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Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft
The stark immediacy of what happened in 1692 has obscured the complex web of human passion which had been growing for more than a generation before building toward the climactic witch trials. "Salem Possessed explores the lives of the men and women who helped spin that web and who in the end found themselves entagled in it.
231 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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3577 people want to read
About the author
Paul S. Boyer
432 books31 followersPaul S. Boyer is a U.S. cultural and intellectual historian (Ph.D., Harvard University, 1966) and is Merle Curti Professor of History Emeritus and former director (1993-2001) of the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has held visiting professorships at UCLA, Northwestern University, and William & Mary; has received Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships; and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of American Historians, and the American Antiquarian Society. Before coming to Wisconsin in 1980, he taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1967-1980).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S._...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
January 1, 2016
This actually isn't an unread book, since I read it when I was in eleventh grade. But that was over fifteen years ago, and all I remembered about it was getting badly confused by the economic and geographic analysis of the pro- and anti-Parris factions. A reaction which was, by the way, confirmed by this reading. Boyer and Nissenbaum have an excellent point, but they could have used another pass for clarity.
In essence, the argument of Salem Possessed is that witchcraft isn't about witchcraft. They say it themselves:
The feeling that Mather articulated in [his] 1689 sermon was one shared by many people in Salem Village three years later: the social order was being profoundly shaken by a superhuman force which had lured all too many into active complicity with it. We have chosen to construe this force as emergent mercantile capitalism. Mather, and Salem Village, called it witchcraft. (209)
I don't agree entirely with this stance, but let me get back to that in a moment. What Boyer and Nissenbaum do exceptionally well is demonstrate and elucidate (even if they are at times confusing) the social and economic conflicts which lay behind the witchcraft accusations. They offer compelling, if sometimes over-simplified, reasons why the people who were accused of witchcraft were accused: why those people, and not others.
Insofar as is possible, Boyer and Nissenbaum avoid talking about the examinations and trials. Partly this is because (point two), they are bending over backwards to de-sensationalize their subject matter. The exceedingly dry tone of Salem Possessed is a careful and deliberate choice; they have purposefully leached out as much of the melodrama as they can. And (point three) are also bending over backwards not to take sides. They treat the Putnams and Samuel Parris with as much impartiality as possible. In an odd but quite real sense, Boyer and Nissenbaum aren't interested in the trials at all. Their interest is in what led up to the accusations. Once a person had been publicly and legally accused of being a witch, the thing that Boyer and Nissenbaum are analyzing has run its course.
Where they fall down is why that accusation, and not another. They treat the accusers (insofar as they talk about them at all, which since the accusers were mostly teenage girls and not a full part of the social and economic webs in which Boyer and Nissenbaum are interested, they don't; they give more attention to the senior Ann Putnam, with her adult load of resentments and failures, than they do to any of the girls) as if their accusations of witchcraft could be read as transparent vehicles for economic and social concerns. Transparent to us, that is, since they do at least pay lip service to the idea that both accused and accusers were sincere in their beliefs.
And I think that there's a problem in assuming transparency like that. I don't argue that the reasons Boyer and Nissenbaum give aren't there, because I think they are. But I think that isn't the whole story and can't be the whole story.
In essence, the argument of Salem Possessed is that witchcraft isn't about witchcraft. They say it themselves:
The feeling that Mather articulated in [his] 1689 sermon was one shared by many people in Salem Village three years later: the social order was being profoundly shaken by a superhuman force which had lured all too many into active complicity with it. We have chosen to construe this force as emergent mercantile capitalism. Mather, and Salem Village, called it witchcraft. (209)
I don't agree entirely with this stance, but let me get back to that in a moment. What Boyer and Nissenbaum do exceptionally well is demonstrate and elucidate (even if they are at times confusing) the social and economic conflicts which lay behind the witchcraft accusations. They offer compelling, if sometimes over-simplified, reasons why the people who were accused of witchcraft were accused: why those people, and not others.
Insofar as is possible, Boyer and Nissenbaum avoid talking about the examinations and trials. Partly this is because (point two), they are bending over backwards to de-sensationalize their subject matter. The exceedingly dry tone of Salem Possessed is a careful and deliberate choice; they have purposefully leached out as much of the melodrama as they can. And (point three) are also bending over backwards not to take sides. They treat the Putnams and Samuel Parris with as much impartiality as possible. In an odd but quite real sense, Boyer and Nissenbaum aren't interested in the trials at all. Their interest is in what led up to the accusations. Once a person had been publicly and legally accused of being a witch, the thing that Boyer and Nissenbaum are analyzing has run its course.
Where they fall down is why that accusation, and not another. They treat the accusers (insofar as they talk about them at all, which since the accusers were mostly teenage girls and not a full part of the social and economic webs in which Boyer and Nissenbaum are interested, they don't; they give more attention to the senior Ann Putnam, with her adult load of resentments and failures, than they do to any of the girls) as if their accusations of witchcraft could be read as transparent vehicles for economic and social concerns. Transparent to us, that is, since they do at least pay lip service to the idea that both accused and accusers were sincere in their beliefs.
And I think that there's a problem in assuming transparency like that. I don't argue that the reasons Boyer and Nissenbaum give aren't there, because I think they are. But I think that isn't the whole story and can't be the whole story.
May 9, 2020
3.75 stars
A fascinating, very deep dive into the societal, geographical, cultural and class-related elements that contributed to the severity of the Salem witch trials. This book provides an immensely comprehensive approach, which, while it thoroughly backs up the authors arguments, did get a bit repetitive and disjointed at times, especially since they bounced back and forth between years and key points along the historical timeline to dive deep into particular aspects as they went.
A fascinating, very deep dive into the societal, geographical, cultural and class-related elements that contributed to the severity of the Salem witch trials. This book provides an immensely comprehensive approach, which, while it thoroughly backs up the authors arguments, did get a bit repetitive and disjointed at times, especially since they bounced back and forth between years and key points along the historical timeline to dive deep into particular aspects as they went.
September 10, 2015
A fascinating read that's also stellar history. The authors found and examined a mass of "boring" everyday documents and used them to describe, in great detail, the social context of the town and the different factions within it. They're careful to point out that Salem wasn't actually that different from other towns in the same time and place, but the witch trials didn't happen at the same scale anywhere else -- meaning there must have been significant differences in Salem. They're able to identify at least some of those differences, including the village's peculiar legal standing, the consequences of its geography, the specific people and personalities at play, and how all those things interacted with the spirit of the time, resulting in tragedy.
November 5, 2019
"Unable to relieve their frustrations politically, the members of the pro-Parris faction unconsciously fell back on a different and more archaic strategy: they treated those who threatened them not as political opposition but as an aggregate of morally defective individuals." 109
April 3, 2017
What I enjoyed most about Salem Possessed was how the authors spent time explaining the different players living in Salem Village and offering profiles of several accused witches to demonstrate the similarities and differences in their circumstances. Likewise, the ample detail on Salem Village's struggle for independence from Salem Town provides another fascinating look into the context of the Witchcraft Trials.
My only critique is that I felt the authors took too many narrative liberties in reconstructing certain individuals' biographies. Moreover, according to my husband (who is a scholar of American religious history), much of the book (particularly concerning the socio-economic theories) has been discredited over the decades.
Regardless, Salem Possessed offers interesting perpectives, in-depth information on several aspects of Salem, and provides a great opportunity for critical thinking. Still worth a read, especially given how it once shaped the thinking in this field.
My only critique is that I felt the authors took too many narrative liberties in reconstructing certain individuals' biographies. Moreover, according to my husband (who is a scholar of American religious history), much of the book (particularly concerning the socio-economic theories) has been discredited over the decades.
Regardless, Salem Possessed offers interesting perpectives, in-depth information on several aspects of Salem, and provides a great opportunity for critical thinking. Still worth a read, especially given how it once shaped the thinking in this field.
August 30, 2010
Salem Possessed
By Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum
Review by Emily Farrar
The year 1692 and the name of “Salem” have gone down in U.S. history as one of the biggest “witch hunts” ever seen in our history. But most people don’t know much else about Salem past the witch trials of 1692 which claimed 19 lives. The story fascinates them, makes them hungry for juicy details, but they don’t really care to learn about the deeper political controversy that lead to the events of 1692 and that proceeded that year. But without learning about the struggles enveloping this village, one can’t truly understand 1692 sad and odd occurrences. But Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum bring the pre-witchcraft and post-witchcraft politics to light, going deeper into the current village of Danvers’s history, telling the story in a gripping way that’ll have you turning the page excitedly.
It’s a bright summer’s day, and the many kids at the small country club in Penfield were screaming and laughing, splashing each other or doing flips and jumps off the diving board.
Looking up, Emily took a sip of her water watching the kids before wrapping her mind back up in her book again.
“Emily!”
Looking up again, Emily saw her little sister Olivia looking down at her from the foot of the lawn chair, dripping wet and a big grin across her face.
“Em, will you get in the pool with me?”
“Not right now Liv, I’m reading.” Emily says before looking back down at her book again.
“What are you reading?”
Looking up once again, Emily glared at her sister for a couple seconds before answering “Salem Possessed. For APUSH.”
“Ohhhhh!! Like the Salem witch trials?”
Sighing deeply, Emily set the book down and replied “Yes, like the Salem witch trials.”
Olivia got a confused look on her face. “So the whole book is about a bunch of dead people?”
“Well yes,” Emily said, running her hands through her hair. “And no. It’s about the argument between Salem town and Salem village.”
“Wait what?”
“Salem was separated into two parts. Salem town was the port, one of the biggest in the colony at that point, where the ‘governmental’ part of Salem lived. Including the church. Salem village became a ‘parish’ of Salem town. It’s the farmlands.”
“So what’s all this got to do with the witch stuff?”
“A lot. Salem village felt un-fairly treated by Salem town. So they spent years trying to sever themselves from Salem town and create their own township. Not everyone in the village however wanted to do this, which is kind of where the witch ‘stuff’ comes into play.”
“Sounds boring to me.”
“It’s not though. It’s amazing how much fighting and animosity was in Salem. Do you know how many times Salem village went to the General Court of Massachusetts over really petty things? It’s no wonder nineteen innocent people were killed and more imprisoned. There was SO much hatred toward the town but also amongst themselves. In trying to become a civil society, organized and well kept so as to gain recognition and township, they behaved FAR worse then a bunch of baboons locked up in a tiny, enclosed space. Not only are the baboons going at the glass which enclosed them and the people on the other side, but also at each other!”
“Huh. So that’s all this book is about? Baboons? It does talk about the witchcraft trials, right?” Olivia asked.
“Oh of course it does. But as I’ve been trying to say, the authors look at the bigger picture and explain it to you in a way that keeps you turning the page excitedly.”
“hmmmm… Interesting…. You know you kind of sound like a movie announcer, FYI.”
Emily glared at Olivia again before continuing.
“The authors made an interesting point on page 104, in chapter 4. They quote John Winthrop, the first governor, as saying ‘[W:]e must be knit together in this work as one man. We must delight in each other,… rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.’ The authors then stated that individuals in the community could not pursue their own personal interests, because they were part of this body.”
“And what’s so interesting about that?”
“Well, from what I can tell reading this book, they were fighting each other based on how the individuals felt toward Salem town. What you essentially had was a part of the village who wanted to break away and start afresh as a new town—like the Putnam family—and a part of the village that wanted to stay with the town of Salem—the Porter family. This point is consistently stated throughout the book”
“As you said.”
“One of the most interesting things I thought was when Boyer and Nissenbaum, the authors, researched the general wealth of the village and which part of the village were pro-Parris and which of the village was anti-Parris.”
“Parris?”
“Samuel Parris. He was the first official minister or whatever of their church. They had three others before. James Bayley was the first, George Burroughs—who was brought back in 1692, nine-years after he left accused of being a ‘wizard’—and just before Parris came, Deodat Lawson. It wasn’t until Parris came that Salem village’s church became an ‘official’ church, able to perform communions and such. That happened in 1689.”
“Cool. So what does all this really have to do with the witch trials?”
“Well, I guess you can blame the two contending ‘beliefs’ or ‘opinions’ of the village, but you can also blame the way the parents of the ‘afflicted’ children and Parris took the kid’s afflictions. Instead of taking it lightly the way Northhampton did in 1735 (mentioned page 28, chapter 1) believing that God was gifting them, the parents and Parris took it that Satan or God was cursing them. From the very beginning, at his first sermon, Parris said,” here Emily paused and flipped through the book to find a page “‘cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully.’ After he started losing the minister tax in 1691 he even considers himself Christ and opponents Judas, who was a member of Christ’s inner circle but who betrayed Christ. He believed that no one was above ‘suspicion of deceit’ as stated on page 168, chapter 7. Two weeks before the first witchcraft arrest he says,” flipping to another page Emily read aloud from the text. “‘While lamenting ‘the present low condition of the church in midst of its enemies’ Parris added—in what under the circumstances, mounted to a self-fulfilling prophecy: ‘Oh shortly the case will be far otherwise.’’”
Emily looked up from the book to continue talking to Olivia. “Eventually Parris created a huge problem for himself by making the ‘last safe haven,’ the church, also now unsafe by arresting…” Glancing down Emily checked a couple names and continued “…Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, who were church members.”
“Huh…. It actually is kind of interesting sounding.”
“Oh yeah. In the last chapter they actually talk about each of the hanged ‘witches’ and a lot about them and their past, like where they lived and alignments with the town or village and relations to their neighbors. In the epilogue they talk about Salem village going into the 18th century and finally becoming the town of Danvers in 1737.”
“You know, I might actually read that book.”
“You probably could understand it. It’s really easy to understand, even for you. If you don’t understand it there truly is no hope for you.”
Olivia raised her eyebrows. “Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean miss I’m still-reading-yet-I-can-still-tell-you-all-the-details-in-the-last-chapter-and-epilogue?”
That got her. Emily’s mouth made a little “O” and her eyes got wide.
“Whoops….” She whispered.
Olivia raised her eyebrows even higher before making a grab at Emily, trying to untie her bikini strings. Dodging the grab, Emily jumped off her chair and went running into the pool yelling “catch me if you can!” and did a tuck-ball into the pool.
Olivia laughed, and glanced down at the closed book. Pausing, she stared at it, reaching down as if to pick it up to read, before laughing again and saying “Later Salem, I’ll visit you in a bit. First I have to go drown my own witchy sister!”
By Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum
Review by Emily Farrar
The year 1692 and the name of “Salem” have gone down in U.S. history as one of the biggest “witch hunts” ever seen in our history. But most people don’t know much else about Salem past the witch trials of 1692 which claimed 19 lives. The story fascinates them, makes them hungry for juicy details, but they don’t really care to learn about the deeper political controversy that lead to the events of 1692 and that proceeded that year. But without learning about the struggles enveloping this village, one can’t truly understand 1692 sad and odd occurrences. But Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum bring the pre-witchcraft and post-witchcraft politics to light, going deeper into the current village of Danvers’s history, telling the story in a gripping way that’ll have you turning the page excitedly.
It’s a bright summer’s day, and the many kids at the small country club in Penfield were screaming and laughing, splashing each other or doing flips and jumps off the diving board.
Looking up, Emily took a sip of her water watching the kids before wrapping her mind back up in her book again.
“Emily!”
Looking up again, Emily saw her little sister Olivia looking down at her from the foot of the lawn chair, dripping wet and a big grin across her face.
“Em, will you get in the pool with me?”
“Not right now Liv, I’m reading.” Emily says before looking back down at her book again.
“What are you reading?”
Looking up once again, Emily glared at her sister for a couple seconds before answering “Salem Possessed. For APUSH.”
“Ohhhhh!! Like the Salem witch trials?”
Sighing deeply, Emily set the book down and replied “Yes, like the Salem witch trials.”
Olivia got a confused look on her face. “So the whole book is about a bunch of dead people?”
“Well yes,” Emily said, running her hands through her hair. “And no. It’s about the argument between Salem town and Salem village.”
“Wait what?”
“Salem was separated into two parts. Salem town was the port, one of the biggest in the colony at that point, where the ‘governmental’ part of Salem lived. Including the church. Salem village became a ‘parish’ of Salem town. It’s the farmlands.”
“So what’s all this got to do with the witch stuff?”
“A lot. Salem village felt un-fairly treated by Salem town. So they spent years trying to sever themselves from Salem town and create their own township. Not everyone in the village however wanted to do this, which is kind of where the witch ‘stuff’ comes into play.”
“Sounds boring to me.”
“It’s not though. It’s amazing how much fighting and animosity was in Salem. Do you know how many times Salem village went to the General Court of Massachusetts over really petty things? It’s no wonder nineteen innocent people were killed and more imprisoned. There was SO much hatred toward the town but also amongst themselves. In trying to become a civil society, organized and well kept so as to gain recognition and township, they behaved FAR worse then a bunch of baboons locked up in a tiny, enclosed space. Not only are the baboons going at the glass which enclosed them and the people on the other side, but also at each other!”
“Huh. So that’s all this book is about? Baboons? It does talk about the witchcraft trials, right?” Olivia asked.
“Oh of course it does. But as I’ve been trying to say, the authors look at the bigger picture and explain it to you in a way that keeps you turning the page excitedly.”
“hmmmm… Interesting…. You know you kind of sound like a movie announcer, FYI.”
Emily glared at Olivia again before continuing.
“The authors made an interesting point on page 104, in chapter 4. They quote John Winthrop, the first governor, as saying ‘[W:]e must be knit together in this work as one man. We must delight in each other,… rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.’ The authors then stated that individuals in the community could not pursue their own personal interests, because they were part of this body.”
“And what’s so interesting about that?”
“Well, from what I can tell reading this book, they were fighting each other based on how the individuals felt toward Salem town. What you essentially had was a part of the village who wanted to break away and start afresh as a new town—like the Putnam family—and a part of the village that wanted to stay with the town of Salem—the Porter family. This point is consistently stated throughout the book”
“As you said.”
“One of the most interesting things I thought was when Boyer and Nissenbaum, the authors, researched the general wealth of the village and which part of the village were pro-Parris and which of the village was anti-Parris.”
“Parris?”
“Samuel Parris. He was the first official minister or whatever of their church. They had three others before. James Bayley was the first, George Burroughs—who was brought back in 1692, nine-years after he left accused of being a ‘wizard’—and just before Parris came, Deodat Lawson. It wasn’t until Parris came that Salem village’s church became an ‘official’ church, able to perform communions and such. That happened in 1689.”
“Cool. So what does all this really have to do with the witch trials?”
“Well, I guess you can blame the two contending ‘beliefs’ or ‘opinions’ of the village, but you can also blame the way the parents of the ‘afflicted’ children and Parris took the kid’s afflictions. Instead of taking it lightly the way Northhampton did in 1735 (mentioned page 28, chapter 1) believing that God was gifting them, the parents and Parris took it that Satan or God was cursing them. From the very beginning, at his first sermon, Parris said,” here Emily paused and flipped through the book to find a page “‘cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully.’ After he started losing the minister tax in 1691 he even considers himself Christ and opponents Judas, who was a member of Christ’s inner circle but who betrayed Christ. He believed that no one was above ‘suspicion of deceit’ as stated on page 168, chapter 7. Two weeks before the first witchcraft arrest he says,” flipping to another page Emily read aloud from the text. “‘While lamenting ‘the present low condition of the church in midst of its enemies’ Parris added—in what under the circumstances, mounted to a self-fulfilling prophecy: ‘Oh shortly the case will be far otherwise.’’”
Emily looked up from the book to continue talking to Olivia. “Eventually Parris created a huge problem for himself by making the ‘last safe haven,’ the church, also now unsafe by arresting…” Glancing down Emily checked a couple names and continued “…Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, who were church members.”
“Huh…. It actually is kind of interesting sounding.”
“Oh yeah. In the last chapter they actually talk about each of the hanged ‘witches’ and a lot about them and their past, like where they lived and alignments with the town or village and relations to their neighbors. In the epilogue they talk about Salem village going into the 18th century and finally becoming the town of Danvers in 1737.”
“You know, I might actually read that book.”
“You probably could understand it. It’s really easy to understand, even for you. If you don’t understand it there truly is no hope for you.”
Olivia raised her eyebrows. “Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean miss I’m still-reading-yet-I-can-still-tell-you-all-the-details-in-the-last-chapter-and-epilogue?”
That got her. Emily’s mouth made a little “O” and her eyes got wide.
“Whoops….” She whispered.
Olivia raised her eyebrows even higher before making a grab at Emily, trying to untie her bikini strings. Dodging the grab, Emily jumped off her chair and went running into the pool yelling “catch me if you can!” and did a tuck-ball into the pool.
Olivia laughed, and glanced down at the closed book. Pausing, she stared at it, reaching down as if to pick it up to read, before laughing again and saying “Later Salem, I’ll visit you in a bit. First I have to go drown my own witchy sister!”
September 29, 2021
Probably the most thorough retelling of the period you can find. Does a great job synthesizing tax records, wills, diaries, sermons, and deeds to make the argument that the witch trials were the result of a decades old political struggle between city merchants and rural farmers rather than an outbreak of paranoid zealotry. Full of well-captured, memorable characters, but never strays into the over-dramatization that so many histories of Salem fall victim to, it even makes a point of nearly glossing over the trials entirely, treating them as secondary to the broader transformation of the town.
July 11, 2017
This is an EXCELLENT book. If you want to understand why the Salem witch trials happened, this is THE book to read. Short and concise, it makes a great use of maps, legal documents, and census records to create an overall picture of Salem's society.
The authors' arguments show that Salem Town's increasing emphasis and reliance on commerce resulted in a changing culture that was more materialistic, consumption-oriented, and capitalistic. Increasing trade created a more socially mobile and secular society.
On the other hand, the rural and more traditional Salem Village saw the eroding of Puritanism and traditional values in an almost apocalyptic light. Everything they wanted to reform and escape back in England was starting to change THEM. These holdouts came from older money and were backed by the village's new church and it's anxious and fearful pastor. Thanks to the new dominance in trade, families with new money were encroaching on their lands and status. Moreover, their monetary and landed "estates" were eroding, being threatened by extinction and replacement.
In the end, this combination proved deadly. Using trial documents and census records, the authors' create maps revealing that almost all of the accusers came from a handful of these traditionalist village families and their servants (on the west side of the Salem Village county). Meanwhile, those who were accused were mostly either newly-settled families whose financial interests were tied to the commercial progress in Salem Town proper (not the rural village). refugees from the Maine wars with the indigenous peoples, or social "outsiders." These people tended to live closer to Salem Town, on the eastern side of the county containing Salem Village.
Property disputes, an anxious and fearful pastor whose finances were up-in-the-air, and a culture in flux all fostered the fear and ostracism that followed. Puritans believed that if God favored you, he would favor you with financial prosperity. As the traditionalists' prosperity failed, they felt it was due to the newly dominate commercial character of the area. Using this as a basis, the authors show that a clear pattern emerges in the relations between the accusers and the accused.
The only thing that prevents this book from receiving 5-stars from me is because of the final chapter of the book, which completely breaks away from the previous work (indeed it feels like a different book during this last section) and, unlike the preceding 90% of the book, is unconvincing.
Despite this flawed chapter, the book is a MUST READ for anyone seeking to understand what happened in Salem in 1692.
The authors' arguments show that Salem Town's increasing emphasis and reliance on commerce resulted in a changing culture that was more materialistic, consumption-oriented, and capitalistic. Increasing trade created a more socially mobile and secular society.
On the other hand, the rural and more traditional Salem Village saw the eroding of Puritanism and traditional values in an almost apocalyptic light. Everything they wanted to reform and escape back in England was starting to change THEM. These holdouts came from older money and were backed by the village's new church and it's anxious and fearful pastor. Thanks to the new dominance in trade, families with new money were encroaching on their lands and status. Moreover, their monetary and landed "estates" were eroding, being threatened by extinction and replacement.
In the end, this combination proved deadly. Using trial documents and census records, the authors' create maps revealing that almost all of the accusers came from a handful of these traditionalist village families and their servants (on the west side of the Salem Village county). Meanwhile, those who were accused were mostly either newly-settled families whose financial interests were tied to the commercial progress in Salem Town proper (not the rural village). refugees from the Maine wars with the indigenous peoples, or social "outsiders." These people tended to live closer to Salem Town, on the eastern side of the county containing Salem Village.
Property disputes, an anxious and fearful pastor whose finances were up-in-the-air, and a culture in flux all fostered the fear and ostracism that followed. Puritans believed that if God favored you, he would favor you with financial prosperity. As the traditionalists' prosperity failed, they felt it was due to the newly dominate commercial character of the area. Using this as a basis, the authors show that a clear pattern emerges in the relations between the accusers and the accused.
The only thing that prevents this book from receiving 5-stars from me is because of the final chapter of the book, which completely breaks away from the previous work (indeed it feels like a different book during this last section) and, unlike the preceding 90% of the book, is unconvincing.
Despite this flawed chapter, the book is a MUST READ for anyone seeking to understand what happened in Salem in 1692.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2016
Thoroughly researched and well presented, but still wholly disappointing in the failure to present the big picture or relay how this small picture fits into it. It's like seeing a square inch of a Monet - you get a taste for the chaos, but none of the point. The entire book is dedicated to the "social origins of witchcraft" yet not a word regarding the accusers or the accused unless it is to describe their socio-economic status in the community. This is a study in colonial economics and politics, not a sociological examination of the culture that led to the heinous history we study today. Business and political divisions are important elements to study and certainly contributed to the events of 1692, but to completely leave out the actual accusers and the role that they played isn't just a shortsighted misrepresentation, it's inaccurate and misogynistic as fuck. "[T]he more we have come to know these men for something like what they really were, the more we have also come to realize how profoundly they were shaped by the times in which they lived." Yeah, we get it, men controlled everything, way to drive it home in the conclusion by allowing your research to bring exactly the same message, to be exactly the same thing. And yet despite this "shaped by the times" acknowledgement, not a peep about the many ways this may have contributed to a bunch of powerless adolescent girls seeking attention and control in a world so obviously not their own. The financial research and information presented is valuable and relevant, but without examination of any other contributing factors, the book is shallow and misleading in the grand scheme of studying the Salem witchcraze.
August 9, 2016
"Geography is destiny," my medieval studies prof always used to say, and that's no different here. Absolutely fascinating look into why Salem devolved into hysteria over witchcraft versus any other town. Hardly a mention of witches at all, but instead warring family clans, the battle of agrarian Puritanical collectivism against mercantile individualists, and a string of disinherited sons. The beginning is a bit of a slog, but it sets the stage for the later more gripping chapters.
July 28, 2019
From a historian's point of view, this is the most authoritative book out there on Salem. It is a meticulously written micro-history.
August 31, 2014
A. Summary: This book is the study of a single event--the Salem Witchcraft trials in 1692. This is the first book to place this event into its social context--the history of Salem village. The main issue was the factional dispute between Salem town and village. Since there was no central government in Massachusetts at this time a resolution was impossible to legislate. The Salem villagers, feeling alienated by the commercial townsmen, were the central accusers of the “possessed” girls. This accusation was essentially a counter-attack by a group who was losing power in a changing society
B. Sources: Trial depositions, community records (ex. Tax records, voting records), documents from 20 trials
C. Structure of book: The first half deals with the social factors of the towns and the emerging factions. The second half explores family histories (Putnam’s who were the main persecutors, and the Porters) to determine how these differences developed
D. Overview
1. Slowly the women and children of Salem began to act possessed. 100 were eventually jailed and 19 were hanged.
2. Why did this happen? Society was confronted with a baffling problem during a period of legal and political disruption, while trying to administer equitable justice.
3. Why did the persecution stop? There was strong resistance from the people from the very beginning. Ministers such as Increase Mather and his son Cotton began to question the evidence that was used. They sought direct evidence like confession and empirical data (others testimony, inability to recite prayers, Witch’s tit--to give suck to the devil)
4. Why did the persecution go on for so long? The factional disputes
E. Factional disputes between Salem town and village
1. The reductionist view of this dispute could be classified as capitalists v. Puritans
2. The debate centered around who was in favor of and who was against the minister Samuel Parris
3. Pro Parris were church members, poorer, lived in Salem village, they played a leading role in the persecutions, were the more vulnerable group because they were cut off from town
4. The fundamental conflict was not who was to control the village but what its basic character was to be.
5. Why did this factional dispute lead to witch persecution only in Salem?
a) Physical setting: Salem village was very close to Salem town
b) Lack of autonomy of Salem village in religious matters
c) The village had a taste of independence and wanted more
d) Boston did not have strong authorities at the local level
6. Therefore, the pro-Parris faction treated its opponents not as a political opposition, but as morally defective
B. Sources: Trial depositions, community records (ex. Tax records, voting records), documents from 20 trials
C. Structure of book: The first half deals with the social factors of the towns and the emerging factions. The second half explores family histories (Putnam’s who were the main persecutors, and the Porters) to determine how these differences developed
D. Overview
1. Slowly the women and children of Salem began to act possessed. 100 were eventually jailed and 19 were hanged.
2. Why did this happen? Society was confronted with a baffling problem during a period of legal and political disruption, while trying to administer equitable justice.
3. Why did the persecution stop? There was strong resistance from the people from the very beginning. Ministers such as Increase Mather and his son Cotton began to question the evidence that was used. They sought direct evidence like confession and empirical data (others testimony, inability to recite prayers, Witch’s tit--to give suck to the devil)
4. Why did the persecution go on for so long? The factional disputes
E. Factional disputes between Salem town and village
1. The reductionist view of this dispute could be classified as capitalists v. Puritans
2. The debate centered around who was in favor of and who was against the minister Samuel Parris
3. Pro Parris were church members, poorer, lived in Salem village, they played a leading role in the persecutions, were the more vulnerable group because they were cut off from town
4. The fundamental conflict was not who was to control the village but what its basic character was to be.
5. Why did this factional dispute lead to witch persecution only in Salem?
a) Physical setting: Salem village was very close to Salem town
b) Lack of autonomy of Salem village in religious matters
c) The village had a taste of independence and wanted more
d) Boston did not have strong authorities at the local level
6. Therefore, the pro-Parris faction treated its opponents not as a political opposition, but as morally defective
July 27, 2018
A very good examination of the factors creating the perfect conditions leading to the deaths of innocent people; conditions which, the argument goes, led to religious revivals less than a half century later.
The economic, geographic, and psychological factors are well explained and well argued.
If you are fascinated by this horrific event this is a wonderful examination of how ordinary people and their circumstances can lead to extraordinary events.
The economic, geographic, and psychological factors are well explained and well argued.
If you are fascinated by this horrific event this is a wonderful examination of how ordinary people and their circumstances can lead to extraordinary events.
April 13, 2014
I had to read this book for my Anthropology class. It is a great historical compilation of diaries, town records, sermons, etc. that tries to adequately explain what happened in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. A couple of points of view I found very interesting because I never considered those views. (I don't want to say any more because I don't want to spoil it in case you want to read it.) ;o)
April 7, 2022
Am I convinced that there was a deep family and social/political/economic squabble? Yes. Does it have anything to do with witchcraft? Not so convincing. Also where is the mentions of the tensions from Native American conflicts and relations? And what is going on with trying to psycho-analyze someone long dead from bits of their sermon book?
April 2, 2020
This is an excellent example of social history! The conditions leading up to the Salem witch trials are far more complicated than portrayed in the media. Boyer explains how the Salem witch trials as they occurred could have only happened in Salem Village.
June 6, 2017
A well structured and researched insight into the social environment of the colony in the seventeenth century.
September 6, 2017
fascinating. different from what little is covered in history class.
July 25, 2020
A phenomenal book, plain and simple.
March 14, 2021
Salem Possessed was born from Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s attempts at broadening the primary source material for an undergraduate course involving the 1692 New England Salem Witch Trials. The book reflects this, including a myriad of documents which previous scholarship on the trials had left untouched, and a unique perspective because of it. Boyer and Nissenbaum dive into a complex—and predominantly persuasive—theory on the long-term causes of the trials: factionalism and division between the poor, agrarian Salem Village and the wealthier, mercantile Salem Town, as well as within Salem Village itself. Unlike previous theories of magic mushrooms or sadistic neighbors, this factionalism was fortified by years of social, cultural, economic, geographic and psychological elements. Boyer and Nissenbaum are extremely meticulous in their use of familiar and unfamiliar documents, their theory contributing immensely to scholarship on Salem and to the genre of New England cultural history.
October 22, 2025
Disappointing!
But maybe that’s on me for reading a book about witches written by a MAN :(
It wasn’t actually about witches - it was about the history of the religion/economics/politics in Salem that created the setup for witch trials to happen… which sounds interesting but it was in fact very boring and basically only about the relevant men (🙄) of the time…
But maybe that’s on me for reading a book about witches written by a MAN :(
It wasn’t actually about witches - it was about the history of the religion/economics/politics in Salem that created the setup for witch trials to happen… which sounds interesting but it was in fact very boring and basically only about the relevant men (🙄) of the time…
January 29, 2023
An excellent review of the Salem Trials. Boyer and Nissenbaum go through a plethora of first hand accounts and collate a fuller story of factionalism in Salem Village, changes among Puritan society, a firebrand Minister and social classism. A must read for a greater understanding of the witch trials.
January 30, 2021
This book was a very interesting read detailing the Salem witch trials and those involved in them. For the content I found this to be well-written and interesting considering that history can so often be a dull topic.
January 4, 2023
Salem Possessed is a thorough volume, detailing the development of witchcraft in Salem Village in the seventeenth century. Authors Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum impressively make use of numerous local sources to craft their arguments. It is a careful social history that analyzes specific people, families, and village decision-making to claim that Salem witchcraft was a result of an inability to fix social tensions that had become too deep (44).
There is generous discussion in the book on the origins of Salem Village, the town’s customs, and its disagreements. The Village, not technically a part of Salem Town itself, was an agricultural hinterland, more sparsely populated than the Town, and much less oriented towards mercantile capitalism and enterprise (39, 49). The farther people in the Village lived away from the Town, the more likely they were to be poorer subsistence farmers; people more likely to mistrust the Town, support autonomy, and rally behind Village priest Samuel Parris. Boyer and Nissenbaum argue that it is from this division—the capitalist, modern Town supporters and the rural Village outsiders—that people used witchcraft to bring their enemies to “justice” out of resentment, as they had no legal form of consensus gathering or dispute resolution that would have worked before (51). Two families—the Porters and the Putnams—are carefully examined to show the proliferation of this conflict. The controversial Village pastor, Samuel Parris, also has a lengthy chapter dedicated to his impact on the Village.
Boyer and Nissenbaum masterfully use a range of unpublished sources, including sermons, petitions, personal writings, and tax, property, and voting records. They include a map and numerous geneaologies in family discussions (34). Using these more personal, “common” sources, they craft justifiable explanations and evidence for the tension running rampant across Salem Village. The majority of the book is spent with these discussions, and they set up the final chapters (on witchcraft, persons hanged, and the epilogue) substantially and with precision.
It is undeniable that Salem Possessed is a valuable contribution to witchcraft historiography and New England social history. The book is not without certain shortcomings, however. Witchcraft itself is the main subject of one small chapter, and its psychological links to social evidence Boyer and Nissenbaum have produced are fairly shaky. The amount of time spent between establishing conflict in Salem Village and its “origins” of witchcraft is abrupt and leaves some questions unanswered. Also missing is a substantial discussion of gender. Other witchcraft literature concerns the peculiar role of women in the ordeal, particularly among the accused. Salem Possessed does not. Due to the more popular subject matter of Salem, this book could have a wider readership (that is, people who do not have a historical background in witchcraft whatsoever), and this omission could leave one wondering why the vast majority of people hanged here were women. Boyer and Nissenbaum have no difficulty including other social divisions—a discussion of gender, even a brief one, would have illuminated the book, not distracted from its main argument.
There is generous discussion in the book on the origins of Salem Village, the town’s customs, and its disagreements. The Village, not technically a part of Salem Town itself, was an agricultural hinterland, more sparsely populated than the Town, and much less oriented towards mercantile capitalism and enterprise (39, 49). The farther people in the Village lived away from the Town, the more likely they were to be poorer subsistence farmers; people more likely to mistrust the Town, support autonomy, and rally behind Village priest Samuel Parris. Boyer and Nissenbaum argue that it is from this division—the capitalist, modern Town supporters and the rural Village outsiders—that people used witchcraft to bring their enemies to “justice” out of resentment, as they had no legal form of consensus gathering or dispute resolution that would have worked before (51). Two families—the Porters and the Putnams—are carefully examined to show the proliferation of this conflict. The controversial Village pastor, Samuel Parris, also has a lengthy chapter dedicated to his impact on the Village.
Boyer and Nissenbaum masterfully use a range of unpublished sources, including sermons, petitions, personal writings, and tax, property, and voting records. They include a map and numerous geneaologies in family discussions (34). Using these more personal, “common” sources, they craft justifiable explanations and evidence for the tension running rampant across Salem Village. The majority of the book is spent with these discussions, and they set up the final chapters (on witchcraft, persons hanged, and the epilogue) substantially and with precision.
It is undeniable that Salem Possessed is a valuable contribution to witchcraft historiography and New England social history. The book is not without certain shortcomings, however. Witchcraft itself is the main subject of one small chapter, and its psychological links to social evidence Boyer and Nissenbaum have produced are fairly shaky. The amount of time spent between establishing conflict in Salem Village and its “origins” of witchcraft is abrupt and leaves some questions unanswered. Also missing is a substantial discussion of gender. Other witchcraft literature concerns the peculiar role of women in the ordeal, particularly among the accused. Salem Possessed does not. Due to the more popular subject matter of Salem, this book could have a wider readership (that is, people who do not have a historical background in witchcraft whatsoever), and this omission could leave one wondering why the vast majority of people hanged here were women. Boyer and Nissenbaum have no difficulty including other social divisions—a discussion of gender, even a brief one, would have illuminated the book, not distracted from its main argument.
April 8, 2016
Short, concise, and well argued, a must-read on the subject. I think the title should be more specific, the work explains the social context of this one witchcraft outbreak and doesn't mention any other parallels, so it is relevant really only to the Salem phenomenon. While you can extrapolate yourself to other witchcraft outbreaks, I was hoping for a sweeping thesis on "the social origins of witchcraft", which this book doesn't provide. Oh well...Maybe I'll have to write that one. Like other authors have done, the authors here presume to put thoughts in the minds of individuals long dead, a practice I find irresponsible as a historian. I agree with the argument, I just think psychological hypothesis must be stated as conjecture, not conclusion. But, all in all, very insightful and very clear. The authors explore beautifully and eloquently the nightmare tensions between worlds colliding. They explain the nature of the uniquely anachronistic frontier experience which necessitated an agrarian yeoman existence for some, a weird chimera of returning to a medieval culture after having passed through the nose-bleed heights of the more extreme trends in the Reformation. (The Reformation was a solidly middle-class phenomenon, so to return to husbandry was a challenge.) Then those very farmers competed for resources with the prosperous coastal and town neighbors, who were very rapidly throwing off the constraints of their city on a hill morality for the sensual allure of what capitalist mercantile prosperity could afford to import of the notoriously decadent culture of Restoration England. This kind of extreme diversity of cultural rifting and breakneck pace of change combined with rapid loss and gain in fortunes is only too accurate a mirror for today's challenges, and the lessons are quite sobering for me. This community had a collective breakdown, and we all want to avoid that from happening....I was really intrigued by the arguments that the same social tensions only a generation later but solidly in the 18th century rather than the strange world of the 17th, those same tensions produced the Great Awakening rather than witchcraft hysteria, the beginnings of that particular, complex and rich Christian culture in America. Fascinating stuff!
April 13, 2014
In 1974, Boyer and Nissenbaum combined their efforts to publish a historical accounting about the Salem witch trials of 1692. In addition to the usual body of sources--legal depositions at trials, narrative and polemical publications--the two historians incorporated previously unexplored documents--community votes, tax assessments, lists of local officials (from church archives), as well as wills, deeds, estate inventories, lawsuit testimonies, and a manuscript volume of Reverend Samuel Parris' sermons--in order to flesh out the specific details surrounding the historical event to show how it reflected an extreme case of common colonial sentiments of the time. From their newly incorporated sources, the historians argue that there was a generally a pro-Parris, more strictly "Puritan" faction associated with Salem Village farmers--particularly Putnam farmers along with an anti-Parris faction more associated with the capitalistic (really mercantile) economy of Salem Town and the Porter clan. Although there are some discussions of nuances and exceptions, this is what the general climate boils down to. Salem Village was in the awkward position of politically belonging to Salem Town but allowed some freedoms to have their own pastor and church due to geographical difficulties in traveling to town for Sunday service.
There are some moments that wax fairly speculative--like some assumptions about how accusing outsiders of witchcraft rather than the more wealthy established true "enemies"--but overall there is an interesting discussion about medieval folk literature ("Cinderella" and "Hansel and Gretel") and the biblical tale of Joseph and Israel that connects to Joseph Putnam's story of inheritance and the entailing resentment by his stepbrothers. This is a fairly approachable book with some neat illustrations (maps and family trees). I found it interesting and well-documented for the most part.
There are some moments that wax fairly speculative--like some assumptions about how accusing outsiders of witchcraft rather than the more wealthy established true "enemies"--but overall there is an interesting discussion about medieval folk literature ("Cinderella" and "Hansel and Gretel") and the biblical tale of Joseph and Israel that connects to Joseph Putnam's story of inheritance and the entailing resentment by his stepbrothers. This is a fairly approachable book with some neat illustrations (maps and family trees). I found it interesting and well-documented for the most part.
August 1, 2020
"Nevertheless, the overall direction of the accusations remains clear: up the social ladder, fitfully but perceptibly, to its very top. Whatever else they may have been, the Salem witch trials cannot be written off as a communal effort to purge the poor, the deviant, or the outcast." (33)
"Unable to relieve their frustrations politically, members of the pro-Parris faction unconsciously fell back on a different and more archaic strategy: they treated those who threatened them not as political opposition, but as an aggregate of morally defective individuals. ... It was a group of people who were on the advancing edge of profound social change." (109)
"Madame Bubble appears in the second part of The Pilgram's Progress, published just eight years before the Salem witchcraft outbreak. In creating this character (and giving her a name which would soon be applied to any alluring but unsound speculative venture, such as the 'South-Sea Bubble' of 1720, John Bunyan offered a vivid and somber warning against the commercial attractions which were enticing a great many Puritans -- in Salem Village no less than in Restoration England -- as the seventeenth century drew to a close." (214)
"For in this massive outbreak of religious revivalism [the Great Awakening], the ambiguity which underlay the process of accusation in 1692 became open, even ritualized. In the Great Awakening, people accused themselves of corruption as passionately as they accused others, even including 'worldly' ministers and secular leaders. Indeed, the accusations turned outward only against those who failed to accuse themselves first, so that public confession became a way of forestalling accusations by others. Perhaps because accusation and confession were so intimately linked, the Great Awakening generated neither trials nor executions -- and occasionally it did succeed in reintegrating the afflicted communities which it touched." (215-6)
"Unable to relieve their frustrations politically, members of the pro-Parris faction unconsciously fell back on a different and more archaic strategy: they treated those who threatened them not as political opposition, but as an aggregate of morally defective individuals. ... It was a group of people who were on the advancing edge of profound social change." (109)
"Madame Bubble appears in the second part of The Pilgram's Progress, published just eight years before the Salem witchcraft outbreak. In creating this character (and giving her a name which would soon be applied to any alluring but unsound speculative venture, such as the 'South-Sea Bubble' of 1720, John Bunyan offered a vivid and somber warning against the commercial attractions which were enticing a great many Puritans -- in Salem Village no less than in Restoration England -- as the seventeenth century drew to a close." (214)
"For in this massive outbreak of religious revivalism [the Great Awakening], the ambiguity which underlay the process of accusation in 1692 became open, even ritualized. In the Great Awakening, people accused themselves of corruption as passionately as they accused others, even including 'worldly' ministers and secular leaders. Indeed, the accusations turned outward only against those who failed to accuse themselves first, so that public confession became a way of forestalling accusations by others. Perhaps because accusation and confession were so intimately linked, the Great Awakening generated neither trials nor executions -- and occasionally it did succeed in reintegrating the afflicted communities which it touched." (215-6)
September 19, 2021
I'm giving it four stars because I found it fascinating and I learned a lot and I read it cover to cover. I haven't read a lot about the Salem Witch Trials aside from the Richard Godbeer book called The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents, so at this point Salem Possessed definitely seems like essential reading for anyone who wants to know about it.
But there were some problems for me, points at which I was like, well, wait a minute, you're ignoring this or that, or you're jumping to conclusions, or you're imagining that certain connections or causes are the only connections or causes.
The first issue that bothered me was just that the subject of witchcraft itself is practically ignored. It's alluded to, obviously, but never taken seriously. That's not to say that I expected the book to "believe" in witches, but I know from other sources that the use of folk magic among Puritans was widespread, and it seems like an oversight to neglect that aspect of the historical reality in favor of an almost exclusive focus on the rise of mercantile capitalism. I mean, the subtitle of the book is "The Social Origins of Witchcraft." Don't folk beliefs constitute part of the social origin?
I mean, I get it, to be sure, mercantile capitalism was a huge factor in creating the factionalism that fed the fire, and I can get commie about this thing with the best of them, but what you end up with when you look at it that way is a record of powerful men with competing economic interests, and limiting the discussion of the "social origins" of the ultimate crisis in that way not only neglects the women who were the primary victims of the whole thing, but fails to do any real substantial investigation into the spark that actually set this powder keg off: specifically the use of folk magic by women. It's just like, "okay, so these young women were fucking around with a crystal ball, now let me tell you about how much money Israel Porter was making."
This is explained in terms of the girls' anxieties about the uncertain economic futures, but that seems insufficient, given that there was interest in magic before the rise of mercantile capitalism as well. In attempting to make the connection between these two ideas, there's even a point at which the authors take as evidence the fact that the afflicted girls claimed that the devil had offered them riches.
Well, he did that to Jesus in the Bible. The connection between the Devil and riches is old old old. It does not therefore seem appropriate to attribute the girls making the connection to the economics of late 17th Century New England anymore than it does to attribute it to their no doubt exhaustive familiarity with the Bible.
It also seemed to me that some of the conclusions the authors came to about the psychology of individual players remain insufficiently substantiated by the evidence presented. Obviously Samuel Parris was paranoid and saw conspiracy and betrayal everywhere, but that was because of his daddy? Really? I'm less than sold on the argument. It's as though this otherwise in depth research into this complicated set of problems was abruptly hijakced by Cosmo's take on Freud. Same goes for this guy they cited talking about patterns of accusation in England, and how that might have been playing out in New England. Like, you kicked Sarah Goode out of your house in the winter time when she had no place to go, so you felt guilty, so you made excuses (essentially, "she was a real bitch to have around the house"), then later you justified your guilt by accusing her of witchcraft. Again, I have to ask: Really?
I mean, could it not be that she was a real bitch to have around the house? That, sure, maybe you felt a little guilty because it was cold outside but mostly just, yo, she had to fucking go? And that later on it seemed perfectly plausible to the late 17th Century New Englander that she may have been a witch, in addition to being a bitch, and that therefore the accusation didn't have the first fucking thing to do with feeling guilty about anything anymore so much as it had to do with the real concern that she was up to something diabolical? I mean, I don't know. It seems like a possibility to me.
Especially if she was fucking around with some kind of folk magic. I mean, you don't have to believe in magic to believe that she was fucking around with it and believed in it herself. I don't know if she was or not. I mean, I have no idea, because they didn't even touch on it in this book. But they didn't really say much about any of the women, much less the magic, so who knows what was going on based on what's here?
Again, great book for what it is. Interesting economic and cultural contextualization with excellent biographical information on some of the major players, but the economic context is much more thorough than the cultural one, which seems wrongheaded to me, and as rich and nuanced as some of the biographies are, they are disproportionately male, which is obviously a glaring omission, and they are often characterized by superficial psychological analysis that presents itself not only as "deep," but as authoritative, when in truth it's barely even substantiated.
It seems clear that more reading's going to be required, specifically about the women who were accused and their accusers. Because as informative and insightful as this book is, it neglects any real thorough study of the women who were at the center of the ordeal. It's all about the men who were powerful on opposite sides of the factional lines.
And there isn't really any reason to think that they were behind it or at the center of it or controlling it in any kind of way that was unusual. I mean, of course the farmer who were living inland and feeling cut off and disenfranchised by the rise of mercantile capitalism were more likely to think there was something to an accusation of witchcraft than a guy who lived in the town on the coast and was engaged in a global trade where he did business with people from all up and down the colonies and across the Atlantic on a routine basis. A coal miner from West Virginia is more likely to believe Hillary Clinton drinks blood than a guy who works at Goldman Sachs, too. And in a way, yes, I recognize that part of the QAnon thing arises out of the conflict between those two economic groups (Wall Street and coal mines). But don't we need to look at Hillary Clinton herself before we can get a clear picture of how and why that whole rumor got started and so many people believed it?
And just because we disregard any serious consideration of whether or not Hillary Clinton actually drinks blood, you know, she did manage to destroy the infrastructure of Libya as part of a career move to make herself appear tough on foreign policy in advance of the 2016 elections.
So it ain't like she was innocent, either.
Going to have to add a few books to my to read list before I get this thing untangled to my satisfaction.
But there were some problems for me, points at which I was like, well, wait a minute, you're ignoring this or that, or you're jumping to conclusions, or you're imagining that certain connections or causes are the only connections or causes.
The first issue that bothered me was just that the subject of witchcraft itself is practically ignored. It's alluded to, obviously, but never taken seriously. That's not to say that I expected the book to "believe" in witches, but I know from other sources that the use of folk magic among Puritans was widespread, and it seems like an oversight to neglect that aspect of the historical reality in favor of an almost exclusive focus on the rise of mercantile capitalism. I mean, the subtitle of the book is "The Social Origins of Witchcraft." Don't folk beliefs constitute part of the social origin?
I mean, I get it, to be sure, mercantile capitalism was a huge factor in creating the factionalism that fed the fire, and I can get commie about this thing with the best of them, but what you end up with when you look at it that way is a record of powerful men with competing economic interests, and limiting the discussion of the "social origins" of the ultimate crisis in that way not only neglects the women who were the primary victims of the whole thing, but fails to do any real substantial investigation into the spark that actually set this powder keg off: specifically the use of folk magic by women. It's just like, "okay, so these young women were fucking around with a crystal ball, now let me tell you about how much money Israel Porter was making."
This is explained in terms of the girls' anxieties about the uncertain economic futures, but that seems insufficient, given that there was interest in magic before the rise of mercantile capitalism as well. In attempting to make the connection between these two ideas, there's even a point at which the authors take as evidence the fact that the afflicted girls claimed that the devil had offered them riches.
Well, he did that to Jesus in the Bible. The connection between the Devil and riches is old old old. It does not therefore seem appropriate to attribute the girls making the connection to the economics of late 17th Century New England anymore than it does to attribute it to their no doubt exhaustive familiarity with the Bible.
It also seemed to me that some of the conclusions the authors came to about the psychology of individual players remain insufficiently substantiated by the evidence presented. Obviously Samuel Parris was paranoid and saw conspiracy and betrayal everywhere, but that was because of his daddy? Really? I'm less than sold on the argument. It's as though this otherwise in depth research into this complicated set of problems was abruptly hijakced by Cosmo's take on Freud. Same goes for this guy they cited talking about patterns of accusation in England, and how that might have been playing out in New England. Like, you kicked Sarah Goode out of your house in the winter time when she had no place to go, so you felt guilty, so you made excuses (essentially, "she was a real bitch to have around the house"), then later you justified your guilt by accusing her of witchcraft. Again, I have to ask: Really?
I mean, could it not be that she was a real bitch to have around the house? That, sure, maybe you felt a little guilty because it was cold outside but mostly just, yo, she had to fucking go? And that later on it seemed perfectly plausible to the late 17th Century New Englander that she may have been a witch, in addition to being a bitch, and that therefore the accusation didn't have the first fucking thing to do with feeling guilty about anything anymore so much as it had to do with the real concern that she was up to something diabolical? I mean, I don't know. It seems like a possibility to me.
Especially if she was fucking around with some kind of folk magic. I mean, you don't have to believe in magic to believe that she was fucking around with it and believed in it herself. I don't know if she was or not. I mean, I have no idea, because they didn't even touch on it in this book. But they didn't really say much about any of the women, much less the magic, so who knows what was going on based on what's here?
Again, great book for what it is. Interesting economic and cultural contextualization with excellent biographical information on some of the major players, but the economic context is much more thorough than the cultural one, which seems wrongheaded to me, and as rich and nuanced as some of the biographies are, they are disproportionately male, which is obviously a glaring omission, and they are often characterized by superficial psychological analysis that presents itself not only as "deep," but as authoritative, when in truth it's barely even substantiated.
It seems clear that more reading's going to be required, specifically about the women who were accused and their accusers. Because as informative and insightful as this book is, it neglects any real thorough study of the women who were at the center of the ordeal. It's all about the men who were powerful on opposite sides of the factional lines.
And there isn't really any reason to think that they were behind it or at the center of it or controlling it in any kind of way that was unusual. I mean, of course the farmer who were living inland and feeling cut off and disenfranchised by the rise of mercantile capitalism were more likely to think there was something to an accusation of witchcraft than a guy who lived in the town on the coast and was engaged in a global trade where he did business with people from all up and down the colonies and across the Atlantic on a routine basis. A coal miner from West Virginia is more likely to believe Hillary Clinton drinks blood than a guy who works at Goldman Sachs, too. And in a way, yes, I recognize that part of the QAnon thing arises out of the conflict between those two economic groups (Wall Street and coal mines). But don't we need to look at Hillary Clinton herself before we can get a clear picture of how and why that whole rumor got started and so many people believed it?
And just because we disregard any serious consideration of whether or not Hillary Clinton actually drinks blood, you know, she did manage to destroy the infrastructure of Libya as part of a career move to make herself appear tough on foreign policy in advance of the 2016 elections.
So it ain't like she was innocent, either.
Going to have to add a few books to my to read list before I get this thing untangled to my satisfaction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2018
The book is not always a thrilling read; it was the 1970s, so Boyer and Nissenbaum, fashionable social historians, were enamored with statistics and psychology. The focus is on Salem Village's men, not so much the many women embroiled in the trials. Anyone who reads "Salem Possessed" will find their knowledge of the witch trials enriched, even if they do not find a story as thrilling (or female-centric) as Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." The accusations of witchcraft exacerbated interlocking tensions in Salem Village — the peripheral, pastoral Village versus the mercantilist Salem Town; Rev. Parris's greed and fear of betrayal; folk interest in the occult and Tituba's magic; and the debate as to whether a whole community or an elite "church" should dominate local politics. The authors argue that mercantilism and a less credulous approach to witchcraft ultimately eclipsed the mentality of the accusers and prosecutors in colonial New England. Some may argue, with reason, that Boyer and Nissenbaum assume that mercantilism's triumph was inevitable.
September 9, 2008
All in all, an excellent read, though I take issue with B & N's use of tax records, the fairy-tail (wicked step-mother) projection motif that dominates the latter half of the book. psychoanalysis isn't easy to do, especially if it's only done by halves. In essence, I missed a more thorough effort to explore the psychological pressures that created this long-lasting catastrophe. I also disagree with N & B's decision to dismiss the girls and their psychological/political motives. To B & N, the girls are merely tools of the Salem Village political faction. This belies any agency or agenda the girls might have had in perpetuating the hysteria and is typical of scholarship during the era in which N & B wrote Salem Possesssed.
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