Witch Trials. Salem Possessed by Boyer and Nissenbaum

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Introduction

“A primitive crystal ball” and the talks about their future beloved – this seemingly naïve and childish pastime of the girls of Salem turned out to be the causal factor of the tragedy that makes the flesh of contemporary generation creep when reading about the nightmare that descended on Massachusetts in 1692. Salem, a village in Massachusetts, and the neighboring towns of Ipswich and Andover suffered a massive outbreak of a witch hunt in 1962 that saw many people tried and convicted of the crime of witchcraft. The fact that deserves mentioning is that the convictions were all based on unfounded accusations of a group of young girls who lived in Salem. The claims of these girls stated that they were suffering witchcraft attacks that made them develop convulsive seizures and act in a weird manner and this led to the belief that there were citizens practicing “malefic witchcraft” in Salem. The arrests started with three women accused: Sara Good, Sara Osborne, and Tituba, but their imprisonment did not mean that the matter was then at an end since “adults as well as children were falling victim to the spell”. As a result of the series of hearings, nineteen inhabitants of Salem and neighboring towns were put to death and more than a hundred of suspected witches were kept in jail but the arrests went on until the intervention of the principal ministers of eastern Massachusetts⁴. The authors state that the Salem witchcraft outbreak has been “the continuing fascination and challenge” for historians since the account of the events arouses much more questions than answers. Nowadays, the practice of witchcraft cannot be considered an acceptable cause of the tragedy of Salem. The event should be analyzed as a multidimensional historic situation caused by a number of factors, such as social, economic, religious, and certainly, gendered. While Boyer and Nissenbaum have presented a deep analysis of the communal and social aspect of Salem witch trials, they have set aside the gendered dimension of the event, though its analysis could have been beneficial.

Boyer and Nissenbaum’s Explanation of the Salem Episode

As it has been mentioned above, Boyer and Nissenbaum attribute the Salem episode to something more than what people perceived it to be. The two paint a picture of other factors that might have contributed to the Salem tragedy. As they offer the account of the pace, status, and geography in Salem trials, they stress the necessity of “a close look at Salem Village before its moment of notoriety”. They include such factors as political and economic situation of the region.

Boyer and Nissenbaum state that there were two geographical namesakes: Salem Village and Salem Town. Salem Village, mainly the farmers, who constituted the greater part of its population, “began to chafe beneath the power which Salem Town held over them and to work for a greater degree of autonomy”. As for Salem Town, it also had its own interest in the matter as it was “a thriving commercial and fishing center” that did not want “to lose control of the rural hinterland” that provided it with tax revenues and food. This “fundamental divergence of interests” and great number of “petitions, resolutions, depositions, and protests” seem to be a valuable reason for the hidden feud between the settlements. The authors never make unsubstantiated statements, for instance, they present the abstracts from petition of the Farmers “for release from the watch” that was granted but followed by accusations of two village dwellers later. The subordinate status of the Salem Village as “a distinct community without its own town government, and a distinct parish without its own church” is described with much detail and the resentment of the villagers seems to be a significant ground for hostility towards the Town. Let us recall that the greater part of the complaints during the trials came from the Salem Village and the greater part of the accused came from Salem Town and the pattern of economic and social causes of the witch trials becomes convincing.

In addition to the external division, there was internal unrest and polarization in the Salem village itself with the proponents of the town and those who adhered to the Village. Boyer and Nisserbaum state that “by late 1691 … the Village has reached the point of total institutional polarization: the church speaking for one group, the Village Committee for another”. The authors also put emphasis on the two families that played an active part in Salem trials, the Putnams, who “were operating at the fringes of power in Salme Town by the 1680’s” and the Porters, “who increasingly moving to its political center by making common cause with the merchant group”. The relationship of these two families can be characterized as “open rivalry in the period immediately prior t the witchcraft outbreak”. Taking into consideration that Ann Putman was one the afflicted girls and the one that gave testimony against twelve people and signed complaints against twenty-four, the analyzed rivalry can be considered on the reasons for the witchcraft outbreak. On the whole, Boyer and Nisserbaum’s explanation of the episode is built on the basis of social, economical, and political causes of the Salem episode.

Discussion of the Evidence That There Was a Gendered Dimension of the Salem Trails

The Salem Trials have been studied from the point of view of different perspectives and if the authors of the analyzed book consider socio-economical reasons, they ignore an aspect that is, by all means, significant too, it is gender issue of the Salem episode. It is commonly known, and the opening chapters of the book prove that the greater part of the accused and convicted people of Salem were women and those male inhabitants, who were accused of witchcraft, were in some relations with the women considered to be witches.

What is more, the whole event unfolded around the young girls who inspired the atrocity thus being in the core of the whole action. The actual reason for their behavior remains unknown but their gender is significant for the present paper, it can be said that women played a significant role in the development of the Salem conflict. What is more, the woman symbolically put an end to the trials, though it was practically done by the governor, but only due to his wife’s, Lady Phips’, accusation of witchcraft.

Gender dimension of the trials were interrelated with the economic factor as well. If the first three women who were accused were outcasts in the community, further charges were mostly directed at middle-aged single women who were economically stable and even owned land thus becoming the rivals of the male part of population. In the Puritan society, women should be totally submissive and dominated by men. However, the trials can be supposed to be the outcome of the breach of this submission. As it has been mentioned earlier, the first three women accused were the outcasts who did not satisfy moral code of Puritan society. The words of Sara Good she shot from the scaffold: “I am no more a witch that you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink”, can hardly be perceived as the words of a submissive woman.

Besides, it becomes clear that the court room has become a place where women were listened to and where their words became influential though they had no power in their men-dominated community. The testimonies during the trials gave them freedom to express themselves, interact with other members of society and release pent-up tension and the emotions. They were bombarded with stress which had no outlet. The women’s convulsing and unexplainable behavior could in a way be linked to this kind of a lifestyle. It could be a way of them telling the community and pointing out that to a deeper overlooked problem in their village setting.

Assessment of the Book

The book under consideration provides a deep and detailed account of the socio-economic situation in Salem Village and Salem Town during the period preceding and the actual period of the witch trials. However, the authors let such important factors and religious and gender factor slip from their field of view. They should be given credit for the thorough investigation of the primary sources (petitions, County Court records, ect.) as they never make unsubstantiated statements. They describe the opposition of the Town and the Village, they offer short biographies of the main actors of the situation (by the way, only male participants are described), they offer maps and table that serve as eloquent proofs of their ideas.

All these merits of the book considered, it should be stated that though the authors ignore gendered aspect of the Salem trials, still, there are some glimpses of the gender-centered ideas. For instance, when describing Joseph Putnam and his brother, the authors tackle Mary Veren Putman, a stepmother, and her impact on the family. However, this outlet for gender dimension of the trails is too poor and the issue should be investigated further.

The Possible Changes in the Book if Gender Dimension Were Taken into Account

In case, if the book were modified so that it could incorporate gendered dimension, it should have presented the norms of Puritan morality in relation to women. It is necessary to analyze the roles attributed to women at that time. It is important to show that a woman was a powerless creature, whose duties were reduced to household chores and upbringing of children while men were the main actors on social and political arena. Boyer and Nissenbaum state that “what was going on was not simply a personal quarrel, an economic dispute, or even a struggle for power, but a moral conflict involving the very nature of the community itself”. This statement can be successfully applied to gendered aspect of the issue. If the court room becomes the final place where a woman can get attention and can be given power, even if it done with the help of false testimony, this is the evident sign of rotten morale in society.

If economic state of the Puritan society has claimed the author’s attention, then they could have traced the economic status of the accused women who were mainly well-off inhabitants of the Village and the Town. Besides, the importance of authority may be analyzed since those accused women who refused to admit their guilt were evidently disobeying the authority.

Taking all the above mentioned things into consideration, it is possible to conclude that the Salem witch trials belong to the painful past, its significance will remain forever and the tragedy can teach us the lesson of the necessity of equality and morality in our society. Boyer and Nissenbaum should be given credit for the authoritative account of the socio-economic reasons for the trails, but they fail to explain why the tragedy became “plaguelike”. The analysis of gendered dimension of the Salem episode can throw light on the past tragedy.

Bibliography

Boyer, Paul, and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed. USA: Harvard University Press, 1974.

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