Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

Two of them were Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris. The girls started to exhibit strange behavior. The girls dashed about rooms, dove under furniture, talked in gibberish, and complained of pain and fever. In mid-February doctor, William Griggs went and examined the afflicted girls, and suggested that witchcraft were the causes of their symptoms ( Linder, D, an account of Salem…). There was no cure for the girls at the time,but their neighbor Mary Sibley suggested counter magic. Mary told Tituba to make a witches cake and then feed it to a dog. Dogs were seen as a witch's helper, so feeding a dog the urine of an affiliated person was believed to cure the symptoms of

These girls did not all show “symptoms” at one time. The first girl to start experiencing symptoms was Betty Parris. She was followed by Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis (History of Massachusetts). These girls were throwing tantrums, hiding under furniture and contorting to pain. Since panic and fear set in, witchcraft was the easy choice to make. In today’s medical science, these girls would have been diagnosed with boredom or epilepsy. Although at the time the cause was unknown, these symptoms were probably brought on from eating rye infected with fungus. The three victims were not the only ones accused. There were numerous cases of scapegoating running prevalent.

In fact, Lyle Koehler believes that the women of Salem were unconsciously seeking power in the patriarch world that they lived in. There indeed was a pattern to those being convicted of witch craft in Salem. Three-fourths of the people accused were female, of the 56 men accused, half were related to the accused women (pg. 74). To Kholer this just seems too specific to be an encephalitis epidemic. The women of Salem used the accusations

Salem Village was a very traditional, colonial community where the women stayed at home cooking and cleaning while the men worked and made the decisions. After watching Three Sovereigns for Sarah I noticed that the girls were bored of the same bible study and were immediately fond of the idea of voodoo and magic which came about because of Tituba, their housemaid. The girls wanted to believe there was something there, a spirit of sorts so they forced themselves to act in such a way that they would cause question and suspicion among the villagers. The girls wanted attention whether it was on good or bad terms so they played along with the hysteria of witchcraft, blatantly lying to the faces of those who were superior to them. The girls knew there was no evil spirits

Many people believe the Salem Witch Trials were caused by Ergotism, while others believe it to be just a form of hysteria, but what if I told you it could have been all of those combined together with another theory added in? In the story, The Crucible, mass hysteria broke out all through Salem being caused by the witch trials. The witch trials, however, may not have been the only thing causing the hysteria. Argot poisoning in the water along with puritan pressure causing the little girls to act out and throw fits could also be blamed on starting the hysteria. Disorders that could have been passed down through heredity could also have a part in this.

In 1692, Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem was shocked to discover his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth (known as “Betty”) and his eleven-year-old niece Abigail Williams acting extremely strangely. The young girls were screaming and crying and contorting their bodies into strange and uncomfortable positions. The girls said they felt like their bodies were being pricked with hundreds of needles. Their hysterical episode was described as "beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect". An unknown doctor, (historical evidence suggests that it was Doctor William Griggs) examined the girls and could not find anything physically wrong with them. There were no signs of any illness that he knew of. Most accounts say that this doctor was the first one to suggest that the girls’ behavior could be a result of witchcraft.

Following this, in January 1692, nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams began having fits. The fits included violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor by the name of William Griggs diagnosed the girls with bewitchment, other girls in the area began to exhibit similar symptoms. After Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams both had symptoms of being witches, it spread like wildfire in the community, followed by many others having similar symptoms. As stated by A&E networks, a historical archive website, “As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse–both regarded as upstanding members of church and community–and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.” After a while the trials became very overwhelming and concerning to others in the community. The historical events of Salem are documented, however historians have yet to come to consensus on the true cause of the hysteria.

The United States of America has a long history going way back to the 17th century. Some parts of history are remembered for their greatness or because they are examples of success or achievements. Others are remembered for the mistakes or the horrible decisions made at that time. It helps us to know our past mistakes so that we will never repeat them. The Salem Witch Trials fall under the category as an event that helps teach us the mistakes of the past. With the knowledge we have today about the trials, hopefully we will never succumb to killing wrongfully convicted people.

How many deaths and arrests could a few young christian girls possibly cause in a small colonial town? The town of Salem is located north of Boston on the coast of the North Atlantic. This was an ideal location for puritan and quaker immigrants to escape persecution for their beliefs. They were mostly persecuted by the Roman Catholics in Europe. Hard life styles, constant work, and disputes led to hard feelings between the settlers of Salem. Soon, girls started acting strange and accusing witches afflicting them. This led to over two hundred accusations, ninety unjust arrests, and claimed the lives of twenty four victims.

The Salem Witch Trials were a constant and consistent occurrence in 1691 Massachusetts; hangings became consistent, but the fear of the unknown became the true evil unleashed amongst the dark times that reigned upon Salem. Such atrocities were caused by a development of preposterous dispositions created by desperation and fear. The colony ran into hardship after exposure to illness, misfortune, and power struggles. Due to their religious ideology, they believed that an evil force was responsible for their hardship, and was responsible for wreaking havoc within their civilization.

The Salem Witch trials has definitely impacted history and the harsh technicalities the people of Salem had to experience was unimaginable and harsh. The period between February 1692- May 1963 introduced a whirlwind of speculation and accusations of the ordeal form in witchcraft and involvement with the devil. Almost all the people of Salem, Massachusetts were faced with trial and prosecution even when no act of witchcraft was evident. The spreading of rumors and the toil that societal tensions inflicted, caused heavy distress in the town. To this day, the legacy and past of the Salem Witch trials has left a transparent mark of its history that the people of Salem underwent. From gossiping, to trials, to lies, to hangings, the little town

Imagine living in a place where people are at each other's throats, and in most cases physical aggressions occur. Additionally, the sad thing was that the people being assaulted were not some malicious, dangerous criminals, most of them were next door neighbors, or a baker, or even a teacher, they were a member of society who played an important role in the community, yet they were still being accused of the misfortune of others. Instead of identifying and assessing the real issue, and solving it, these people were doing the exact opposite. This place I so generously refer to is located in none other than Salem, Massachusetts, but more specifically, I am referring to the historical event that took place there, the Salem witch trials. Any other normal human being would probably choose a less violent, per say, place to visit. I on the other hand would much rather visit a place that seemed like most, very calm and peaceful to the naked eye, but if you looked

Salem, Massachusetts 1692 a small village where people turned on each other, and blamed hundreds of their own, nut mostly certain neighbors with witchcraft. From June to September, individuals were unjustifiably killed after trials discovered them “guilty” of witchcraft. Religions, imperatives, money, beliefs and types of conflicts caused these absurd witch trials.

Ergot is a fungus found in rye, wheat and other grains. “Ergot thrives in warm, damp, rainy springs and summers” (The). These conditions were, according to Linnda Caporael, a professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the conditions just before the Witch Trials were right for the ergot to spread (List). From this

I have come to the conclusion that theory one (disease) had overtaken the girls and was giving them these symptoms. Ergot is the fungi that I think got in their system, because it grows on rye, the grain that salem grew all around them in their village. On the rye grows the fungus ergot that causes hallucinations, burning pains, seizures, and convulsions. The girls complained of the burning stabbing pains which is one of the symptoms of ergot poisoning. These girls were also claiming that they saw things, that only they could see. So that is two symptoms of ergot shown in the girls. Another reason I think that this theory is true is that ergot needed warm, moist air to grow in and that is exactly the air that Salem had because it was marshlands.