The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692-1693

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 was the most infamous witchcraft episode in United State's history. Set in a Puritan New England settlement, Salem Village, the original ten females became afflicted between January 1682 and the madness would not end until May 1693. Salem Village, Massachusetts became engulfed in hysteria. During this time, one hundred and fifty-six people accused of witchcraft, fifty-four people confessed, fourteen women and five men were hanged, a man was pressed to death, three women and a man died in jail. In addition, an infant, who was born in the jail died as welled. In early 1692, however, the girls began to make accusations of witchcraft. Their illness did not subside, and they continued to allege that certain members

She admits that in one of the cases, it is simply impossible to know how she came in contact with the ergotized grain. However, she dismisses Sarah Churchill, the final accuser, as a fraud because she was not connected to the Putnam grain and only testified in a limited number of cased. Perhaps her most bizarre claim is that the judges and magistrates associated with the Salem trials had contracted ergotism, which influenced their rulings and caused them to be less pragmatic about the witch trials than they had been in the past. Not only does this claim border on conspiracy theory and lack any semblance of supporting evidence, but it contradicts evidentiary support she used earlier in the article. She had formerly claimed support for ergotism by noting the fact that all the original accusers were young girls and thus the most susceptible to ergotism. However, by claiming that the judges and magistrates, adult males, had contracted the disease, she nullifies her former claims and causes the reader to wonder why the ergotism outbreak was not more widespread. Caporael also fails to explain why the Salem ergotism outbreak was an isolated incident.