A lot of novels and solid monographs have been written about the famous trial of the Salem witches in 1692, plays and films have been staged. There are many versions explaining the rampant obscurantism in an American town on the threshold of the 18th century. Relatively not so long ago, new explanations for the phenomenon of the witch-hunt in Salem appeared - socio-economic.
Witches flock
In the Old World, on the eve of the century of the industrial revolution, interest in witches was almost lost. But in America, especially the Puritan colony of New England, where the town of Salem was located, on the contrary, there was an extremely serious attitude towards the servants of the dark forces. The life of the settlers was rather harsh, and children suffered to a greater extent from this, they lacked simple joys: games, fairy tales, gifts. And there is nothing surprising in the fact that children's fantasies became the spark from which the flame of obscurantism flared up in the city.
In early 1692, strange things began to happen in the house of local pastor Samuel Parris, who did not get along well with the parishioners (in Protestantism there is no priesthood institution, and the community itself chooses a spiritual leader). 9-year-old daughter and niece of Parris sometimes fell into inexplicable apathy, then began to convulse, shouting some kind of abracadabra, bursting into laughter, which the city doctor immediately identified as "devilish."
In our time, his colleagues would call all this typical adolescent hysteria (neurosis of repressed desires, attempts to attract attention to oneself, etc.). But even then, one could draw attention to one curious circumstance: shortly before the seizures began, the girls got a book by the famous Boston theologian Cotton Mather on witchcraft in New England. The Salem people will remember Mather, not even a year will pass.
Soon, a mysterious ailment befell the girls' girlfriend, and Parris's maid, the black woman Tituba, wanted to intervene in the matter, on her own head. She turned a little, with the best intentions, to check if this was demonic intrigue. However, the neighbors, and then the pastor himself, learned about the divination. They were interrogated at home, during which his daughter escaped the fateful: "It's all her fault - Tituba!"
The black woman was sent to prison, in the company of two other residents of Salem: the city beggar, whose name has not survived in history, and the quite respectable farmer Sarah Osborne. The pastor's niece pointed at them during another fit. By this time, more than a dozen Salem young ladies aged 13 to 20 were suffering from terrible cramps. The townspeople were seriously alarmed, but, alas, they did not listen to the advice of a few sensible ones to flog the bad girls and forget about their stupid slander.
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Judicial proceedings were launched across the entire uniform. Sheriff Corwin and Judge Hawthorne, after reviewing writings on witchcraft and consulting with Boston authorities (including Mather himself), revealed clear signs of devilish intrigues in Salem. As in every such case, when a witch-hunt was announced, any unfounded accusation could serve as evidence. And also the "voluntary confession" of the accused, which then meant - under torture. Neither the stupid beggar woman nor the articulate farmer succeeded in convincing the judges of her innocence. Moreover, the connivance of the accused confirmed Hawthorne in the opinion that there was an intervention of dark forces.
But Tituba, with fear, confessed that she flew on a broomstick on the Sabbath, and in mockery of innocent girlish souls - in a word, in everything that was described in paints in demonological literature and was passed from mouth to mouth with even more colorful details. She should have tried to bring the lying girls to clean water, but society has already taken their side, and "slander" would only aggravate the sad position of the black servant.
In general, she chose a way of preserving life, characteristic of such processes: she began to “cooperate with the investigation”. In particular, she named the names of non-existent accomplices and described their heinous deeds. It was Tituba who reported about the "tall unearthly man" who allegedly led the devil's raid on Salem, he will still appear in this story. The process flywheel was spinning. Judge Hawthorne, having ascertained the guilt of the three "witches", returned them to prison and was ready to issue a guilty verdict.
Maybe if the unfortunates were executed immediately, it would sober up the townspeople and the tragedy would not have acquired such a wide scale, it would have done without new victims. However, the case dragged on. The colony was then awaiting a new governor from the metropolis, who was to appoint new judges. The judicial machine began to slip, but the victims of witchcraft became the heroes of the day and finally got loose. Everything was attributed to the intrigues of the enemy of the human race, they could bully, cheat adults, swear … But if only that.
Here's one example. A certain Martha Corey did not let her husband into the interrogation of the first three Salem witches: there is nothing, they say, to listen to any nonsense. The girls found out about what was said, and “word and deed” followed: they immediately announced that they were also tormented by a ghost in the guise of Martha Corey. At the same time, the poor things could not even see it clearly, because they were blinded. And Mrs. Corey was sent to jail. Meanwhile, Tituba remembered during the investigation of several more representatives of the dark forces.
The results did not take long. The flared up witch-hunt, naturally, was accompanied by an ever-increasing number of slander. The atmosphere of fear paralyzed the mind and will of the Salemians. It is significant: more than 100 people signed the petition in defense of the first three accused. After some time, when one of the most respected women of Salem, Rebecca Nares, was arrested, half dared to speak in her defense. And then for many months the Salem residents did not sign anything except denunciations.
Sabbat
The case moved quickly to the "main trial", and accordingly, the main accused was selected. It was established that the "tall, unearthly man" who organized the Salem Sabbath, of whom Tituba spoke, was a former local pastor, the Reverend Burroughs, who had recently transferred to another parish. Samuel Parris, who was not popular with parishioners, was rather jealous of his predecessor's fame and spoke extremely disapprovingly of him, so that one of the young informers did not have much difficulty in guessing who to point to next time.
As soon as the organizer is found, there must be a worthy criminal organization. It was never stopped by Parris's henchmen: thanks to their leading questions, the young ladies switched from women to rich and respected fathers of families. Burroughs' accomplices included, for example, retired officer John Alden and Philip English, owner of houses, ships and a marina. And even one of the bailiffs who repented of his deed and tried to escape from Salem.
The main process began in May. By that time, all New England knew about the Salem witches. But the new governor who eventually arrived, Sir William Phipps, had no time for the Salem witches: he was burdened with special assignments to end the war with the Indians and settle the conflict with the Puritans, who were dissatisfied with the new "colonial" legislation. Therefore, he washed his hands, shifting the proceedings to three judges, headed by his deputy Stoughton. Actually, the proceedings were necessary only to comply with the procedure; there was no doubt about its result.
Practice has shown that even a well-oiled machine of this kind of process can fail at times. True, this happens only where judicial law is not an empty phrase. So, in Andover, neighboring with Salem, also engulfed in witchcraft, a man was found who thought to file a counterclaim against the informer, accusing him of libel and demanding large monetary compensation. The proceedings lasted for years, but this bold act significantly cooled the ardor of local informers. And the already mentioned Rebecca Nares, known for her piety, unshakable confidence in her righteousness, made an impression on the jury so strong that they were forced to declare her innocent.
But justice was not destined to prevail. Immediately after the announcement of the verdict, the "injured" young ladies who were present at the trial howled and squirmed as if their last hour had come. The play worked: Judge Stoughton chided the jury for conniving at evil spirits and sent them to think again. And they consulted a little unanimously decided: guilty. After such a lesson, the next four defendants (including Burroughs) were sentenced without a hitch.
On July 19, four witches, led by the "witcher" Burroughs, were hanged in front of a large crowd of people on a hill near Salem. True, this time it was not without a glitch. Just before his execution, Reverend Burroughs prayed loudly and without hesitation. But at the end of the 17th century, any child knew that those possessed by the devil could not do this clearly and without blasphemous mistakes.
The crowd of townspeople, shocked by what had happened, murmured and began to press the bailiffs, intending to free the former shepherd. However, here, unfortunately, an observer specially arrived from Boston intervened - Cotton Mather, the one whose book made such an indelible impression on the Salem maidens. (An authoritative demonologist, we must give him his due, has always consistently opposed quick and indiscriminate accusations of witchcraft, demanding strong evidence from the investigation) The passionate speech of the theologian, who reminded the Salem people that there is nothing more terrible and insidious than the devil in angelic guise, decided the case: Burroughs was hanged.
On August 2, six more were hanged, on September 22 - seven more. And in the interval between these executions, the farmer Giles Corey, who had the audacity to stand up for his wife, died under torture. During the trial, he refused to answer the questions of the judges, and they recalled the law, known in good old England, according to which those who like to play in silence had to put weights on their chests until they spoke. The courageous farmer said only: “Add a load!”, And another weight squeezed out of Corey not recognition, but soul.
Debriefing
The massacre on September 22 was the last. It would seem that the Salem “thieves in law” had a lot of work to do: 150 people, including children, were behind bars, there were a couple of hundred more in line … But any mass hysteria comes to an end. In the same September, one of the young informers told a certain Boston priest about her vision: the executed witch told the girl that she had suffered innocently. And by mid-October, all of Massachusetts was already grumbled about what was happening in Salem.
The governor himself began to worry, especially when the scandal began to acquire an international character. Having received a petition from Dutch and French priests from New York - the most prominent representatives of the clergy in the New World, Sir Phipps began to act. He removed Judge Stoughton (just in case, slandering him in the eyes of the king), publicly dissociated himself from the Salem witches' case and suspended further executions. He also ordered to classify the protocols of hearings and interrogations, "so as not to give food for misinterpretation." The documents of the trial were collected and published only in the 19th century, and three huge volumes were published.
1693, January - rehabilitation began. And even before that, they canceled the worked-out method of identifying witches - on denunciation. Now judges were obliged to issue a sentence only on the basis of a voluntary (that is, under torture) confession. As a result, 55 accused, who tried to alleviate their fate by hasty self-incrimination, were the first candidates for the scaffold. However, they did not have time to hang them: the judicial machine finally backed up.
Rehabilitation dragged on for economic reasons. Under the laws of that time, the authorities paid only for those sentenced to prison; those who were acquitted had to reimburse the expenses of the jailers (it was required to pay not only food, but also the work of the staff: the production of torture, imprisonment in shackles, etc.). Not all "lucky ones" had the required amount.
In Salem, the blame for the incident was blamed on Parris alone. The pastor was deprived of his salary, and three years later he was forced to leave the city (although the court did not satisfy the official complaint filed by the victims of the trial and their families). Parris's successor refused to give the young witch-hunters the sacrament, and subsequently only two of them managed to get married. 1711 - the families of the victims were paid a small compensation, and the story was considered closed.
But it received a wide response, many different versions of what happened were expressed. The first on the surface explanation - religious fanaticism, obscurantism - was recognized by the researchers of the Salem phenomenon as clearly insufficient. After all, a lot of such stories are known, while they also took place in countries that are emphatically non-religious.
So it would be a clear oversimplification to attribute the Salem witches solely to the "denseness" of the 17th century Puritans. Already in the XX century, the phrase "witch hunt" was filled with a new meaning, followed by versions of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, sometimes quite exotic. And only recently were motives of a very material nature discovered.
Impure driving force
In the middle of the 19th century, Salem Mayor Charles Ephem published a two-volume study on the urban “shame of 1692,” with detailed maps of the city and its surroundings, and listing the addresses of all witch-hunts and whistle-blowers. Already today, American sociologists, having studied these maps, have drawn surprising conclusions: the Salem events appear in a completely new light. They found out that their essence was as follows: the "lower classes" of society persecuted and in the name of the law exterminated the "upper classes", claiming their property. In the Old World, in the same Tudor England, everything was the other way around: in such cases, the social status of the informers was higher than that of their victims.
And what can we say about ordinary townsfolk, when even the judges, headed by Judge Hawthorne, as it turned out, devoted only a small part of their working time to meetings, and devoted a large part to procedures related to the confiscation of suspects' property. Specifically, the suspects: the laws of that time allowed him to simply take him apart, without waiting for a court decision. It has been established for certain that the judge, the sheriff, the bailiffs and simply active supporters of Pastor Parris have substantially increased their fortunes during the six months of the Salem trials. Often whole families ended up behind bars: that way it was more convenient to take possession of the property they liked.
In addition to the quite understandable desire to receive additional property for free, other, not so obvious incentives were discovered. The Puritans sailed to America with the good idea of doing everything together: to work, to rest, to praise the Lord. At the same time, a social hierarchy was strictly observed in their communities: God from birth assigned everyone his place and it was considered a sin to claim more. The upstarts, to put it another way, were enterprising and active people, the Puritans did not like. And the pastors in the houses of prayer did not tire of repeating: the evil one only thinks about how to destroy the community.
It turned out that the devil at that time had a very specific embodiment - capitalist relations, and it was against them that war was declared in Salem. Those who were persecuted by Parris and other defenders of the "foundations" lived mainly on the eastern outskirts of the city. The land there was better, and, accordingly, the farms were stronger. (In essence, Salem at that time was a large village.) In addition, the eastern Salem was actively engaged in trade and “urban” entrepreneurship, unlike the inhabitants of the western part, where communal rural labor flourished. Of course, they, to put it mildly, did not like the free-thinking and resourceful "accomplices of the devil", who quickly knocked out into people.
The "feminist" aspect also cannot be discounted. The victims of the Salem witch hunt were mostly women. How could men annoy the fair sex? Here it should be borne in mind that it was in Massachusetts and precisely at the end of the 17th century that a violent emancipation began: the ladies were engaged in trade, managed large farms and coped with all this perfectly, that is, they directly encroached on male prerogatives, which among the Puritans was perceived extremely painfully …
Today, in Salem, only the city's Witch-Hunt Museum and a strange road sign on the highway leading from Boston remind about the once unfolding tragedy and a strange road sign on the highway leading from Boston: a stylized image of a witch on a broomstick and an inscription on the arrow: "To the place of the historical process - 10 miles."
V. Gakov