17th Century Salem Massachusetts
The Interweaving of the Economy and the Witch Trials of 1692
The Economic Division of Salem Village
The Puritans
The group of people who settle Salem in the 17th century are a
religious group from England called the Puritans. The group is not only
seeking religious freedoms, but also trying to live in a communal economy.
John Winthrop, the first colonial governor of Massachusetts, describes his
vision of a successful economy in Salem, when in 1630, he says to the
settlers while they are still on the boat, “[W]e must be knit together in
this work as one man. We must delight in each other, … rejoice together,
mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our
commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same
body.”[1]
The Puritans believe that everyone must work for the best interested of the
group as a whole, ‘the body’, rather than their own self-interests.
However, as we have seen in Salem Town and Salem Village, and as we shall
see later on, the communal economy soon turns into a “pre-industrial
capitalistic economy”.[2]
The Puritans also have very strict rules against starting up a church in the newly separated Salem Village. The Salem Villagers want a new church, however, the Puritan congregation of the Salem Town church will not recognize the parish, where certain ceremonies such as communion cannot be performed. Salem Village goes through a number of priests before settling with Samuel Parris in 1689, hiring him at a price of £66 per year.[3] The hiring of Parris is favorably viewed by Villagers known as Pro-Parris but negatively viewed by Villagers known as Anti-Parris. The religious differences in the Pro-Parris and Anti-Parris groups also contain economic divisions, which I will discuss in the next section.
Author: Steven Parker, University of Mary Washington
E-mail: spark5rb@gmail.com | Last Updated: November 22, 2004