Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft

To understand the forces that gave rise to the 1692 witch trials, the authors delve deeply into the personal history and psychology of their instigator, Reverend Samuel Parris. Parris was born a younger son of a prosperous London merchant who bequeathed him little but an unprofitable plantation in Barbados. Over the next two decades, Parris tried his hand at various mercantile enterprises and failed at all of them. By his mid-thirties, Parris was casting about for a new career when Salem Village approached him to become its minister. The negotiations between Parris and the Village were painstaking as he stipulated various forms of compensation before finally agreeing to take the post.

Parris’s past failures left a mark on him as a preacher. His sermons are filled with images of trade and commerce. He devalues the merchant class, partly because he failed to become a part of it, and he “developed the idea that the obscure inhabitants of obscure villages are at the mercy of more cosmopolitan institutions and authorities who do not have their interests at heart” (165-66). Parris also idealizes the pastoral village as a place which will accord him the respect that he feels his position deserves: