* Argue that the witch-hunt was caused, at the most fundamental level, by the conflict between the new entrepreneurial world represented by Salem Town and the Puritan world of third-generation Salem Village farmers.
* There was great social change going on at the time- the Salem Town and Salem Village inhabitants were on the cusp of old and new ways of living.
* The pro-Parris faction treated those that threatened them not as a political opposition but as morally defective individuals. It was not uncommon for a town to rid itself of deviant or threatening people.
* The pro-Parris faction treated those that threatened them not as a political opposition but as morally defective individuals. It was not uncommon for a town to rid itself of deviant or threatening people.
*Claim that the reason the witch hunts only happened in Salem, and not in other New England colonies, was because of a convergence of a specific and unlikely combination of historical circumstances at the particular time and place.
- Physical Setting
If Salem Village had been an isolated agricultural community, then Salem Town, and the changes that were occurring there, would not have loomed so large in the Village's consciousness.
Lack of Autonomy
- Salem Village did not have full political or ecclesiastical independence (They were not granted with it in 1672, or 1989). It can be argued that if they had, the village may have been able to develop strong institutions of its own- Institutions that may have given the villagers the power to solve their own factional disputes.
Taste of Independence
-In contrast to the last point, Boyer and Nissenbaum argue that if "Salem Farms" had remained completely part of the town, then no institutions, such as the meetinghouse and legal house, would have been established in the region at all. Even though serious problems no doubt would have persisted after 1672, a single town, physically and institutionally undivided, might have been able to contain those problems within tolerable limits.
Lack of power in Town politics
- Villagers could vote in Town elections and were eligible to hold Town offices, however, due to the difference in numbers rarely were they ever able to use the Town's political power as a weapon in Village conflicts. There was no political power equality between the Villagers and the Town folk.
Boston Authorities
- If authorities at the provincial level had exerted a stronger and more consistent hand in settling matters, Salem Village factionalism would certainly never have exploded as it did. The authorities were unpredictable and capricious as opposed to a firm source of policy.
What I like about Boyer and Nissenbaum (other then his name) is the fact that they are looking at the trials in a radically different way to previous historians. They used documentary and demographic evidence to show the economic and philosophic underpinnings of the two factions of Salem Town and Salem Village. They look much more indepth at social origins, rather then fraud or actual witchcraft, following the trend of most twentieth century historians. Instead of just re-hashing the same evidence and stories, new types of evidence and new schools of thought allow modern historians to interpret and analyse the Salem with-hunts and innovative ways.
Boyer is a cultural and intellectual historian, and Nissenbaum is a Professor of U.S. Cultural History :D
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