Volume 47, Issue 3, September 2010, Pages 678–688
Religiosity and the political economy of the Salem witch trials
Abstract
Salem
Village, both before and through the witchcraft trials, was a
religion-based community, allowing its minister to exert a level of
political–economic control over its citizens. During the height of the
witchcraft episode, there was an increased demand for ministerial
services (salvation) in the Salem area. Recent research has argued that
the minister used the witchcraft episode to maintain and build upon
personal and corporate wealth. In the years after the witchcraft trials
changes were made in the business and legal environment of the
surrounding New England region. By transitioning to a more neutral rules
system with a larger area of consensus for the system, Salem and the
rest of the New England transitioned from the 17th Century traditional,
religion-based community to a more rules-based, pro-business one in the
18th Century.
- Corresponding
author at: Department of Legal Studies, College of Business, University
of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39406,
United States. Tel.:
+1 601 266 5050.
Copyright © 2010 Western Social Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
