\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
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.
As time passed, people started to question the Salem Witch Trials and how it all started. Around the early 1970s. Linda Caporael, a college student, found out that the Salem farmers farmed their rye and wheat in damp and swamp areas. While the wheat grew inside the swamp areas, a fungus called ergot started to building up around it. Ergot can cause food poisoning; vomiting, hallucinations, muscle spasms, and etc.
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.
While she acknowledges the fact that contaminated grain was the primary source of the disease, she also argues that other factors such as climate, geography, and cultural practices also played a role in its spread. For example, she suggests that ergotism was more prevalent in wetter and cooler regions of Europe, where rye was more susceptible to fungal infections. The rye grows best in wet areas and ergotism is said to occur after colder winters and damp springs, which are conditions that are claimed to have been present during the Salem Witch Trials. The farmland in Salem, the western section of Salem primarily consisted of wet swampy fields which is perfect for the ergot to grow, especially around that time, during 1692, the conditions were unusually wet in Salem. She also points out that certain cultural practices, such as the tradition of communal bread baking, may have contributed to the spread of the disease by allowing contaminated grain to be mixed with the uncontaminated
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
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.
When a person was accused of Witchcraft and was hanged while pleading not guilty, then all the land that they owned would not stay in their family; instead, the land would be put up for auction. A flaw people have seen in the fraudulent explanation of the girls behavior, is ergotism. Ergotism is a fungus that most commonly grows on rye. While rye is abundantly found in Salem, many farms grew rye there. Ergotism causes many different symptoms such as vertigo, hallucinations, painful contractions, headaches, disturbances, and crawling sensations.
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.
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.
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
There are many inconsistencies with the ergot theory alone, providing more questions than answers, the biggest one explaining that it would only be possible for the accusers to get ergot, because if everyone had ergot, how come nobody else was seeing what they were “seeing”? It seems like too much of a coincidence for only a group of girls to get ergot poisoning and nobody else. A symptom of ergot poisoning is the fingers and toes of the poisoned rotting and falling off. It was never recorded in any remaining documents stating any accuser's toes, fingers, or any limbs for that matter falling
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
In the seventeenth-century, many people believed in things such as magic, astrology, and witchcraft. Witches were believed to have made a pact with the devil to obtain supernatural powers. So when bad things, such as crops failing or if a child was born stillborn, started to occur, many people started to blame witches. Beginning in late 1691, many girls were being accused of being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials. The accusers believed that their lives were in danger and that these so-called “witches” were causing all this evil to occur.
A total of 20 people were hanged due to these allegations, along with 5 others who died in custody. Ever since, people have wondered what could have caused the terrible disaster of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, thankfully a likely cause has been found. The probable reason for the madness epidemic in Salem is ergot
