Salem Town and Village
Salem Town and Village
The events of 1692 are generally referred to as Salem witchcraft. However, there were two overlapping but distinct geographic entities that comprised Salem, Massachusetts. The earliest events associated with the outbreak occurred in Salem Village, which was the location of the ministry house of Samuel Parris. It was in the village that the examinations were initially conducted to hear evidence against the accused.
Salem Village was a fast-growing farming area on the northern edge of Salem Town. The town was a prosperous port engaged in commerce, fishing, shipbuilding, and other activities associated with a trading and urban area. The village, roughly five to seven miles from the town's meeting house, constituted, in effect, a parish or ward of the town, and served as its agricultural hinterland. The population of Salem Town and Village at the time of the witch trials cannot be stated with precision, but a reasonable estimate for the population of the combined area was about 2000 residents, with the population of Salem Village numbering between 500 and 600 residents.
Following the pattern common to other New England communities, as the village grew, it began to develop a distinctive identity and separate interests from the town. Most significantly, by the 1670s, the farmers requested their own church due to their distance from the town. For some villagers, though by no means all, a separate church represented a broader ambition for greater autonomy or even complete independence from the town, something that would not occur until 1752 (Salem Village is now called Danvers). Salem Town initially objected to the farmers' request, but in March 1672, with a push from the colonial government, the town granted Salem Village the liberty to hire a minister for themselves. The village was also permitted to establish a committee, "not exceeding the number of five," to assess and gather taxes for the ministry. Its members were usually elected each year at a village meeting. Villagers still continued to participate in town life, voted in town elections, and paid most town taxes, but for certain purposes, primarily dealing with their own church, they had a degree of autonomy.
The Salem Village Church
For many years, the Salem Village church was not a comprehensive institution. Its first three ministers were not ordained and could not, therefore, administer communion or admit candidates to formal church membership (members were called "saints" or the "elect"). Its congregants remained formally attached to the Salem Town church or other neighboring churches.
Unhappily, Salem Village experienced continuing dissension over its new church. Division and controversy over the ministry were not foreign to New England communities. But most historians think Salem Village had a greater propensity to internal conflict than normal. During the 1670s and 1680s, its first three ministers all stepped down, unable to satisfy either church members, or non-members, or both. The second minister, George Burroughs, who served briefly in the early 1680s, would be charged in 1692 as a leading agent of the Devil.
The various circumstances behind the village's religious instability are not easy to pinpoint. Burroughs evidently developed a reputation, at least among some villagers, for being abusive to his wife. Another minister's qualifications and doctrinal orthodoxy were called into question, and there was grumbling about the increased costs associated with the church. There was also an ongoing dispute over who had the right to vote to hire a minister and to select the Committee of Five — whether only church members or all taxpayers — and whether the ministry house (parsonage) should be given to the minister or remain the possession of the village. As time went on, a key contributor to the village's factionalism was the urgency of some churchgoers to have an ordained minister and a full-fledged church. This issue grew particularly contentious during the ministry of Parris's immediate predecessor, Deodat Lawson, who began his service in 1684.
Some Salem Villagers favored ordaining Lawson as a desirable next step towards greater autonomy and independence from Salem Town. But support or opposition to ordaining Lawson did not necessarily coincide with the issue of village independence. More than village autonomy was at stake in selecting any ordained minister, who not only headed the church but occupied an influential position in the community. Questions of personality, doctrine, and compensation all likely figured in the dispute over Lawson's ordination. In 1687, frustrated by the village's squabbling, Lawson stepped down. In 1689 after a period of negotiation, the village hired the Reverend Samuel Parris and on November 19, 1689, he became Salem Village's first ordained minister. Although still a part of Salem Town, Salem Village now had a true church.
The Reverend Samuel Parris
Born in 1653, Samuel Parris initially pursued a career as a merchant and planter in both London and Barbados. Perhaps anticipating his later career in the ministry, or to elevate his status in business, Parris attended Harvard for a few years in the early 1670s. But when his father died, he left Massachusetts without having graduated and returned to Barbados to resume his mercantile activities. In 1680, he again headed for Boston to improve his prospects. Although some detractors have alleged that he was a failure as a businessman, according to Parris's biographer, he enjoyed "modest success."
But commerce proved unsatisfying, and Parris decided on a new career in the ministry. Since it was unusual to enter the ministry without a college degree, particularly as an ordained minister, it is possible that Parris completed his schooling, though there is no record of this. In 1688, Parris began negotiations with Salem Village for the opening vacated by Deodat Lawson, and the following year, he accepted the post. He permanently cut his business ties in Boston, settled into Salem Village's ministry house with his family, and was ordained.
The union of Parris and Salem Village appeared to begin smoothly, but within two years of his arrival, dissatisfaction with Parris was evident. His difficulties stemmed in part from disagreements over his contract, which never seems to have been formalized. One recorded agreement with Parris (of which he denied any knowledge!) provided him with the ministry house and lands only so long as he remained minister. However, some months later, another meeting of the village, perhaps attended by different people, granted Parris outright ownership of the house and lands. Combined with Parris's plans to refurbish the meeting house, commensurate with its new status as a full church, Parris's ministry signaled a church both more intrusive and more expensive than some villagers wished.
Parris also revealed traits that a number of Salem Villagers, including a few church members, found unwelcome. A serious, dedicated minister, he combined his evangelical enthusiasm to revitalize religion in Salem Village with psychological rigidity and theological conservatism. In contrast to Salem Town's church and most Puritan churches at the time, Parris continued to uphold traditional strict standards for church membership. The Salem Town church had become more inclusive in its membership, making it relatively easy to become a full member. It also accepted the "Half-Way Covenant," which brought into partial membership adults who had been baptized but had not made a public declaration of experiencing God's free grace to become full members. The children of these half-way members were then made eligible for baptism. Parris, however, rejected the Half-Way Covenant and offered baptism only to professed believers and their children. Most village church members were happy with Parris's orthodoxy, which elevated their status by sharply distinguishing them from non-church members. But a minority dissented and found allies among non-members, who constituted a large and influential part of the Salem Village community.
Salem Village Divided
By the fall of 1691, only two years after his ordination, Parris's ritual orthodoxy, overbearing disposition, and disputed contract had created another crisis for Salem Village's church. Attendance was down and village officials refused to provide firewood to warm the church or Parris's house. Most ominous for Parris and his supporters was the success of his opponents in capturing the Committee of Five that oversaw matters relating to the church. A new committee, chosen by the village in October 1691, announced its refusal to relinquish the ministry house and land to Parris or to collect taxes for his salary, leaving it to the villagers to pay by "voluntary contributions." For his part, Parris called upon church members to make a formal complaint to the County Court against the committee's neglect of the church.
Salem Village's factionalism constituted the backdrop for the events of 1692. Just months before the initial flare-up of afflicted behavior, Salem Village was in turmoil over its minister. The factional fault-lines that had marked the controversy over Deodat Lawson reemerged over Samuel Parris. It therefore seems unsurprising that the afflictions, which were eventually determined to involve witchcraft, began in Parris's own home, the focal point of village strain. We will never know how the village's controversies over firewood, ownership of the ministry house, taxes, church doctrine, and Parris's ministry itself would have been resolved; all were subsumed within the maelstrom of the witchcraft outbreak.
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