Spasm,unconsciousness, and even death were symptoms of some of the greatest known events in history. Ergot poisoning, also known as ergotism, is caused by the fungus Claviceps Purpurea, which events rye, wheat and other cereal grasses (The Witches Curse 1). Ergot contains an alkaloid lysergic acid, from which the hallucinogenic drug LSD is obtained (Star-News 3). For years people have been trying to prove that ergotism has been the cause of the happenings. Around the world ergotism has been causing mass hysteria in small towns and making the fear of ergot stronger and more believable. Throughout history there have been frequent times where ergot was not thought to be the leading cause, but perhaps it was.
Between 1348 and 1350, the Bubonic
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Plague extinguished around one-third of the European population (Ranker 1). Though a majority of people believe that it was caused by fleas carrying disease, others think that ergot was something that participated in the happening. In the area where the Bubonic Plague hit the worst had the perfect conditions to grow ergot years before the outbreak happened (Ranker 2). The human immune system had been dropping at this time, which was most likely caused by the ergot poisoning that they could have received years prior (Ranker 2). Today it is believed that ergot was the main cause for jumpstarting the Bubonic Plague and causing countless people to die. It has not been completely proven that ergot was what jumpstarted the Bubonic Plague but it is appropriate to think that it was the reason behind it all. When rats started dying in the towns, probably from the ergot they ingested, the fleas had to leave and find new host so they went to people (Ranker 1). Even if the people never had ergot poisoning from what they ate the rats could have had it then the fleas gave it to the people. The weather was just right for ergot to grow, so it is plausible that this was the reason. Ergot does not get the attention that it deserves for making the Bubonic Plague as gruesome as it was, which means one of the major catastrophes in the world was caused by a fungus on rye and wheat. The notorious Salem Witch Trials started in the spring of 1692 when a group of young girls in the village made others believe that they were possessed by the devil, later accusing several women in the village of witchcraft (History.com Staff). After a wave of hysteria hit Salem, the leader of the town decided to get a special court convened to see if the accused were really witches or not. Eighteen accused witches in Salem were hung at Salem’s Gallow Hill, Bridget Bishop being the first to get killed (History.com Staff). Around more than 150 other men,women, and children were also accused of witchcraft in the following months after the first of the hangings. People in Salem thought that all the hysteria was because of witchcraft but it was not, it was because of the fungus growing on the rye that they were growing and eating in the village. Many years of scientific studies have shown that the “bewitchments” in Salem were false and ergot is the reason behind it all.
Hundreds of years ago, young girls in Salem started having mysterious symptoms after being found in the woods dancing and later being accused of witchcraft. Ergot is a main theory for the Salem Witch Trials because the weather and growing conditions on the western side of Salem were perfect for this fungus to grow on the rye. Three of the afflicted girls lived outside of the village boundaries to the east which means that they did not get the rye from the western part so they could have been acting or went to eat at someone else’s house and got poisoned (Caporael 4). When everything in Salm started it would have been hard to prove that it was something other than witchcraft but now we can use the evidence and knowledge we have about ergotism to know that it is a probable theory.
July 1518, in Strasbourg Alsace, France around 400 people uncontrollably took the streets and went crazy. When physicians started to rule out astrological causes, they concluded that they had “hot blood” (Ranker 1). The Dancing Plague of 1518 is classified as one of the strangest afflictions in Western History (The Psychologist 1). Though 490 years sounds like a long time to wait for an explanation for these happenings, it’s hardly a simple case (Digital Journal 1). When everyone was still dancing, they started to get exhausted and later most passed from the exhaustion (Waller
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1). Frau Troffea, was the woman that started it all. As the first victim of the Dancing Plague, Troffea danced for around a week before others started to get the urge to dance also. After weeks of dancing they started to suffer from heart attacks, strokes, and hallucinations (Ranker 1). With the physicians saying that they were sick, no one thought that it could be ergot poisoning, but that is what it most likely was. Now it’s believed by countless historians and psychologist that the Dancing Plague of 1518 was likely caused by the convulsions and hallucinations of ergotism (Ranker 1). THis dancing epidemic claimed more that 400 people in just a few short months (History.com 1). From 1789 until 1799 the French Revolution wreaked havoc on France. Mobs of frantic peasants encouraged what is now known historically as The Great Fear, which gripped the countryside of France leading up to the Revolution. For weeks, terrified peasants started to believe that their food was disappearing, which made them begin to loot and burn down the homes of the town leaders. As the peasants continued to destroy the cities, they finally hit Paris, which launched the Revolution with the storming of Bastille (Ranker 1). Just like the American Revolution which happened before it, the French Revolution was influenced by Enlightenment ideals, which was particularly the concepts of popular sovereignty and inalienable rights (History.com 1). Historians believe that the mass wave of peasants causing the hysteria were poisoned by infected rye and wheat.
For years Professor Mary Kilbourne Matossian has been testing and believing that the infected rye was caused by ergot (Star-News 1). Historians have found no conspiracies in the group of peasants, which leads them to believe that it was cause by the fungus. Allegedly in France they had a bad crop of rye that year, which was caused by the cold winter and wet spring (Microbes and Society 170). They now believe that them conditions lead to the spread of ergot. The land prevailed that year in NOrthern France where rye bread was the staple of the peasant diet (Feinberg 1), which is why most believe that it is the leading cause of the
Revolution. In the small village of Pont Saint Esprit, France civilians were hit with a wave of hysteria in the year of 1951 ( Atlas Obscura 1). As the hysteria grew people in the town started to have horrid symptoms of hallucinations, vomiting, and then going completely insane (MedicineNet 1). During this time more than 250 people in the town were affected by these happenings. With no known cause for these strange occurrences, officials just think maybe it was from the bakery and that the bread that they were eating was infected (Blume 1). “I’d prefer to die rather than go through that again,” said Leon Armenier, a postman who was the first afflicted in the town of Pont Saint Esprit, France (Thomson 1). In August of 1951 violent outbreaks of frenzied hallucinations, delirium, and insanity disturbed the 500 inhabitants of the small French village. More than 250 people were ill, 5 were dead, and the rest were put into asylums for have the symptoms (Pont-St.-Esprit 1). At the times of the happenings it was believed to be fungus on the bread from the bakery in town (Thomson 1). A the time went by, they had still been trying to decide if it was ergot or not, but they still have many different options that could have been the reason behind it all, though ergotism is believe as the leading cause. “I’d prefer to die rather than got through that again,” says Leon Armenier, the first afflicted in the small town of Pont Saint Esprit, France (Thomson 1). If many of the suffering people from the other events were still alive and had survived they would probably say the same. Throughout time many have been afflicted starting in 1348, as far as we know, more ergot poisonings could have happened before then. Ergot will continue to affect towns and people lives. Throughout history there have been frequent times where ergot was not thought to be the leading cause but maybe it was and still could be the cause of major events as time goes on.
While researching texts written about the Salem Witch Trials, I found a few authors who published articles and books about the Salem Witch Trials. These authors often showed that the most likely cause of the fits coming from the victims was produced by ergot of rye. However, I could not find much discussion about another important source of the fits’ cause: witchcraft. My goal in this paper is to produce a convincing argument that the victims during the Salem Witch Trials that experienced strange behaviors came from ergot of rye rather than witchcraft.
The author of this book has proposed an intriguing hypothesis regarding the seventeenth-century witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Laurie Winn Carlson argues that accusations of witchcraft were linked to an epidemic of encephalitis and that it was a specific form of this disease, encephalitis lethargica, that accounts for the symptoms suffered by the afflicted, those who accused their neighbors of bewitching them. Though this interpretation of the Salem episode is fascinating, the book itself is extremely problematic, fraught with historical errors, inconsistencies, contradictions, conjecture, and a very selective use of the evidence.
Although farmers were aware of the fungus ergot, they did not know that ergot is the result of a mold that’s very toxic and fatal to humans. (Clark 2). They called it cockspurs, because the fact that ergot looks like black whole grains, they believed that it was just grains cooked by the sun and that they were completely harmless. (Clark 2). But they were wrong. Ergot contains alkaloids including lysergic acid isoergine (the main ingredient in LSD) so when ingested, the fungus begins to affect the central nervous system and can cause vasoconstriction. (Vogel 1 and Clark 3). It can lead to sudden death, limit fertility, and it damages the immune system making the body more susceptible to get other diseases because it’s too weak to fight off infection. (“5.1 Poisons of the Past/Ergotism.” 1). Symptoms caused by ergot are feelings of numbness, hallucinations, and feelings of suffoca...
More than three centuries ago, an entire community in Salem, Massachusetts, just 5 miles from Salem Town fell victim to what would become the most notorious instance of witch hysteria in United States history. The infamous witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts remain one of the most unscrupulous and inexplicable phenomena in the United States, having resulted in a total of 20 deaths and 165 accusations related to Witchcraft within the span of four months. [3] The brief, but tumultuous period has long been a source of debate amongst historians. For nearly a century, it was widely accepted that social tensions and Puritan religious beliefs were the primary cause of the trials, but in the 1970’s, a college undergraduate suggested ergot poisoning might be to blame. Ergotism – ergot poisoning – is born from the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which is known to infect rye and other cereal grains, it produces a chemical known as ergotamine which is the base for toxic hallucinogenic chemicals such as LSD. [2] Studies have shown that the consumption of ergot-contaminated food results in symptoms much like those associated with the afflicted girls in Salem, 1692. [2] Collectively, Ergot poisoning, and the implication Puritanism and Puritan values had on the genuine fear of witches, and socioeconomic tension caused the events that would become the Salem witch hysteria of 1692.
In the modern day it’s hard to believe there’s even still ‘’witch hunts’’ as you can say where a group of people are stereotyped as something without them doing the actual stereotypical thing. We live in a world where blacks are getting shot for no reason when they were just walking down the street unarmed and not harming anyone. Blacks and Latinos are always looked down upon in any shape or form. They could be driving a nice car they get pulled over for suspicion of a stolen car, they can get pulled over in an old broken car and they will get pulled over for suspicion of ‘’criminal activity’’. But if it’s a white person the cops will NOT bat a single eye at them despite being in the same situations as the black. And you know what the problem
Puritanism, and The Salem Witch Trials. Puritanism refers to the movement of reform, which occurred within the Church of England. It began at the time of the Elizabethan settlement of 1559 and ended at the end of the Rump Parliament with the ascension of Charles II to the British throne in 1660. The American Puritans clearly understood that God's word applies to all of life.
Puritans believed in the devil and his role as strong as they believed in God and his role. For many centuries, Puritans had the idea that the weakest individuals in society often committed diabolical acts and sins. Furthermore, Satan selected the most vulnerable individuals to do his bidding, among these individuals, women were often held responsible for many sins, including witchcraft. (Godbeer 12). According to Richard Godbeer, in his book, The Salem Witch Hunt, “it was Eve who first gave away to Satan and seduced Adam.” (Godbeer 12). In 1692, witchcraft became a panic among Puritan society. Even though both men and women were accused of witchcraft, women were seventy-six percent more likely to be accused in Salem than men. (Godbeer 12). Puritan society was a male dominate society and men looked down upon women. There were two particular reasons to why women were often accused of being witches. The first reason, was in due to the Puritan belief that women were the source of evil. The second reason was because of certain events that associated with accusations. These events were being of relatively low social status and income, being rich or financially independent and being a midwife or nurse.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were the largest outbreak of witch hunting in colonial New England up to that time. Although it was the largest outbreak, it was not something that was new. Witch-hunting had been a part of colonial New England since the formation of the colonies. Between the years 1648 to 1663, approximately 15 witches were executed. During the winter of 1692 to February of 1693, approximately 150 citizens were accused of being witches and about 25 of those died, either by hanging or while in custody. There is no one clear-cut answer to explain why this plague of accusations happened but rather several that must be examined and tied together. First, at the same time the trials took place, King William's War was raging in present day Maine between the colonists and the Wabanaki Indians with the help of the French. Within this war, many brutal massacres took place on both sides, leaving orphaned children due to the war that had endured very traumatic experiences. Second, many of the witch accusations were based on spectral evidence, most of which were encounters of the accused appearing before the victim and "hurting" them. There were rampant "visions" among the colonies' citizens, which can only be explained as hallucinations due to psychological or medical conditions by virtue of disease, or poisoning.
In the early winter months of 1692, in colonial Massachusetts, two young girls began exhibiting strange symptoms that were described to be "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect (examiner.com)." Doctors looked them over, but could not come up with any sort of logical explanation for their ailments. Therefore, the girls were accused of taking part in witchcraft. Soon, other young women in the village started showing similar symptoms. This "illness" of sort slowly made its way through the village to many of the residents. Soon, people started coming up with possible theories as to what started all the madness.
In 1692 everyone was sure that the Devil had come to Salem when young girls started screaming, barking like dogs and doing strange dances in the woods. The Salem Witch Trials originated in the home of Salem's reverend Samuel Parris, who had a slave from the Caribbean named Tibuta. Tibuta would tell stories about witchcraft back from her home. In early 1692 several of Salem's teenage girls began gathering in the kitchen with Tibuta. When winter turned to spring many Salem residents were stunned at the acts and behaviors of Tibuta's young followers. It was said that in the woods nearby they danced a black magic dance, and several of the girls would fall on the floor screaming uncontrollably. These behaviors soon began to spread across Salem. This soon led to ministers from nearby communities coming to Salem to lend their advice on the matter. Many believed that the girls were bewitched. It is believed that the young girls accusations began the Salem witch trials, and they would gather at reverend Parris's house to play fortune-telling games with magic and with Tibuta. One of the games was for them to crack a raw egg into a glass of water and see what shape it made in the glass.
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
When other people heard about all of what was going on in Salem they started turning on their neighbors thinking and mostly believing that these people were witches because of the way they would go about their everyday activities. During this time of panic and disorder, people started finding ways to torture these “witches” with many different tactics to see if they were real witches or if they were innocent. Most of the people involved in the horrible torture devices were killed because no human could stand these horrible tests
The notorious witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts occurred from June through September. It is a brief, but turbulent period in history and the causes of the trials have long been a source of discussion among historians. Many try to explain or rationalize the bizarre happenings of the witch hunts and the causes that contributed to them. To understand the trials and how they came to be, we must first examine the ideals and views of the people surrounding the events. Although religious beliefs were the most influential factor, socioeconomic tensions, and ergot poisoning are also strongly supported theories. A combination of motives seems the most rational explanation of the frenzy that followed the illness of the two girls. This paper looks closely at the some of the possible causes of one of the most notable occurrences in history.
Have you ever heard of "The Great Mortality," or maybe "The Pestilence?" (Facts) Probably not, but you most likely you heard of the Black Plague or Black Death. This infection terrorized Europe from 1348 through 1351, killing between 75 to 200 million people. Most of the people who contracted the infection died 3 days after catching it. Only a few people lived 4 days after exposure (“The Black Death of 1348 to 1350). Those who did pass away had no documentation of their death, so the exact death count is unknown to historians. The infection originated from Asia in north-western China and came to Europe on cargo traveling on the Silk Road. It is now known that the infection came from the bacterium Yersinisa pestis, which lives in flea guts (Szczepanski). When the flea bites, the bacterium transfers the infection to the victim, being humans or most likely rodents. Common first signs are swollen lymph nodes and black cyst on the armpit or groin area ( Szczepanski). Victims acquired symptoms similar to the flu, their blood dropping in pressure, heart rate increases, and a fever emerges out of nowhere (DesOrmeaux). The Black Plague, an infection that killed millions, defaced a religion, and managed to eliminate a 1/3 to 1/2 of Europe's population.
When archaeologists brings to the light the stories of death, sickness and torture by black magic it often helps to explain the unexplainable.One such archaeological discovery showed a skull of a woman with a stone in her mouth when her remains were found among the victims of the plague of the 16th century in the mass grave of Venetian island Lazzaretto Nuovo, which functioned as a sanatorium .