2.4 Political Problems
Salem’s Village was always considered to be one of the most divided New England 's communities even before the Witchcraft Trials in 1692. There were two families who ‘ruled’ the politics of Salem: the Putnams and the Porters. There was another issue happening at the time of the trials, there were discussions on whether the village of Salem should or not merge with the town of Salem. If the two merged the Porters family would be favored since they had many close connections with important people on the town of Salem who were big names in the politics. The Putnams on the other hand did not, because they were totally focused on the village of Salem politics. So the Putmans because of the Porters succes felt very jealous and blamed their family and friends for them being unsuccessful.
This theory argues that the Putnams made their daughters accuse the Porters’ friends, close community members and family of witchcraft. There is actual evidence for this theory, as most of all the ‘bewitched’ girls were very close to the
…show more content…
Ergots began to be investigated after the epidemics that were generated in Europe. The first medical report about Ergots was made a few years before the Salem Witchcraft trials. Ergots grow on many types of cereal grains, and what they do is replace by fusiform shape with scletoria the original grains on the plant thats been infected. The sclerotia contains large doses of strong pharmacologic agents. And the most prominent one is isoergine, it contains a ten percent active D-LSD, it is a hallucinogen that can also be found in the hallucinogenic drugs used for Aztec rituals. To actually use ergots as an explanation we need to find convincing evidence. Many things can influence the evidence for it to make sense: the growing conditions of the ergot, the actual timing of the Salem Witchcraft trials and the symptomatology of the