the authors have gathered extensive records of the events that prove that accusations were not only falsely or incorrectly build, but also that they were used as weapons against the opposing members of the Porter family and their supporters.