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Published in:
2015 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Some Economics of the Aftermath of Salem
Author : Franklin G. Mixon Jr.
Published in: Public Choice Economics and the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
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This chapter examines some of the political economic consequences of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem Village, including the deterioration of the Puritan ministry’s influence over society. The post-witch trials history of New England also involves advances in the legal system and innovations in the economy, such as the replacement of barter with paper money. This chapter also includes an additional demand-pull anecdote concerning a potential witchcraft episode occurring in 1735 in Northampton, Massachusetts, where the minister, Jonathan Edwards, opted for a revival interpretation of the physical illness of some of his congregation, instructing his community on how the spirit of God, not the evil hand of the Devil, had touched its citizens.