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. Therefore, rather than blaming an individual, a natural occurrence can be proven by analyzing the attributes of the time and location, …show more content…
It was around this time that young girls, starting with Betty Parris and Ruth Putnam, began getting sick. Without an apparent cause, they fell unconscious, and would not wake (Miller, 8). Soon, other girls, including Betty’s cousin, Abigail, began to show bizarre symptoms. They had hallucinations, felt sensations like extreme cold, and generally became irrational and sickly. These are all main symptoms in ergot poisoning. This is a disease caused by ingesting the same fungus used to make LSD. The fungus can also be found in water, which may lead to why it was mainly females and children to become affected. For one, they would be drinking less alcohol than men. Alcohol would have killed the ergot fungus, leaving drinks like beer and cider unaffected. In addition, children would have had lower immune systems, and would be more prone to contracting the illness. Though many blame out of town officials, such as Danforth and Hale, they were not exposed to the potentially infected rye crop. Rather, they seemed to be the least symptomatic of all. Although they gained power because of the paranoia, they could not be at fault. In addition, Abigail cannot be held responsible. She had vivid and
One cause of the Salem witch trials was boredom. Community placement, beliefs, and strict religious laws caused isolation from other societies. The Puritans were very strict when it came to religion. “The churches usually do within themselves to manage their own discipline, under the control of their elders.” (Cotton Mather Wonders of the Invisible World; pg13)
Finding nothing physically wrong, the doctors suggested the symptoms had been caused by witchcraft” (UXL 12). Having been immersed in a deeply-religious, fear-stricken atmosphere, Abigail and Betty lived in a constant state of terror. Horror was inflicted upon them through biblical testaments and Reverend Parris’s church sermons, permitting their development of paranoid mentalities. Although they sought a pastime that would ease their apprehension, the innocence of storytelling only intensified, worsening their frames of mind. It was only a matter of time until Abigail and Betty fell victim to their predominant weakness: fear.
The lying caused the witch trial hysteria. In 1692,In salem massachusetts. The puritans believed of what they read in the bible and becasue of the fales accusations twenty people died. One of them was a man and he was pressed to death. The three causes of the salem witch trails were the dividing towns,lying,and age.
REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.
The Salem Witch Trials occured on February 1692 - May 1693 and caused many of issues and effected a lot of people. It caused a lot of people to be killed for no reason. People abused it in so many ways and just had people killed because they didn't like them or wanted their land, and it could even because they wanted to be with that person's husband or just be cause of jealousy. It made them fear people because if you make anyone mad they could just turn on you and try to say your a witch to have you killed or sent to jail. But it also didn't take much to convince people and get people to act like someone casted a spell on them to have them executed so that they could get attention.
Summer Padgett Dr. Davis AMH-2010-008 9/3/2015 Salem Witch Trials During the early 14th century, something odd happened in Europe and colonial New England. People started believing in the supernatural. Specifically, the devil giving “witches” the power to hurt and harm others as long as they remained loyal to him.
During this apparent incident a man named Cotton Mather wrote and published a book about an incident of witchcraft. This made the people think that Betty Parris was a witch. After other local girls developed similar symptoms, they called a doctor. After the doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them and said that their problems may have a ‘supernatural origin’ more people started believing that they were
The disease turns into a frenzy when girls randomly begin developing the same symptoms such as hair loss and mental outbreaks. It is believed that most of the girls were faking their actions.
Ergot is a fungus that commonly grows on many grains, but more often than not it is found on rye. Ergot was commonly found in America and European rye during the 19th century. The effects of ergot poisoning include; fits of convulsions, hallucinations, under the skin prickling sensations, and vomiting. An extract of ergot was used to make the hallucinogenic drug LSD. The town of Salem stored their grain to consume during the winter, and ergot being a fungus grows in dark and damp areas.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials had many effects on the town of Salem, Massachusetts. A lot of the effects were negative, destroying the community, government, even individuals. The Witch Trials affected the community of Salem in multiple ways. The witch trials created many tensions between several families in the town. The most acknowledgeable dispute from the play was between the Putnam’s and the Nurse’s.
Did you know that historians believe that the reason why the girls (accusers) had “fits” was because of bacteria in their rye bread that may have caused hallucinations? The Salem Witch Trials occurred from 1692 to 1693. During the trials, twenty people were executed: nineteen hanged and one pressed to death. The reasons for the deaths of these moral Puritans were the absence of life outside of church, fear, and strict interpretation of the Bible.
In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, many people in a small village were being accused of witchcraft and were either executed or put in prison if they said they were not under the control of the devil. A teenage girl, Abigail Williams, wanted to kill the wife of the man she loved. Abigail and many other teenage girls were caught acting strange and dancing in the woods one night. When caught, they were accused of witchcraft. The result of this accusation was to blame other people in the village.
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
In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge.
Not many people know much about what actually happened in the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe someone would think that it was just about witchcraft and crazy people being hanged, but it is a lot more than that. The Salem Witch Trials only occurred between 1692 and 1693, but a lot of damage had been done. The idea of the Salem Witch Trials came from Europe during the “witchcraft craze” from the 1300s-1600s. In Europe, many of the accused witches were executed by hanging.