Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft – Emma Lesage
The witch paranoia started in Europe during the sixteenth century and spread quickly. Just one century later, the same fear spread to the English North American colonies. At a time when colonists were still arriving and settling, the witch hysteria inflamed this ‘new world’. The most famous episode of witch paranoia occurred in the town of Salem, near Boston, in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Over the course of two years, multiple accusations and trials shook Salem’s Puritan society and froze the town, rendering it incapable of thinking of anything else. The need to clarify the situation and find those ‘guilty’ of witchcraft was the epicenter of Salem. During those two years, two hundred people (mainly women) were arrested and imprisoned, and twenty people who were found guilty were sentenced to death[1]. Most were women, but they also counted one man, as well as the cats and dogs of those found guilty of witchcraft.
In America, the Salem trials continue to have a lasting impact on society to this day. This inexplicable paranoia resulted in one of the most violent episodes of American history. This ‘witch-hunt’ was later used to refer to the wave of anti-communist hysteria that surged in the form of McCarthyism during the early Cold War. The parallel between the two episodes mainly refers to the irrational fear that was felt by a part of the population towards another. This period witnessed the birth of a play that will forever mark American culture: The Crucible by Arthur Miller.
But how can we explain that such horrors were committed? For years now, researchers have tried to explain the reasons behind this phenomenon.
The work of Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum is invaluable in understanding the many theories that claim to explain what truly happened during those dark times in American history. In 1998, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum co-wrote and published the book titled Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. In it, Boyer and Nissenbaum explore the events in depth using primary sources. The authors emphasize the importance of understanding the lives of ‘ordinary’ people who lived in Salem to grasp the impact of the witch trials.
The authors examine Salem’s social divisions and factionalism as well as its economic tensions. Boyer and Nissenbaum underline the pre-existing social conflict within the little town. Arguing that the witchcraft accusations only gave ammunition to conflicts that had preexisted the episode and “heightened the vindictiveness with which they were expressed[2]“. We can understand that the witchcraft accusations worked as a snowball effect, used as a tool of revenge, whether conscious or unconscious. Boyer and Nissembaum also clarify that the trials can not be summarized as the town wanting to “purge the poor, the deviant, or the outcast[3]”. For them, there was a clear desire to lay the accusations against those higher in the social hierarchy. And so writing that the trials were used to get rid of the ‘undesirables’ is a great misconception of the situation. Another form of division in the society of Salem was the cleavage between the supporters of Reverend Samuel Parrish and those against Samuel Parrish. According to Boyer and Nissenbaum, most of the people who were accused of Witchcraft could be linked to leaders in the community who were against the Parish[4]. In this reading, the problem then becomes more political than religious. The authors underline that accusers and accused often lived on opposite sides of the village, creating another division between them.
Boyer and Nissenbaum examine the role of the Puritan religion and its superstition. Reverend Samuel Parris’ sermons fueled the fear of witchcraft, and people were scared to be accused of witchcraft as well as to become a victim of it. The Puritan religion harbored a belief in the Devil, Satan, and his threat of corruption. After the first accusation, in his sermons, Samuel Parrish nourished the fear of the people, implying that there might be more who worked for the devil, sermonizing: “Christ Knows How Many Devils There Are[5]”. Samuel Parrish, being the Reverent of Salem, would have been highly respected and listened to by the people of Salem Town. His sermons, fueled by his religious superstitions, nurtured fear and gave permission not to question when accusations occurred. Feeding the fears of the populations made the logical and rational part of them drown under the ‘threat’ of satanic forces. One of the examples of satanic corruption that is given as an example in the book is the fact that, apparently, young people would experiment with fortune-telling. At the time, fortune telling was considered to “lead away with little sorceries[6]” the young people of the Puritan society. Those experiments that can be seen as teenage rebellious acts sparked fear and suspicion among the town elders. Confirming the sermons of Samuel Parrish and once again supplying justification to their fears.
To conclude, Boyer and Nissenbaum give societal answers to the tragic episode of the Salem Witch trials, such as the divide between the supporters of Samuel Parrish and those against him. As well as the religious beliefs and fears of the Puritan society that drove the population to partially destroy itself.
Emma Lesage – Master 1 Etudes Anglophone
[1] Blumberg, 2022
[2] Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1998, p.44
[3] Ibid., p. 27
[5] Ibid., p.91
Bibliography
- BLUMBERG J., “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials.”In Smithsonian Magazine, October 24, 2022. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/.
- BOYER P. S., and NISSENBAUM S., Salem possessed: The social origins of Witchcraft, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: Harvard University Press, 1998.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
mastersfdl (29 septembre 2025). Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft – Emma Lesage. Investigatio. Consulté le 20 avril 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14rpr


