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Dbq Salem Witch Hunt

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Gabriela Cortez Lopez, Kjai Hamblin, and Phoenix Lehnick Mrs. Gann English Honors III 4 April 2023 The Last of Us (Witch Hunt Edition) The Salem Witch Trials were various trials that consisted of the accusations of people in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the 1690s. People were coming down “with a mysterious and terrifying illness”(Caporael.) People were vomiting, screaming uncontrollably, claiming they see things that no one else can, and convulsing and contorting their bodies into impossible positions. Doctors soon called to examine the girls who were experiencing such things yet there was no medical reason for experiencing these things. At this point, the people turned to other types of forces that may be causing these symptoms. …show more content…

Because ergot tends to grow in these conditions it could have caused rye to become heavily infected. “Rye, which grows best in low, wet areas and is susceptible to ergot infection, was a staple crop in Salem” (Caporael.) Because the western section of Salem's farmland is swampy, it can also contribute to the growth and spread of ergot in Salem. Due to these swampy fields it can be inferred that the western part of Salem had more accused or afflicted than other areas, and as it so happens 30 of the 32 accused lived in the western side of Salem. The way that the accused felt and acted was very similar to the symptoms of ergot when and if consumed. Its variety of neurotoxins and halogens can cause vomiting, needle-like sensations under the skin, and even hallucinations. If these symptoms don’t sound familiar to you, they are similar if not the same symptoms that are seen in the accused during the …show more content…

Part of those reasons being, “the actions of the girls in the courtroom during examinations and trials when the girls fell into their fits based on the movements of the accused which caused them to cry out names” (Howlett.) As well as others turning to the work of Arthur Miller The Crucible for direction of what happened during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. They think as John Proctor states in the play “They‘re pretending!”(Mr.) Even though many theories say differently Ergot is one of the only reasonable explanations for the way that the accused had been acting. There was no other medical reason during that time and even when they were inspected by doctors they found nothing. The weather during the time of the trails was ideal for the growth of ergot and so was the swamp-like field in the Western part of Salem. As well as the symptoms that matched the same symptoms as the ones that the accused were

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In this article, the author, Edmund S. Morgan discussed how witch trials became an issue in the Salem Village which dispersed to other towns. The witch trials were well known in the sixteenth century. In the beginning, Morgan stated “the trials occurred at a time when the people of Massachusetts were passing through a very difficult time.” (Morgan, 47) The author clearly wanted to inform the readers that Massachusetts was already in a rough state to begin with until the witch trials came along.

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There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trial hysteria. They were anti-female bias, strong beliefs and lying/acting girls, and jealousy of poor versus rich. One cause of the witch trial hysteria was anti-female bias. Out of the twenty people hung, thirteen were women and seven were men. (Doc.

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Truth Untold: Unraveling the Salem Witch Hunts through Marc Aronson Marc Aronson uses this his book, Witch-HUNT: Mysteries of the Salem witch trials, to unravel and debunk myths surrounding the events of the Salem witch hunts and replace them with plausible theories based on evidence. Aronson relays that the modern ideas on the events of the witch trials and what may have happened are often wrong and the perpetrators of those pies used them to over stimulate the imaginations of those who were to believe these tales. The Salem Witch Hunts that are referred to by Aronson’s book are the hunts and trials that took place between February 1692 through May of 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. In a time of lawlessness or anarchy in

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In Doc. E, recreated by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, it shows a map of Salem and locations of accusers, defenders and accused witches. In the west side of Salem it is shown that there are more accusers than in the east side. (Doc .E) The same as in the east side but there are more accused than accusers.

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The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.

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Michelle Staskauskas Ms. Scott Honors US History-HIS 103 6 September 2016 What Really Happened in Salem? Thesis: There have been many stressors leading up to the Salem witch trials. There have been The little ice age, the smallpox epidemic and the Indian attacks on the border of Massachusetts at Billerica (Doc 1). For being religious as the puritans are they would often see these bad events as attributes of God’s wrath. In the 1690’s King’s Philips War led to the puritans believing in his being another punishment from God.

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The Salem Witch Trials, occurring between the years of 1692 and 1693, consisted of persecutions, arrests, and hysteria through the village of Salem, Massachusetts. In determining the source of the mass hysteria during these trials, it is necessary to look from a societal point of view. Religiously, tensions began to form and alter the village in ways that were for and against their beliefs. Changing morals of the village brought forth ideologies that were based with selfish intentions. Social structures altered to weaken and divide the town and its people.

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Not only in Salem were witches evident, in local communities around them were strange happenings with young girls. The tests to reveal witches were often harsh and not exactly the most intelligent way to find them. They’d often throw an accused into a body of water and if they drowned they were innocent. This isn’t great because the claimed witch would die by drowning even if she was innocent. The accusers would often “carry pins to prick themselves” and “bit and pinched themselves when no one

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Some people think ergot is the main cause of the Salem witch trials but they are wrong. The salem witch trials are a great example of how the power of suggestion can change your view of people. Ergot is a fungi that grows on rye and is poisonous to humans. Ergot can cause LSD like effects to humans. People thought this was the cause

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In order to understand the magnitude of the Salem witch trials, it is important to know about the symptoms from which the accusers suffered, to know who were the victims being accused, and the history of ergot poisoning. The symptoms of the accused are very important to understand. In 1691, late December, eight girls had started acting odd after the minister

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Even though the trials were over, of the town of Salem would never remane quite the same. After a long while the colony of Salem and Massachusets addmited that the trials, were in fact, not legitimate and a huge blemish on the American reputation and a massive mistake. Many people went around Salem and near by communitys and, for what its worth, appoligized to the familys affect. Studys have shown that the trials were a result of a certain level of paranoia amung the townspeople of Salem. The people of Salem may have used the trials as a scapegoat to explaine certain events going on in the town, and or a way to settle some of the fear caused by the war or local native american tribes around the area.

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Mass hysteria is a condition, which affects an entire group of people, which is influenced by excitement and/or anxiety. It bring about irrational behavior and beliefs. When many people at once are hysterical, or even one person that can convince the others, it can cause the group to have hallucinations. Once they start believing something and seeing things that aren’t actually there it is pretty easy to toy with their minds.

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Expanding on the causes themselves, Tituba’s comment was not the only reason, a much larger one was that a group of 8 young girls fell ill. They began showing what we now realizes were signs of a food related illness. Salem’s rye had caused the girls (which all lived near marshes) to gain these symptoms of what some saw as witchcraft. The rye can obtain a fungus called ergot which when ingested causes all the same symptoms the 8 girl’s had had. Mysteriously enough, the curses (symptoms) disappear in the summer when the crop began to dry out.

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One of the lead causes of the Salem Witch Trials was disease also know at the time as Ergotism. Rye was a grain that could become troubled by the fungus ergot. Ergot can be compared to the modern drug LSD, “...most common symptoms include seizures, convulsions,

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1076 Words | 5 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials: Many mysteries have occurred over the years such as the Lost Colony of Roanoke, BigFoot, or the infamous Skinwalker Ranch, but among these the most known mystery would be The Witch Trials of Salem. The event itself is not a mystery but the underlying forces behind the witch trials are. Over the years many theories have been proposed. The most prominent theory is the Ergot Theory, that puts forth the idea that a fungus caused the panic, but we believe that a more sinister cause is behind the panic. We believe that the hysteria was because the town was almost at a boiling point before the witch trials because of the land disputes and along with the puritans religious beliefs this induced the trials.

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