The Witches Of Salem Witch Trials

In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity.

What had been just a suspicion turned into a craze, the conflict these people had created would kill many innocent people until a compromise was found. Most women accused as witches were older, ugly, and unkempt (Wilson; 26; Roach 84). If someone was different in any way they could be accused as a witch; age, physical disability, mental disability, looked down on, powerless, outcasts, or criminals (Smith; how). The witch trials would then continue, so special courts were needed. A special court was set up by Sir William Phips to decide the fate of the witches. The two courts were Oyer; to hear, and terminer; to decide the fate of witches (Cellania; Roach 3). People were accused as a witches if they denied their existence (Latson). All the witches had

Lastly to further fuel the hysteria on all the occurring witch trials, was the possibility of ergot playing a role among the Puritan accusers, as was proposed by Linda Caporael in document N. Ergot, which may or may not have been present and consumed in the diet of the Puritans, could lead to abnormal body symptoms such as a raise in anxiety. With all the trials occurring around the village of Salem, it’s likely the thought of possibly being accused caused anxiety levels to soar among the people, particular the females. According to documents B and E, most of the accusers were women who accused other

The Salem Witch Trials was an uncanny and eerie event of hearings and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. Although it lasted from 1691 to 1692, it lead to more than 200 people, including men and women, being accused and arrested of witchcraft and 20 of those people executed. The hysteria began with two young girls: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams claiming to be possessed by the devil, causing the “witch-fever” among the Salem village. In this essay the circumstances behind poor harvest, sickness and the conjecture of witches and witchcraft being highly considered as a cause in this era will be described. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by environmental factors because the Salem community had limited understanding of natural causes such as poor harvest, sickness and diseases.

During the time period of 1691 to 1692 the town of Salem, a small thriving community within the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony, was struck by widespread hysteria in the form of witch trials. The way these trials and accusations played out are historically unlike any other witch trials found in European and American history. Historians have pointed to a number of economic, political, and social changes of the then existing institutions throughout the Massachusetts Bay area to be the cause of the Salem witch trials, along with the direction they took. If studied closely however, it becomes apparent that the main cause for the Salem witch trials can be found in the way the people of Salem viewed and

The Salem witch trials took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts. The group of girls claims to have seen magic or witchcraft. Years later, people began speculating the actual reality of the actions witnessed and believe it was actually caused by wheat and rye during that time that had a type hallucinatory fungus growing on it. This fungus is called Ergot, it has a byproduct similar to the drug Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). The side effects of this fungus after progression include: convulsions, spasms, vision problems, confusion, and death of not treated

There have been many theories and conspiracies following up the Salem Witch Trials of 1962 in Salem, Massachusetts. Many claims try to explain the existence of witches during the time but very few try to disprove those claims as well. Although they hold strong arguments only one theory has been able to be proven scientifically through the accounts of actual victims. Ergot poisonings have been very evident through the beginning of the “bewitchments” and throughout the trials. In 1962, eight young girls began to experience sickly symptoms and strange happenings that no nurse or doctor could explain. As they were left clueless with no explanation they concluded that girls were “bewitched” and ended up accusing three elderly women of being the witches of Satan while conducting spiritual acts of terrorism on them for sacrificial reasons. These women admitted to the crime and were sentenced to jail although more accounts of the same symptoms and happenings were spreading to even more people in the area. The theory of ergotism may be proven by the location and time period of the trials, the side effects of the ergot poisoning, and even the authentic accounts of the “bewitched” victims.

Devastation come in all shapes and forms. Whether it is a hurricane that has destroyed a whole city or a plague that’s whipped out a whole country. In today’s society, we are able to track a hurricane and evacuate all nearby populaces before it arrives and a plague is highly unlikely due to our modern medicines, many different vaccines that have been and still are being created. However, in Salem Massachusetts, a devastation occurred that was unprecedented. It was not a hurricane or even a plague that had killed innocent people, but a group of girls. Could this have been prevented and lives saved? This paper will discuss the events that occurred in Salem in 1692 and the impact it had on the community.

In Salem Village, Massachusetts 1662, two-hundred people became inaccurately accused, hundreds imprisoned, and twenty-four executed. What historical event caused this? In the fall of 1661, nine girls began exhibiting possession like symptoms and the situation seemed to have only one explanation, witchcraft; however, the symptoms they experienced caught the eyes of historians and resembles a disease known today as Ergotism.

Theorists claim that the Salem witch trials were the result of a harvest of bad rye. Ergot poisoning or convulsive ergotism could be the cause of symptoms exhibited by the “bewitched”. The growth of ergot on rye is dependent on weather. Ergot is more likely to grow in years with cooler temperatures and increased precipitation. The lands in which ergot flourishes are newly tilled low and shaded areas (Matossian).

The Salem Witch Trials was triggered by an ergot medical condition that existed in a bad harvest around Salem and led to colonists behaving strangely. According to modern author Linda Caporael, ergotism could have contaminated the rye harvest around Salem, leading the multiple women and

Ergot was happening, and now in present day we can obviously see the perfect symptoms coming from the girls during these high rye months, also during Salem witch trials time. “While other crops would have suffered in the colder weather, rye would not have…” (A Common Misconception: The Ergot Theory and the Salem Witch Trials), sad but true to say that ergot took over these innocent people of the town.

First, she denounces the theory of Salem Village accusing Salem Town in court for witchcraft due to jealousy because it does not “explain the many physical symptoms or who experienced them”. Next, the theory of men trying to be dominant over women is denounced since it contradicts the action of “‘large numbers of men … [being] accused and executed on similar charges’” (Carlson, 81). Also, the theory of ergot, a fungus that appears on rye crops, food poisoning people in Salem, which made them hallucinate, is quickly rejected by two psychologists, Nicholas Spans and Jack Gottlieb. The reason is it does not “explain why…families who ate from the same source of grain were not affected. And infants were afflicted who may not have been eating bread grains”(Carlson, 84). By denouncing numerous Salem witch trails theories, Carlson gains more creditability to her own

Scientists have looked at the Salem Witch Trials and have pondered what could have caused the afflicted and accused to act in such way. Back in 1976, Toxicologists studied the fungus ergot, which can be found in wheat( the main crop grown in Salem Village). Ergot thrives in warm, wet conditions, which in the summer of 1691 was particularly moist. It was also no coincidence that when the dry summer of 1692 rolled around, ergot was nowhere to be found along with any convictions of so called

Caporael's main theory was that the the ones of accused of being bewitched were possibly poisoned by fungus-infested rye in a crop. It causes “hallucinations, convulsions, bizarre skin sensations and other unusual symptoms” which is what the accused had. I do not think that Caporael's theory explains the hysteria in Salem because how would this fungus only affect certain people in Salem and not everybody. The whole town got the same supply of grain, so how is it possible for only a couple people to ingest it? Also, if this was the case, why did this only happen in 1692 and not previous years? I think that “elements converged and created an environment of suspicion and reckless abandon” which caused the town to jump to conclusions and accuse