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Ergot Poisoning In 1692: The Salem Witch Trials

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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. There is a fungus called Ergot that could be to blame for this hysteria; both the symptoms that Ergot causes and the girl's experiences are similar. The fungus Ergot mainly grows on and is most likely to grow on opened-pollinated crops because “it allows easy access of the fungus into the flowering head” like rye (“Ergot of Cereals and Grasses | Disease”). If the infected grain is eaten, the most common symptoms are convulsive fits, hallucinations, vomiting, and a prickling sensation under the skin. This was also what the girls did: "They vomited, screamed incomprehensibly, claimed to see things that weren’t …show more content…

The first ones to be affected by witchcraft were Betty, who was 9, and Abigail, who was 11: both showed symptoms of ergot poisoning, and both fit in the age group (Pruitt). It is the same for the other girls; they all have symptoms related to ergot poisoning, and they are all in the same age group. Their guardian Parris was the minister of the town and they took the word of God seriously(Weller 1:05) so they had no reason to fake it because that would go against God, making them sin which was a really bad thing to them. Why would they do something that they knew would go against their faith by choice making it worse, unless it was

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In January 1692, Abigail and Betty began to have fits, violent contortions, and screamed. The local doctor believed they were bewitched and soon afterwards, other young girls also began to have similar symptoms. Abigail and Betty accused Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborn for bewitching them. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn refused to confess meanwhile Tituba confessed and claimed that there were other witches working with the devil. The hysteria began to spread and other young girls began to have fits and accused even the outstanding members of the community such as Rebecca Nurse of being witches.

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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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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.

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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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Salem Witch Trials During the spring of 1692 a group of girls in Salem Village claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several women to be performing witchcraft.(History) Also a young 9 year old Elizabeth and a 11 year old Abigail in January in 1692 started having fits. They took this issue to a local doctor who diagnosed them with bewitchment. (History)

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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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A fungus that grew in the area at the time was known to cause vomiting, delusions and hallucinations along with muscle spasms (Blumberg, Jess). Toxicologists believe Ergot fungus in food was a cause for the girls

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The trials took place in 1692 when a small group of girls fell ill, becoming privy to hallucinations and seizures without any medical reason. In the overly religious community of Puritans, such random occurrences were often attributed to acts of the devil or his minions. This uncaused illness spread among countless young girls and furthered fears of witchcraft in the community. Eventually, the afflicted girls in order to escape blame accused the other residents of Salem of consorting with the devil. This

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Contrary to popular belief, the Salem Witch Trials should not be solely attributed to demonic ‘possession’, but rather a harmful pathogen: Ergot of Rye. There are many questions as to what actually occurred in the Massachusetts colony during this time. History.com identifies one of the main problems by claiming that that girls were

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The “afflicted girls” included Elizabeth Booth, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, Betty Parris, Ann Putnam Jr, Susannah Sheldon, Abigail Williams, Mary Walcott, and Mary Warren. Doctor William Griggs examined the girls and could find nothing wrong with them and proposed that they were bewitched. The girls began to experience fits of rage, hiding under furniture, twisting in pain, and came down with a fever, which were all believed to be symptoms of witchcraft. Betty Paris was the first girl to experience the symptoms, Elizabeth Booth was the final girl to experience the same symptoms. Two of the nine girls accused three women of bewitching them.

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This illness was like no other. It made the girls scream and try to climb under chairs, tables, and even up walls. The girls would hallucinate and feel weird sensations of tingling and things crawling under their skin. After they both were examined witchcraft was determined to be the cause. This was because the doctors in the 1600-1800s were extremely uneducated and when symptoms didn't make sense they would blame it on witchcraft.

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