Salem Town vs. Salem Village, Mass.
Massachusetts was a colony of England and was forced to run things according to a set of rules, called a “Charter” that were given to them by England. However, getting word to England would take ten weeks by ship and by March 1692 the previous charter had been long eliminated. This resulted with Salem having no leaders and no rules; therefore the accused witches were examined and held in jail but not tried. In May, Increase Mather, a Puritan minister involved with the colony’s government and the administration of Harvard College, sailed back from England with a new charter and governor. This was when the actual trials began.
Salem was divided into two distinct parts, Salem Town and Salem Village. It was a three hour walk between the two communities as they were about five to seven miles away from each other. Salem Village (also referred to as Salem Farms) was actually part of Salem Town but a marked class division had developed, and tensions mounted between the town and the village. Residents argued about land rights, economic problems, political power, and when and how men should pass down their property. Leaders wanted power and authority to stay in the hands of the established elite, while the merchant class wanted to become part of the ruling group.
Residents of Salem Village were mostly poor farmers who made their living cultivating crops in the rocky terrain. Those who lived near Ipswich Road became prosperous merchants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and innkeepers and supported the economic changes taking place within Salem Village. Most of the villagers accused of witchcraft lived near Ipswich Road. In contrast, the accusers such as the Putnam family, strongly denounced the economic changes and believed the worldliness and affluence of Salem Town threatened their conservative Puritan values.
Although Salem Town had political and religious authority over Salem Village, the villagers wanted independence from Salem Town, and many targets of the accusations were villagers who did not support the separation movement. The newcomer and controversial preacher Samuel Parris and the wealthy Putnam family who owned most of the farming land in Salem Village, were the source of the accusations with the first being in the Parris household.
Salem Town was located closer to the Atlantic coast and had become a bustling, urban commercial center with many affluent citizens. It was a prosperous port town at the center of trade with London. Residents of Salem Town were upper class wealthy merchants, shipbuilders and fishermen with more progressive ideas. One of the most influential residents was the savvy English merchant, John Porter.
