| What Key Factors Led to the Salem Witch Trials? |
|
Origins of Salem
The Puritans of England, driven by their suppression in England, set their eyes towards the new lands of America. The first group of migrants sailed for the eastern coast of America in 1620 to establish the Plymouth Colony. In 1626, settlers from a failed fishing community on Cape Ann moved to the nearby Indian village of Naumkeag, which was renamed "Salem" in 1629. None of the early settlements succeeded in creating livable conditions for themselves. Many of their constituents succumbed to diseases and starvation, such that by 1629, only 300 Puritans had pulled through, scattered in small groups isolated one from the other. In 1630 King Charles of England granted a Royal Charter to Salem, officially declaring the township and bestowing legal rights and privileges to the population. Subsequently, more migrants sailed to the western colonies, a minority of them non-Puritans.
As the population of the colony increased, interpersonal economic issues were born: people began to look into neighboring areas in search of arable land to provide for the growth of their families. In so doing, they sometimes entered land which -although by their standards un-owned- was really home to some native Indian tribes. The wars which followed between the English colonists and the native Indians of the region resulted from quarrels on issues of land ownership and the use of land. Later the French formed alliances with some Indian tribes to further their political ambitions against England in the new land. This exacerbated the feud with the Indians and gave it the royal sanction. The Puritans perceived themselves as outcasts from England. The wars into which the English monarchs had involved them was seen as another attempt to purge them from the face of the earth. This was one major cause for the paranoia characterising that period (Hoffer).
Social differences fanned to flame At the time of the Salem witch trials, refugees from the Indian conflict had crowded into the village (suburbs) and the town of Salem, which lied at the harbour. The economy of the town of Salem was split between, towards the west, the agricultural sector mostly composed of Puritans and, in the east, the merchants whose business thrived along Salem’s busy harbour. The arrival of the refugees did not serve the economy well. Competition for the necessities of life was compounded. Naturally agricultural people would prioritise their own needs. The situation resulted in a strong competition for necessities among the farmers themselves, and between the farmers and the merchants. Eventually, a rift developed between the keepers of the harbour and the tillers of land. The merchants strengthened their bonds to diminish their dependence on the agricultural sector, in this way prioritizing their own kind. The Puritans, who comprised the majority of the agricultural sector, began to notice the exclusivity that was little by little turning them into second class citizens. Their reaction was to create their own district within the colony wherein their interests, communal ways and purist beliefs would be faithfully served by all the inhabitants. Eventually, the town granted the Puritans the permission to establish their own congregation in 1689. From then onwards they went to church at the Salem Village meetinghouse. This move merely heightened the antipathy between the two social classes. The rich traders resented this new community. It is indeed possible that they had not a small hand in the incidents leading to the witch trials.
Religious zeal The name "Puritan" was coined to connote the trend among extremist English Protestants to "purify" the Anglican Church of all vestiges of the Catholic religion. The Puritan faith is characterised by putting in the centre the individual’s experience of the Christian principles. It was therefore devoid of a single dogma or religious framework which was imposed by an ecclesiastical authority. A natural consequence of such an absence of authority would be to bestow a tendency to retain personal illusions and prejudices. "They encouraged direct personal religious experience, sincere moral conduct, and simple worship services. Worship was the area in which Puritans tried to change things most; their efforts in that direction were sustained by intense theological convictions and definite expectations about how seriously Christianity should be taken as the focus of human existence (Burton)." Most of the witness accounts, which decided the fate of the victims of these trials, were based on subjective personal impressions and imagined apparitions. There were even instances of planted evidence. According to the slant of Puritan belief, the personal testimonies of victims and witnesses needed no proof indeed. Gender prejudice Founded along the patriarchal structure of biblical principles, the Puritans believed women to be inferior to men. In this regard, the role of women in society was defined to be subordinate to the role of men. Women of independent mood and behaviour therefore became likely targets of accusations of witchcraft. Of those hanged for witchcraft, a majority were women (Victims of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692). In the event of a conviction and execution, the properties of those women went either to the next of kin or to the previous owner, and in the absence of any of these, back to the colony (Clarke, Kohler). This was obviously an advantage for the local administrative finances. Summary The witch trials at Salem were induced by the hardships experienced by the English colonists along the eastern coast of America in 1690. These setbacks resulted as much from the novelty of the conditions in the new land as from the troubled politics of their motherland which had followed them to work havoc in their newly found home. The fits of the children which became the impetus for these witch trials may have been due to the psychologically disorienting political and social state of the colony at the time. In the presence of extreme demoralisation, a harmless ghost story would have triggered the expression of the pent-up hysteria in the children as well as the hysteria of the community in general. Works Cited Hoffer, Peter Charles. "Salem Witch Trials." mrellingson.com. n.d. Web. 12 November, 2009. ttp://www.mrellingson.com/Puritan PDf’s/Salem Witch Trials Cotton Mathers.pdf "Massachusetts Bay Colony: Colonial America 1630." U-S-History.com. n.d. Web. 12 November, 2009. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h572.html Burton, Edwin. Smith, M. E. trancsr. "Puritanism, Puritans." Mb-Soft.com. May 1997. Web. 12 November, 2009. http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/puritani.htm Victims of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692." Salemwitchtrials.com. n.d. Web. 12 November, 2009. http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/victims.html. Clarke, Allison., Kohler, Paul. "Property Law: Commentary and Materials." Google.com. Google. n.d. Web. 13 November, 2009. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
