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Ergot And The Salem Witch Trials

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In 1692 in Salem, MA the witch trials killed many innocent people on the false accusations of a few teenage girls. The girls of the town were in the woods playing games a slave named Tituba taught them. The girls got caught and were accused of witchcraft. Once they were caught the girls blamed everything on the slave and said she “possessed” them. The girls were afraid of being caught so they blamed it on others. 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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\The infamous Salem witch trials, you may have heard of them, but do you know about the famous event which many book, movies, and even its own T.V. show are revolved around. From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women all been accused of witchcraft, were brought to Gallows Hill. Gallows Hills is also known as witch hill that is where they killed all the men and women accused. Now you may be thinking what they did that was so bad it’s just witchcraft, it was a common belief that people could pledge allegiance to Satan and become witches with supernatural power to harm others. The thing that made people start this witch hunt would be when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and eleven-year-old Abigail Williams the daughter and niece

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The Salem Witch trials had nothing to do with the devil and all to do with ergot. Ergot is a parasitic fungus that grows on cereal grains like rye. This infection is most common in the summer and spring. People can get this infection by eating bad rye bread. It was more common for women to get Ergot than men.

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First, the Salem Witch Trials happened in 1692. In Salem Village, the minister’s daughter, Betty Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams, severely got sick. The girls felt pinching sensations, knife like pains, and the feeling of being choked. Everybody thought it was witchcraft, the girls accused three women, the first was Tituba. Tituba told the girls stories, and showed them magic tricks.

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n the 1600’s, the town of Salem experienced a mass hysteria that resulted in the death of many innocent civilians that were accused for witchcraft. The town of Salem defined witchcraft as working with the devil: casting spells, singing, dancing, traveling to the forest, where the devil was presumed to be. Although there were no real witches in Salem, the town cried witch on everyone they wished, and the said person would have to go through a trial in court, where the judges were biased and the likely sentence was death by hanging. Neighbors called out neighbors for the slightest inconvenience, in hopes of getting them jailed or worse. Over two hundred people were accused and over twenty were sentenced to death by hanging.

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The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in Massachusetts are historically known as the tragic event where many people were accused of witchcraft and 19 of those innocent individuals were found guilty and then executed. These individuals were accused by a group of young girls that claimed that they were ‘bewitched"or possessed by the devil. These girls were experiencing symptoms such as hallucinations, convulsions, etc. Doctors then could not diagnose this, so they turned to blame it on witchcraft. In 1976, Linnda Caporael, who is a historian, developed a theory that ergot poisoning was the cause of the Salem Witch Trials.

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N) also brings up the possibility of a fungus called ergot triggering the hysteria of 1692. Ergot grows on cereal grains and can be poisonous which was a “common condition resulting from eating contaminated rye bread” back in the seventeen hundred´s. Ergot is believed to have affected the accusers by causing symptoms such as “crawling sensations, tingling in the fingers, vertigo and hallucinations”. To better understand how ergot played a role in the Salem witch hysteria, an additional document listing how much rye and other cereal grains were consumed during the year 1692 would help determine a

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Elexus Smith, Melody Salinas-Zacarias, Lorenzo Valdez Aguilar Mrs.Gann English III Honors April 5, 2023 Ergot Poisoning In 1692, the Salem Witch Trials happened, with eight girls accusing others of witchcraft. The girls acted strange, moving in weird positions, saying they saw things that no one else could, and saying they felt things in their skin. Many theories suggest what could have happened. Some say that they acted or that it was actual witchcraft, but they don’t always seem convincing.

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This has led some researchers to believe it as a potential cause of this mass hysteria. Ergot is a fungal infection that has the potential to grow on rye, wheat, oats and other cereals if the seasons have had a cold winter followed by a long spring with wet soil (Caporael). Salem did in fact have all of the right conditions to support the growth of Ergot. All of the girls had logical ways to find contaminated grain in their homes. When an individual consumes Ergot, they will begin to experience the effects of ergotism.

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The “Salem witch trials”, this was a period in America where the puritans persecuted people, mostly females for condoning in demonic acts. Now what may have started these proceedings? There were many factors that triggered this, the closure of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, an outbreak of small pox and the possibility of an attack from the Indians caused so much discord among the puritans that they started to believe that they were being punished by God. With so much discord, anxiety and confusion the puritans believed that these misfortunes were the cause of witches. For these witch prosecutions to be justified the puritans gave them a trial, where they will be judged if they are guilty of witch craft or not.

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When these young girls were caught in the woods practicing witchcraft they tried to blame it on other people and got away with all the crimes they committed. The girls point fingers started a mass blaming game on whether somebody was a witch or not. Arrests along with convictions

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In 1692, in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, there was a group of young girls who were accused of being bewitched. The girls behaved in abnormal ways. The strange behavior began after Reverend Parris caught them in the woods with Tituba, who was Parris’s slave from Barbados. The girls called witchcraft on Tituba and she confessed and named two other women with the devil, including Sarah Osburne and Sarah Good. With Tituba's confession, the young girls, scared of getting in trouble, claimed to see other women and men contributing with the devil.

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The majority of individuals have heard about the Salem Witch Trials, either from a history lesson or when reading for their enjoyment. People often wonder how a group of young girls convinced residents in the town of Salem of being witches, causing a large number of executions. However, for many years, people have not found a definitive answer to what really caused the mass hysteria. Researchers speculate it could be rooted in ergotism, a disease caused by the consumption of ergot, which usually grows on rye (Caporael). Due to this, the girls could have imagined that they were being attacked by “witches.”

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This theory is supported by what is known as the Little Ice Age, where the climate during the 14th and mid-19th century were abnormally cold and fell on the same time period as the Great Witch Craze. I believe that the ergot poisoning theory is more plausible than the Cold Weather Theory, I believe this because the side effects of ergot poisoning are known and can be tested even today. Additionally, the village of Salem was more than likely very dependent on the growth and harvest of rye grain. On the other hand, I believe that the Cold Weather Theory could have happened but is less likely to be the whole

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The Witch Trials By: Natalie Boggs The Salem Witch Trials were a time between 1692 and 1693. It all started when two young girls who lived in Salem, Massachusetts started having theses fits out of nowhere one minute they would perfectly behaved children then the next they would start having these fits. The girls had claimed somebody had bewitched them and that they were possessed by the Devil. Many historians believed that the strange behaviors could be from the Rye the people in Salem had been eating but what the people of Salem didn't know was that there was a deadly bacteria on the Rye that could have caused the girls fits. I know that from research that the Salem Witch Trials where a time that many people claimed to be possessed by the Devil and they accused innocent people of bewitching them.

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The Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 in colonial Massachusetts were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. The trials resulted in the execution of twenty individuals, mostly women, and the imprisonment of many others. This dark chapter in American history began with the strange behavior of a group of young girls who claimed to be possessed by the devil. Their accusations quickly spiraled out of control, fueled by a community already steeped in religious fervor and superstition. Local authorities and religious leaders, like Reverend Samuel Parris, exploited the hysteria to solidify their positions and suppress dissent, leading to a community-wide atmosphere of paranoia and fear.

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