Between the months of June to September of 1692, the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts resulted in the hanging of 19 men and women; the deaths of five others, including two children, while imprisoned in jail; the pressing to death of an 80-year old man, and the stoning of two dogs for collaborating with the Devil. Hundreds of others faced accusations and dozens more were jailed for months during the progress of the trials. For over three hundred years these events have not only captured the general publics' imagination, but that of the academic community. Beginning with Charles Upham, in 1867, historians have attempted to explain the mass hysteria that swept through Salem in 1692. These accounts vary both in their interpretation of the events and the aspects focused upon. For example, according to Upham, the afflicted girls, who were the principle witnesses against the witches, had deliberately lied. Succeeding generations of historians, however, had cited mass hysteria, rigors of puritan childrearing and ergot poisoning as explanations for the afflicted girls' behaviors. Furthermore, others have minimized the girls' involvement within the proceedings, focusing instead upon the issues surrounding the trialspolitical and economic factors, social concerns or interpersonal relationships between the accused and their accusers. Such authors as Enders A. Robinson, The Devil Discovered, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, and Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare, all provide compelling evidence as to why the witch hysteria erupted in Salem Village. However, no one narrative can, by itself, adequately explain why the hysteria was allowed to sweep across Salem Village and throughout Essex County virtually unchecked by the Puritan hierarchy or the royal government. In order to truly understand why these events transpired when and where they did, one must examine the witchcraft epidemic in its larger social context. It was not one…
Main Point 1: The Puritans had a very strict religion and thats what brought them to America.…
Bryan F. Le Beau. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.…
The Salem Witch Trials are known as a series of people being accused and prosecuted of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts beginning in February 1692 until May 1693. The trials began after a group of girls claimed that they were possessed by the devil. Several local women were accused of witchcraft and this began the wave of hysteria that would forever haunt Salem and leave a painful legacy for a long time to come. Nearly every major school of historians has attempted to explain the answer to the mystery of the trials, trying to understand why they occurred. From Marxists who blame class conflict, to Freudians who believe in mass hysteria, the more ecologically based historians who put the blame on hallucinogenic ergot fungus, and now more…
Ergot is a type of toxic fungus, which infects rye and contains alkaloids, which can cause severe problems to humans, such as hallucinations, tingling in the fingers, and convulsions, symptoms similar to those in Salem. It is considered as one of the major interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials, for it was mistakenly being consumed in 1692; time of which in fact the trials were taking place. At first it was a misconception since ergot’s toxins were believed to inactivate after being exposed to the baking process. Later, it was proven by a couple of tests that the alkaloids found inside of the fungus do not completely die when exposed to high temperatures, meaning that ergot could’ve been the cause for women to act as if they were bewitched.…
In the novel, The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent we witness great historical significance in the years surrounding the Salem witch trials. For one, the author's ancestor was Martha Carrier, a key character in the novel and also known as the “Queen of Hell”, who was among the first of women to be accused of witchcraft. In this specific novel we relive the horrors that nine year old Sarah Carrier must face along with her family. The hysteria during the year of 1692 could have not been prevented, the superstition that would rise was inevitable, and the amount of damaged caused could have never been guessed.…
Three years prior to the hysteria, a very admired and respected minister, Cotton Mather, told of how, “these evil spirits are all around” – “these evil spirits” being the workers of Satan who are working against the power of God. In Document C, he is quoted as a secondary source countering the theory that witchcraft was only performed by Indians. He supports his own theory by referring to the growing number of witchcraft cases that are occurring in Christian households. He makes a general statement warning everyone to spread his word of the growth of the evil spirits and to take caution. This quote seems to plant the seed of witchcraft in everyone’s mind. Once warned, the people of Salem walk on egg shells trying to find signs of witchcraft, but also avoiding them as much as possible.…
The Salem Witchcraft was a series of undesirable events, which was powered by paranoia and fear. Though several witch trials occurred before the Salem Witch Trial, this was the most well known of all. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft which resulted to 19 men and women that were hanged, 17 innocents that died in unsanitary prisons, and an 80-year old man that was crushed to death by putting stones on top of his stomach until he confesses (movie: The Crucible). In some accounts, it was reported that two dogs were stoned to death for cooperating with the Devil. Why did the Salem Witch trial occur? Were these trials appropriate? Or were they truly a Devil's work? The Salem Witch Trials might have occurred for a variety of reasons such as people's ignorance that led to superstitions. It might have also occurred because people's crave for power, or it might also be because of fear.…
In 1692, an event called the Salem Witch Trials occurred, because of this, the people from a village called Salem, Massachusetts were fearful because they could be accused a witch. This all started when a group of young girls began to act very strange. The behaviors of the girls’ ranged from, screaming, copying body movements, pain, falling on the floor, twitching, and many other symptoms.…
The history of the Salem witchcraft epidemic is well known. In the winter of 1692, two girls suffered convulsions and hallucinations, alarming fast their families and subsequently the entire community. When a medical diagnosis was not forthcoming, a religious explanation was accepted: the girls were acting strangely because "the hand of Satan was in them." The drama was intensified because the two girls were the daughter and niece of the town's minister.…
¨Sarah Osborn, the sick old woman who was among the first three people accused of being a witch, died of the fever in prison, too¨ (Schanzer 128). Sarah Osborn was a sick, bedridden old woman, it wasn't as if she was a cantankerous old woman who went about causing trouble in Salem. She was accused of being a witch because the pious Puritans believed she was in the predicament she was in due to being punished for previous unknown sins. This, along with her feebleness, made her an easy target for accusers. “Even though it later became apparent that the way to survive an accusation was to confess and to point fingers at others, Sarah Osborne repeatedly affirmed her innocence” (“Sarah Osborne”). She dismissed all opportunities to confess and this eventually cost her her life. Another way illness was a plausible cause for the Salem Witch Trials was a fungus called ergot that effects rye grain. Due to the lack of modern science, this possibility went unheeded. “Caporael, now a behavioral psychologist at New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, soon noticed a link between the strange symptoms reported by Salem’s accusers, chiefly eight young women, and the hallucinogenic effects of drugs like LSD” (“Clues and Evidence”). The ergot poisoning caused hallucinogenic symptoms which would perfectly explain some of the outlandish sightings made by residents of…
people have summoned Salem as a warning against actions they perceive as bogus “witch hunts”. The…
The belief in witchcraft, or supernatural actions and the devil’s ability to give certain humans the power to harm others, in return for their loyalty, had been a part of traditional village culture in Europe since the 14th century. (history.com) The Salem witch trials took place between 1692 and 1693 in colonial Massachusetts. Two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty people were executed. (smithsonianmag.com)…
Witch trials were mainly caused by young girls hallucinating that some people were witches and that they were being attacked by their specter. This hallucination was caused by ergotism which is a fungus that grows on…
Spanos, Nicholas and Jack Gottlieb. “Ergotism and the Salem Village Witch Trials” Science Vol. 194 (1976) Web. 30 Apr. 2011.…