Franklin’s chest reflects a lot about the economic prosperity of the middle colonies because it showed that they could make and do things on their own without the help of anyone. It showed that people were capable of living there and surviving. As for the complex history of religious persecution goes it showed their religious leaders in the old world and engraved it into their history. In the new world people were religiously persecuted because of the Salem witch trials. Younger generations were ashamed of their ancestors doing such actions persecuting other people when they fled from persecution.