Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum

Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1974), Chapter 4, "Salem Town and Salem Village: The Dynamics of Factional Conflict"

* 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.

*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

Chadwick Hansen and clinical hysteria

Chadwick Hansen, Witchcraft at Salem (New York, 1969)

OK, I for one can't decide whether I love or hate this guy. He gives an excellent explanation of the onset of the girls fits as due to clinical hysteria (it's actually really really fascinating!), and says it was the penultimate result of their fear of witchcraft

BUT

His theory is that witches really were practising witchcraft in Salem....

OK, Hansen, whatever floats your boat.

He tells us that if the existing documents are read correctly, then they show us that people like Bridget Bishop, Candy, and Mammy Redd actually were practicing black magic... with success.

His argument is thorough...but unconvincing, so i'll ignore it, HOWEVER, I'd like to look at his explanations of clinical hysteria. He takes his information from Dr. Walter B. Cannon of Harvard Medical School, who in 1942 published an article entitled "Voodoo Death". Cannon's thesis was then tested in the Psychobiological Laboratory at John Hopkins Medical School by Curt P. Richter, who then published his findings in 1957 titled "On the Phenomenon of Sudden Death in Animals and Man".

The main point is, that people who thought they were bewitched convinced themselves of it so completely that they developed the symptoms associated with it. Nowadays, these kinds of diseases are known as psychosomatic.

Richter was using rats (obviously) to try and test the survival times of domestic vs. wild rats that were placed in water-filled beakers to swim until they drowned. His results were so irregular, that he set out to discover the cause of death. He discovered that the cause of death was, put simply, hopelessness. The rats were so convinced that there was no chance of escape from the water, that their bodies just shut-down. Richter then went on to train rats by rescuing them repeatedly from the water, and they same for longer and longer. He also discovered that if he rescued rats that were about to die a psychogenic death, they recovered rapidly.

Now if we place this theory into the context of the Salem witch trials, isn't it possible that the girls were so convinced of their bewitchment, both by their fear of it, and by their diagnosis by a physician, that they then developed the symptoms they associated with it? Similarly, the idea of rats recovering after being rescued could work the same way with a counter charm used for witchcraft victims. They believe they have been cured of their bewitchment, and so they recover.

I don't really know why I just wasted half a lesson on this, I just thought it was interesting. If anything it shows that as we move into more modern times more emphasis is being placed on psychological disorders. I'm a big fan of the mental illness, but the only problem with this is 'how do you prove what the mental state of people who have been dead for over 300 years was?'

Histories

Holy Hooker, what is this? TWO blog posts in TWO days?


George Bancroft, The History of the United States of America (1834)

* Democratic politician and diplomat.
* The first, after Calef's More Wonders of The Invisible World, to mention the strained relations between Reverend Samuel Parris and some of his Parishioners, and then notes 'The delusion of witchcraft would give opportunities of terrible vengeance.'
* Like Hutchinson, he makes some claim of fraud on behalf of the afflicted girls, and also makes note of the similarities between their 'strange caprices' and those of the Goodwin children in Mather's Memorable Providences

' The oppotunity of fame, of which the love is not the exclusive infirmity of noble minds was placed within the reach of persons of the coursest mould; and the ambition of notoriety recruited the little company of the possessed.'

*After acknowledging this, he then claims all responsibility for the Witch-hunt rests 'the very few, hardly five or six, in whose hands the transistion state of the government left, for a season, unlimited influence.' I see the point Bancroft is trying to make- I too agree that the court of Oyer and Terminer was flawed in regards to its requirements for conviction. However, I do not believe that we can blame solely the judges; accusations were flying before the court was set up, so something else must have triggered it- And Bancroft has already commented on Parris and his Parishioners, fraud and fame. Hill makes an interesting comment about Bancrofts opinion- he 'displays an overly optimistic Jacksonian Democrat's faith in the good sense of the people.'

* He is astute on the role of Cotton Mather- 'He is an example how far selfishness, under the form of vanity and ambition, can blind the higher faculties, stupefy the judgement, and dupe consciousness itself.' He was clearly not a fan of the guy.
* Notes 'The invisible world began to be less considered; men trusted more to observation and analysis', and the end of Mathers influence, as the reason the Salem trials never extended into other areas.

Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, (Boston, 1867), part 3: "Witchcraft in Salem Village"

* Ascribes almost every aspect of the witch-hunt to conscious fraud and conspiracy. Oversimplistic.
* HOWEVER, understood the political background to the witch-hunt better than anybody up until the 1970's, which is why his history is an inclusive exploration of the trials' causes and development.

Upham lists a number of relevant factors that may have contributed to the trials- which is one aspects of his history I like. Whilst his conclusions may on the whole be oversimplified, he identifies multiple facets of the society at the time.
* acknowledges 'controversy' between Parris and Salem Village inhabitants
* 'doctrines of demonology had produced their full effect upon the minds of men'
* Stories such as that of the Goodwin children were well known thoughout New England
* People in neighbouring towns were already in prison on charges of witchcraft
* Deputy-governor Danforth (who would become a judge in the trials) had already begun the work of arrests.
* Parris' Indian slave Tituba may have had some knowledge of Spanish/ West Indies 'witchcraft'

Upham then goes on with Mather's idea of the 'afflicted', but develops it into a spiritualist circle headed by Tituba and her husband John Indian. She taught the young girls all about palmistry, fortune-telling, magic etc., which the girls then used for attention.

I'm verrryyyyy dubious on that last point. Sorry Upham, but I don't quite buy it.

Samuel G. Drake, Annals of Witchcraft in New England (New York, 1869)

* His Annals consists mainly of reproductions of the trial transcripts
* Continues with the idea of the spiritualist 'circle', but makes no mention of Tituba
* Blames the girls and their dabbling in witchcraft as the primary cause 'Such were the characters which set in motion that stupendous tragedy, which ended in blood and ruin.'


Sooooo... I have no idea if any of this is relevant to anything- but I figured I should at least demonstrate that stuff has been happening. There is more to come!

I've discovered through my reading that as historical interpretations of the trials become more modern, so too do they become increasingly concerned with science and psychology. But more on that later. I'm off for a shower, and then onto Japanese speaking (joy oh joy)

Contemporary and early Histories

Hmmmmm.....I think it's pretty obvious here who the slackest in the class is.....

Anyway, I'm on my fourth cup of tea for the day, and Extension History has finally come up in my extensive homework schedule. I've read quite a bit of Frances Hill's The Salem Witch Trials Reader, so I figured i'd do you all a favour and tell you about it.

There is almost 90 pages dedicated purely to what different historians have to say on the trials. They range from contemporary sources to late 20th century ones. What I've read are interesting...and some of them are just a tad ridiculous.

I'm going to start with the more early sources, because it's getting late and my bed is beckoning me to a swift sleep. (alliteration for the win!)

Cotton Mather, The Life of His Excellency Sir William Phillips, Knt (London, 1697)

* Attempts to explain why the trials happened- but his explanation blames purely the devil, the 'invisible world' and by the fact that people were practising 'detestable conjurations' in Salem, and throughout much of New England.
*This approach is not surprising however. Mather was also a key player in the trials themselves, and was a strong advocate for the admission of spectral evidence (though he did originally say it should not be the convicting evidence). Of all the principle actors in the trials whose lives were documented afterwards, Mathers was one of only two who did not admit to any guilt.
*Was an influential Puritan Minister who was deeply concerned with the lack of piety in New England. His essay Illustrious Providences (1684) set out to prove the existence of the spiritual side of the world.
* After the Trials, Mather wrote many works defending the trials. His own father publicly burnt his work Wonders of the Invisible World. Ouch.

Mathers accounts are interesting because they are so contemporary. He was there, he resided in the actual trials. However, it is also very clear that his history of the trials is extremely bias. He seeks to blame the Devil and sorcery for what happened because it would
a) Support his defense for Spectral Evidence
b) Explain would could not be (and still has not been) explained
c) Demonstrate the Devil's active work, and thus encourage belief in the Lord Jesus Christ
d) Perhaps because he honestly believed that's what it was- He certainly wrote enough about it to be convincing of his own convictions.


Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay (London, 1765)

* A man of the Enlightenment- his history is therefore very different to Mather's. He had no time for superstition, and instead oversimplified by ascribing the whole witch-hunt to fraud and conspiracy.
* His strengths (looking past the religious, superstitious aspect for other possible factors) were his weaknesses. Like other Enlightenment historians such as Gibbon, his dismissal of religion affects the credibilty of his work. Whilst I do not believe that real witches can be blamed as the cause of the witch trials, I understand that God-fearing Puritans in 17th century New England certainly believed it to be plausible- and we have to understand that to try and understand them (Ive been listening in class! Perhaps a little sentient empathy? or mentalities anyone?)
* reproduces original documents, including examinations and confessions. He also utilises already written histories on the trials, and books on witchcraft that existed pre-Salem.
*Suggests that the reason the afflicted's behaviour matched that of the Goodwin children (whom Mather's investigated for his Illustrious Providences because of their strange aflictions in Boston, in 1688) so closely was because books on witchcraft were readily available to those in New England, and they could therefore be copied.
* Accuses the girls of fraud- 'So much notice taken on the children, together with the pity and compassion expressed by those who visited them, not only tended to confirm them in their design, but to draw others into the like'.
* And then it arcs into a conspiracy where once started, no-one had the courage to back out. He surmises the trials 'proceeded from the reluctance in human nature to reject errors once imbibed.'
* Was one of the first to question 'whether the the afflicted were under bodily distempers, or altogether guilt of fraud and imposture' rather than 'preternatural or diabolical possession.'


Coming up tomorrow.....

George Bancroft, The History of the United States of America (1834)

Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, (Boston, 1867), part 3: "Witchcraft in Salem Village"

Samuel G. Drake, Annals of Witchcraft in New England (New York, 1869)

M.V.B Perley, A Short History of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (1911)

Good-night!!!!!