Salem Witch Trials In The 1600's

The Salem Witch Trial Inquiries The perception of the people that lived in the 1600’s were that differences between isolated people and the common community were seen as witchcraft. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of peculiar accusations in a colony in Massachusetts mainly between February 1692 and May 1693. These Salem Witch Trials were also mainly about the Puritans that lived in a rural city of Massachusetts. In the 1600’s those in small towns were extremely close to one another so it would affect the entire town population. Given the hierarchies in the social class, one could believe they mainly pointed out those that were inferior to the higher class and blamed majority of the misbehaviors during this time on them. In the 1600’s

The Puritans were a very strict culture that put a lot of emphasis in the idea of evil and how terrible it was to be involved in evil acts. So with that said, it can be understandable to a certain point that these people liked to jump the gun when it came to these wrong doings. However, many historians have looked back and studied this time period of the trials and came up with a theory that the people may have been sick because their wheat was subject to the ergot, which is a fungus found on rye. This is a significant discovery in terms of finding a reason as to why the Puritans acted the way that they did, considering that ergot has a side effect of psychosis in other words gives the brain a hard time in determining what is real and what is fake. Ergot also makes a person more anxious, so when you couple anxiety and hallucinations, then one could easily comprehend why the Puritans went on this terror for a little over a

The Puritans often would then move on to the victim’s families in the order of accusations. Many of those that were indicted of witchcraft would look to escape the city or confess to the crime to avoid execution or imprisonment. There are many beliefs to why the Puritans acted in such a drastic way in response to all of the allegations. Since there is no way to find out what exactly drove the Puritans to this point, all historians can do is look back and follow the series of events that led up to the multiple cases of witchcraft, without doing it in a teleological fashion, and with there being an abundant amount of diaries, documents, stories, and court cases, it is easier to do