Through considering this element, and other important cultural and social factors, Frances Hill attempts to identity in her book the reasons for both how and why these terrible events were able to take place. Consequently, within just three years, Parris had effectively caused and enabled the mass hysteria that resulted in nineteen men and women being hanged, one being pressed to death, and more than a hundred more suffering imprisonment and poverty (Francis Hill, 1997).Īccording to Hill, the presence of religious intolerance and fanaticism, the strictness and harshness of the Puritan population, and the cultural superstitions and fears of the local community, all helped to form the major contributing factors that initiated the witch-hunt at Salem Village in the summer of 1692. It was no accident that Satan strode forth from God's house" (Frances Hill, 1997, p.2).Most researchers and authors, including Frances Hill, believe that Samuel Parris was mainly responsible for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.Ī deeply religious man, whose faith was totally rooted in Puritan doctrines and traditions, "he and his family settled in the parsonage and Parris began his ministerial duties in July 1689" (, Online Article, 2007), where he began preaching a message that depicted his own deeply-seated fears and superstitions. Out of his denial came the devils that destroyed the very community he strove to keep safe. He looked for evil everywhere but in his own life and heart. His great terror was of Satan arming his foes to destroy both him and his church.
Samuel Parris, the pastor, was a man obsessed with the sinfulness he saw everywhere and with his own importance and status.
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