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Salem Witch Trials Literature Review

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Review of Literature The religiously motivated Salem witch trials of 1692 left a permanent stain on Massachusetts’ history, but one overlooked factor could have sparked the tragic ordeal. The trials are best summarized as an inexplicable and unforeseen frenzy of accusations, aimed at the social pariahs of the community, that led to multiple deaths in a previously tranquil place. An intense type of food poisoning known as convulsive ergotism provides a seemingly simple, yet understandably deceptive to the ignorant, explanation. Due to optimum conditions for the disease, the correlation between the bewitched and the expected symptoms, and the religious fanaticism of the time, one can conclude ergotism was an influence on the Salem witch trials. …show more content…

Symptoms such as “tingling hands/fingers, vertigo, hallucinations, vomiting, muscle contractions, mania, psychosis, delirium, and melancholia” appear in sufferers from the rye infesting fungus and correlate with those allegedly under the influence of “the devil or witchcraft” in 1692 (Chevers 5). Tituba, one of the many women accused, reported to her interrogator she saw creatures that possessed “wings and two legs and a head like a woman” which appears justifiable by supernatural forces, unless the witness suffered from ergot poisoning, in which case this account may be attributed to the hallucinations sustained by the disease (Chevers 4). Catherine Branch establishes another case supporting the mirroring symptoms of those enduring ergotism and those enduring bewitchment when she underwent “pinching and pricking sensations, hallucinations, and spells of laughing and crying” while claiming to be cursed before ultimately dying. Despite that some suggest the accused people of Salem invented their symptoms, but this does not offer an explanation for the animals’ behavior in the area; exemplified by a dog whose actions corresponded with the symptoms of bread poisoning after he ate “Tituba’s witch cake” (Mixon 181). The immense correlation between the disease and the accused continues throughout multiple cases of both people …show more content…

Besides the ergot outbreak, harsh winters “accompanied by Indian raids and smallpox outbreaks” plagued the area, consequently leaving people especially susceptible to manipulation from outside forces (Mixson 180). Without the advanced knowledge of today, people in the past relied on authorities as a source for answers and comfort during tumultuous times; in Puritan dominated Salem of 1692 this authoritative source was the church. One representative and priest of the Puritan church, Samuel Parris, expressed that the afflicted people acted as they did because “God was angry and sending forth destroyers in the form of witches” (Mixson 180). Such words from respected institutions incited fear in the population, causing residents specifically Samuel Sewall to write, “I prayid that God would pardon all my Sinfull Wanderings” as a reaction to the increasing hysteria (Sewall 361). Regarding the imprisoned that confessed to witchcraft, those under the influence of ergotism are considered “highly suggestible,” meaning that pressuring interrogators possessed the ability to easily manipulate the ill into seeing “religious scenes” without the sick separating reality from hallucinations

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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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No one really knows how the Salem Witch Trials really started. There are many conspiracy theories out there but none can be proved as fact. But Linda Caporael seems to think the trials began because of ergot poisoning and explains her reasoning in “Witchcraft or Psychedelic Trip?”. Caporael describes ergot and why she believes it to be the main cause of the hysteria. She goes on to state that ergot is a fungus that grows best in wet conditions and on the main crops that were in Salem during the time period (Caporael).

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The witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.

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Gabriela Cortez Lopez, Kjai Hamblin, and Phoenix Lehnick Mrs. Gann English Honors III 4 April 2023 The Last of Us (Witch Hunt Edition) The Salem Witch Trials were various trials that consisted of the accusations of people in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the 1690s. People were coming down “with a mysterious and terrifying illness”(Caporael.)

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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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The death of 8-year-old Elizabeth Kelly in 1662 and her autopsy provided more fuel for the witch-hunt hysteria (Klein p.2). According to Boynton, “those who attended the examination of Elizabeth’s body may not have been familiar with the physical changes that occur after death, including the time frame for rigor mortis […] and the occurrence of livor mortis,” (Boynton 38). Bryan Rossiter, the doctor who performed the autopsy, noted strange “preternatural” findings on her body that were in fact “natural occurrences for an almost week-old corpse,” (Boynton 39). The findings that Rossiter published were gruesome, including large red spots on her cheek, black and blue arms, a terrible stench, and stiffness of the body (Boynton 39). This report highly distraught the citizens of Connecticut and stirred further unrest and more prosecutions of witches (Klein

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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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There is a certain polarity that comes with the territory in witchcraft. In most witch trials, there was a sense of “he said, she said”, one side claiming one thing and the other disagreeing. This seemed to flow into the realm of historical thought on the matter. There is a dividing line of external and internal interpretations on the subject of the witch trials, especially including the trials in Salem. However, I argue that the line between the external and internal interpretations of the witch trials is blurred, the sides often bleeding into each

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Parris eventually called in the local physician, William Griggs, who found the girls convulsing on the floor and barking like dogs. The doctor was perplexed and unable to offer a specific medical explanation, but suggested that it might be the work of evil. Parris consulted with other local ministers, who recommended he wait to see what happened. As the word of these inexplicable fits spread around town, a man named Thomas Putnam, Jr. came forward and admitted that his girls were also behaving out of the ordinary. The women of Salem were scared and under pressure, so they named three women who were also behaving strangely “witches” to make themselves seem normal.

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2379 Words | 10 Pages

Witch hunts throughout history have similarly had common theme of being instances in history where extreme behavior where an “evil is constructed, identified, and persecuted”. Most importantly, the witch hunts were often carried out by formal authorities within and the society. In Salem the conditions of the Puritan society were ideal for and gave way to witch hunts; the society contained disease, hardship, and distal war threats. Many historians refer to the time period of the Salem Witch Trials as the “perfect storm”

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Mass hysteria a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, Irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness (Dictionary.com). An Example of Mass Hysteria is The Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials happened in 1692 when girls called witchery on the town of Salem, Massachusetts. These girls thought to have seen the devil, but they really hadn't as they were trying to protect each other. The Trials ended up taking 20 lives of innocent villagers who were being accused of witchery.

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1205 Words | 5 Pages

Mental Illness in Salem Witch Trials Introduction Witchcraft is the practice of magic and the use of spells and the invocation of spirits. According to Salem Witch Trials, 2015, the Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts claimed to have been bewitched by several adults in the town. More than 150 people were accused and hung, including men, women, and children (Salem Witch Trials, 2015). There were three girls in particular that sparked the trials: Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and Ann Putnam. Also stated in Salem Witch Trials, their behaviors changed drastically; they began to hallucinate, shout in church, have fits, not eat, not wake up, attempt to fly, and feel as if they

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435 Words | 2 Pages

Most of the evidence was spectral evidence, a testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see the person afflicting them but “devil marks” on the body (moles or birthmarks), poppets(dolls used to cast spells on the represented person), pots of ointment, books of horoscope/palmistry, gossip/stories or “witch cakes”(rye flour and human urine of the afflicted person, which was fed to the dog to see if it was afflicted). Eventually doubts developed as to why so many respectable, wealthy people were guilty to such shocking crimes. Many of the accused were better off financially than the accusers and the accusers often gained their property. Governor Phips ordered for proof of guilt had to given by clear and convincing evidence and many of the trials ended in acquittals until the movement came to a halt. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was dissolved in late October 1962 and a Superior Court tried the remaining cases.

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552 Words | 3 Pages

The 1692 events in Salem were not caused by a single person. Rather, the horrific miscarriage of injustice that was unfair persecutions under the guise of witchcraft could be blamed on natural phenomena. When young girls of the Massachusetts town developed strange symptoms, such as vivid hallucinations and strange bodily sensations, the local town doctor could not explain why they had suddenly taken ill. Confused, he diagnosed them with the one thing that made sense to the suspicious religious town: Witchcraft. Now, modern science concludes that a simple fungus was responsible for the girl’s symptoms.

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During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.

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