Capitalism Caused The Salem Witch Trials

Witches of the world, unite.

~REFERENCES~

[1] Emerson Baker. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience (2015). Oxford University Press, 119-120

[2] Roberto Rusconi & Blair Sullivan. The Book of Prophecies Edited by Christopher Columbus (1887). WIPF & Stock Publishers, Page 5-6

[3] Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (1974). Harvard University Press, Page 86-98

[4] Baker, Page 58-59

[5] Boyer & Nissenbaum, Page 108-109

[6] Boyer & Nissenbaum, Page 29-33

[hanibal]

Oh no, dialectical materialism my only weakness.

[jamespocelinko]

"I sold my soul and all I got was a pair of shoes!"

"What are you complaining about? I told you that you'd get two soles for one soul!"

[vincentwoodhead]

A Storm of Witchcraft is decent, but I prefer A Clash of Crones

[valmid]

"If she weighs the same as a duck...she's made of wood!"

"...And therefore?"

"A witch!" --Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[ArkadiBolschek]

"I saw Goody Proctor at the Stock Exchange!"

[vertky]

I guess you could say that... A spectre is haunting Salem, and its not the witches

[SCPRealised]

What a fun video which has no bearing on modern global political and economic behaviour, you always help me relax and forget the horrors of the world Atun-Shei!

[JonWintersGold]

I'm now picturing in my head Karl Max dressed in a Witchfinder General outfit hunting for capitalists.

[scottlhotka]

You know its a really good channel when I see a new video and my first reaction is "It's only 12 minutes, damn, that sucks."

[dansicklesmissingleg]

Selling your soul for a pair of shoes? And here I was, just about to drive to Foot Locker! Your videos continue to help me, Atun-Shei

[nowhereman]

"Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? Wouldst Thou Like To Live Deliciously?" I feel like that line fits in this context very well. Temptations for materialist things leading to satanic worship in the eyes of Puritans.

[jacobvardy]

"I saw Atun-Shei with the devil" I say in the hopes of appeasing the diabolical youtube algorithm.

[dmman]

So the Satanic Panic of the ‘80s-00s was in the same spirit. Great materialist-psychological analysis!

[HistorywithCy]

I stopped by Ipswich for lunch last summer after visiting Castle Hill...didn't realize that it was a big commercial hub back in the day. Thanks for the great video, I learned some interesting stuff about the area!

[berkleypearl]

Okay so here’s my peaked in undergrad moment but I just finished an entire course dedicated to the Salem witchcraft crisis. I’m so glad to hear someone else mention the role of early capitalism in the witchcraft crisis. I didn’t have enough time to focus on it in my papers for class but it was still really important to me.
Anyway, here’s a summary of the things I learned there that the folks reading might find interesting!
One of the things that I truly took away from the course was that a major part of the crisis, which Boyer and Nissenbaum literally only mention in the preface (or maybe it’s the introduction, one of those two) is that for the first four months of the crisis New England didn’t have a real government! And very importantly (particularly according to author Mary Beth Norton in ‘In the Devil’s Snare’) this absence of government occurred while the colony, including many of the people later implicated in the crisis, was fighting King William’s war. The new charter and governor didn’t arrive until late April and the emergency court system, The Court of Oyer and Terminer, wasn’t established until May. It was in those four months that the crisis rapidly escalated up the social ladder. The North American front of the 9 years war was rampaging across the frontier and resulted in a massive refugee crisis. The emergency interim government of New England was effectively losing.

Something that I think ties in really neatly with the themes of an early capitalist system is how the Witchcraft crisis basically represented the colony’s tough on crime era. The colonists already believed that the Natives Americans were devil worshipers. And as the crisis evolved we find more and more witchcraft accusations that focus on Native American involvement with the devil. To me it seemed as though the government, was taking exceptionally heavy handed actions on its citizens to try and save face against their struggles in battle.

As the magistrates failed in war they literally turned on their own friends. That wealthy Shipwright mentioned in the video was close friends with several of the magistrates and even related by marriage. But before he had been accused of witchcraft he had been accused of selling guns to the Native Americans.

Anyway, I think everyone should read ‘In the Devil’s Snare’ by Mary Beth Norton. It’s super interesting. Shoutout to Dr Dugre for his amazing class this semester

[TheIrishvolunteer]

Last time I was this early King Phillip was still alive.

[mrpopeshistoryclass]

In a class I took on colonial North America one thing we discussed was how disputes over land raised tension within the village.

[mitchellminer]

Reminds me of a college discussion about "the Tragedy of the Commons". Our prof said that someone is always going to sneak an extra cow onto the common grazing land. Some students pointed out that commons had worked fine for a thousand years.
My point is that capitalism brings a profound shift in the way people regard their neighbors.
If I realized that someone now saw me as labor to be exploited and a market to be flooded with trumpery, well, I'd be accusing them of being heartless, greedy, cruel, and a creature of the dark side.

[superjeff]

I'm glad atun is getting on philosophytube levels of snazzy outfits

[Livin_Fossil]

A daily dose of Atun-Shei explains witches away.