Ergot

In the year of 1692, Salem Village, Massachusetts went through an event known as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This odd occurrence all started whenever 2 young village girls encountered a West Indian Slave woman to learn about thier futures. One of the girls claimed to see a coffin by looking into a glass with egg white in it. In the months following this incident, one of the girls father, Reverend Samuel Parris reported the girls suspicious behavior. He reported that they had been crawling

"You 're a liar! I 'm no more a witch than you are a wizard! If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink!" (Sarah Good). To this day, there is still so much speculation on what was the actual cause of the hysteria that was the Salem Witch Trials. Were any of the women accused, like Sarah Good, actually practicing witchcraft? Or were the accusations placed on these women placed out of spite or jealousy? What caused these young women to have these strange symptoms in the first place

that innocent people of he 1690’s were accused of witchcraft is because of the moist, damp, living conditions that the people lived in. Food was scarce back then so their major source of food was rye bread. The damp conditions caused ergot to grow in the bread. Ergot is a drug that made people act stranger than usual. Some of the effects caused people to do things in which they do not remember. The second reason that the hysteria occurred was because of the religious vibes that were

Young Goodman Brown: An Annotated Bibliography Thesis: Goodman Brown’s state of mind between good and evil could have been caused by a combination of Puritanism obsession with the devil, its resemblance, and other prejudices such as ergot poisoning. Clark, Josh. "Ergot Poisoning Theory." Were the American Colonists Drugged during the Salem Witchcraft Trial? HowStuffWorks, a Division of InfoSpace LLC, n.d. Web. 30 July 2015. This article focuses on the Salem Witchcraft trials, which was in 1962 at

The first ‘witch’ is believed to have originated from ancient Egypt around 2000 B.C. Many things about Egypt are still unexplainable in the 21st Century. The language alone was misunderstood to those who tried to comprehend it. Who’s to say the word ‘witch’ itself wasn’t misunderstood or the person(s) accused of being a witch was suffering from something that was undiscovered at the time? Andrew Smith said it best “People fear what they don’t understand and hate what they can’t conquer”. One instance

There are many important events in our history. Some are gruesome and filled with death, but others are about creating new eras and making the world a better place. Although many events stick out, most don’t get the attention they deserve. The Salem Witch trials are one of them. The Salem Witchcraft trials began during the spring of 1692. A group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. Witchcraft, by definition

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. The start of the accusations began in Autumn of 1661, nearly one year

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

symptoms? A fungus that was found on rye, called Ergot, was the source. Ergot is a fungus able to grow on cereal grasses with certain conditions applied, such as a wet winter and a dry spring. This fungus is very easy to spot on crops as it first causes the infected plant to spew out “honey dew”, then it turns the grains of the crop black which is often mistaken for discolored grains of grains. Today, some chemicals and and nutrients are found in ergot and is used for LSD as it can cause delusions and

Puritan society placed especially strict codes upon women. In this time, single women were labeled as aberrant for working to maintain their independence. In 1600’s, women who exhibited this trait were at risk of being implicated as a witch. Additionally, individuals who suffered from mental or physical disabilities were also vulnerable to false accusations of witchery. People who deviated from the social and physical norms were strictly punished. The mildest consequences consisted of fines or warnings