A Shifting Salem

Our Salem Today readings, reveal what is, in my opinion, one of the most shocking things about the Salem witch trials: how quickly the community reversed its decisions and stances about witchcraft.

As we read, by 1697, Samuel Parris and his daughter, Betty, had been forced out o Salem Village. By 1709, Ann Putnam, one of the main accusers of the witch trials, shared that she had played a role in spilling "innocent blood", and directly apologized to the Nurse family for her role in the trial and execution of Rebecca Nurse. Just 25 years after Ann's confession, Great Britain codified the growing belief that witchcraft was not at play in its territories by enacted "The Witchcraft Act of 1735". This law made it illegal to claim that anyone was practicing witchcraft or possessed supernatural occult abilities.

One explanation as to why the people of Salem Village went from being fanatically convinced that there were malevolent witches working among them, to entirely sure that the accusations and executions has been unwarranted in a mere matter of years may lie in the structure of the community of Salem. Puritan society, as we read and discussed in class, was so tightly interwoven and truly built on a foundation community and neighborly support. In a community like this, division, long-term, deep-seeded resentment, and conflicting ideas would be a threat to the survival of all those in Salem— especially as the village was experiencing intense economically instability and threats from outside forces.

As such, just as nearly all those in Salem initially turned to support the belief that witchcraft was being practiced, those in the village then communally shifted to the opposing belief that the lives of innocent people had been taken over the course of the trials. In this way, a shared sense of commonality was maintained among the majority of people of Salem at all times— first they were besieged by witches, and then, many came to the understanding that the evidence in the trials had been unreliable and that the executions had been unnecessary tragedies. These collective cognitive shift enabled Salem to maintain a sense of internal stability and cohesiveness, even as it was threatened by forces within and beyond its borders.