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Blog #6: Samuel Parris: The True Villain of the Witch Trials


After discussing the Salem Witch Trials over the last several weeks, and the many characters involved, both accusers and the accused, I wanted to do a little more research regarding Reverend Samuel Parris due to his large role in the witch trials. We learned in class that he was born in London, England, then immigrated to Boston. After obtaining a college education he moved to Barbados in the Caribbean and used his inheritance to maintain a sugar plantation where he bought Tituba. He moved back to Boston after a hurricane in Barbados (bringing Tituba along with him) and became the minister of Salem. Parris’s role in the Salem community as minister played a large part in what occurred during the witch trials and I believe that without him the witch trials would not have killed as many individuals. 

Parris decided he wanted to be the minister of Salem due to a desire to switch vocations and preach instead. His new vocation let him down quickly as he provided unsatisfactory sermons reflected in a decrease to his pay. Reasons for his sermons being unsatisfactory include his intense belief that unorthodox views on religion were intolerable. Angered by his pay cuts, Parris began preaching that the community was against God and that the devil was among them. Suddenly, after spreading these lies about the devil throughout Salem, Parris’s own daughter became sick with a mysterious disease that her and her cousin chalked up to their servant, Tituba, afflicting her with. Tituba’s relation to this mysterious illness was believed to be witchcraft as everyone believed there was no other plausible reason. Parris forced Tituba to confess by beating her and her forced confession combined with Parris’s preachings about the devil spurred a panic in Salem that there had to be more witches around. 

Other reasons that allowed Parris to contribute to the hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch Trials included his belief in being a strict Puritan which caused him to hold other villagers to this standard as well. This caused fingers to be pointed more easily when someone was not behaving like a typical Puritan would and implied that this misbehavior was linked to the devil. He additionally pointed fingers during sermons stating explicitly that the devil was among the congregation. This led to several witch hunts that enabled Parris to conveniently take out those who may have just opposed him as a minister by linking them to the devil.
Understanding the power that Parris had over the village helps me understand a little more why the Salem Witch Trials occurred. It appears he created a lot of the hysteria in Salem as a distraction away from his poor performance as the town minister. He was able to change the town's opinion of him by using his connection to God as a minister to suggest the devil was the true villain. With the power Parris held over the Puritans, combined with their desire for Heaven and belief that God predetermined their lives, the Puritans were easily susceptible to Parris’s false accusations regarding witchcraft. I believe that if Samuel Parris had not been minister during this time, there would not have been as many Puritans turning against each other because they would not have had reason to believe the devil was among them. If this had occurred, many lives that had been wrongly taken during this time would have been saved. 

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