How Did The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

The belief in magic and witchcrafts are not very popular these days, although some communities around the world, especially developing countries, are still believed to be practicing. Although, the practice of magic and witchcrafts and the belief in “supernatural’ world evolved along with human civilization, the answer to when it started is still unknown. It was 1692 when young girls started acting strange in Salem. The doctors could not find any medical explanations behind those acts and thus, concluded that they were bewitched. This incident led to the death of many innocent members within the community, “20 people and two dogs were already executed along with a person pressed to death under a pile of stones for refusing testimony.”1 Although, the actual story behind very famous episode from the American history, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, is still untold and what happened during the trials still remains unanswered after all these years, some historians and authors have claimed that they have been wrongly accused and have explained these accusation through and physiological explanation and hysteria.

Strange dance in the woods?” can be explained by Ergotism in Salem. The Salem village experienced changes in climate on 1691 leading higher fungus infection and resulted a drought year on 1692 with no expectation of crops and another food source. The behaviors recorded as witchcraft symptoms, “crawling sensation, disturbance sensation, hallucination, mental disturbances such as mania, psychosis, and delirium” (Caporael, 5) exhibited by the young girls were the symptoms of Ergot poisoning by eating the crops that had been infected by the ergot due to the unsafe storage