Salem Witch Trials Essay

936 Words2 Pages

The Origins and Science Behind The Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials of 1629 were complex, deep, and twisted in nature. However, they can be rooted down to the specific scientific cause that is ergot, and were driven by purely inequitable allegations. The trials highlight utterly corrupt decisions and a crooked time period in American History.
The Salem Witch Trials themselves, originated when a few teenage girls “were subject to bodily fits,” and had other symptoms “characterized by vomiting, delusions, [and] hallucinations,” (The Witches Curse: Clues and Evidence; The Salem Witch Trials, U.S History in Context). Not only were there physical effects on the impacted young women, but there were also a number of behavioral changes as …show more content…

She looked closely at the climate during the trials, describing it as “warm, damp and rainy,” (Forensics in History: The Salem Witch Trials). Linda also looked at the recorded symptoms that the girls were facing, and compared them to the effects of the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) which is a derivative of ergot, a fungus affecting rye grain (Forensics in History: The Salem Witch Trials). Rye bread was especially popular in Salem at the time of the trials, and the weather in Salem was eerily suitable for the fungus ergot to grow on the rye grain. Caporael later concluded that the girls were suffering from the “hallucinogenic effects of [LSD],” and that they were not being possessed by Satan or any higher power; This explanation also helped clear up why “other young people exhibited the same unconventional symptoms,” and why the “plague” was widespread across …show more content…

The use of spectral evidence is currently illegal in court, in part because of the Salem Witch Trials and how a number of lives were wrongly lost based on flimsy, unverifiable evidence, or lack thereof. Although spectral evidence was used throughout the entire trails, it was challenged by Cotton Mather. He argued that it’s “dubious value,” was not suitable for the courtroom but nobody decided to listen to his thoughts until it was too late (Salem Witch Trials,

Comparing Salem Possessed by Paul Boyer, The Story of the Salem Witch Trials by Bryan Le Beau, and Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol Karlsen
1814 Words | 4 Pages
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 spread just about as fast as the Black Plague. This epidemic caused chaos among neighbors in a community. The chronology of events describes an awful time for colonists from June 10th to September 22nd of that year. The books "Salem Possessed" by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, "The Story of the Salem Witch Trials" by Bryan Le Beau, and "The Devil in the Shape of a Woman" by Carol Karlsen all describe these events and provide varying explanations for the epidemic that plagued Salem Village. This review will look at the facts that surrounded the trials and then using those facts will look at the cause stated in each book for the hysteria to compare and contrast with one another.
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Salem Witches and Ergot of Rye
680 Words | 2 Pages
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. To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into four main sections.
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Salem Witch Trials Essay
597 Words | 2 Pages
More than two hundred years have gone by since the discovery of the new world. People of with all types of backgrounds and problems came flocking over the ocean to start anew. Jamestown, Virginia and Salem, Massachusetts, were very early settlements, and perhaps two of the most known names of colonies. Jamestown was known for many things, including Bacon’s Rebellion. And Salem was known for one reason, the Salem Witch Trials. These two pieces of history reflect the tensions of the unstable society and of their beliefs.
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Th Marion Starkey's The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692
2103 Words | 5 Pages
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of trials held before a magistrate which took place in many parts of Massachusetts, revolving around what was thought to be practice of witchcraft or “Devil’s magic.” Many girls from the town of Salem, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris in particular, falsely accused other townsfolk of possessing them or practicing witchcraft. The government officials of this town believed that the girls were telling the truth about what they claimed to have seen/know and their random outbursts caused by this “demonic possession” or having a spell put on them. This scam led on by a couple of teenage girls ultimately ended up taking the lives of 20 people before it was demanded to stop by higher Massachusetts government officials and the cases were proved as a mistake. Since then, many psychologists, philosophers, and historians have tried to figure out the motive of the teenage girls.
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Primary Sources for the Salem Witch Trials
1715 Words | 4 Pages
The Salem Trials took place between the 10th of June and the 22nd of 1692 and in this time nineteen people. In addition to this one man was pressed to death and over 150 people where sent to jail where four adult and one infant died. Although when compared to other witch-hunts in the Western world, it was ‘a small incident in the history of a great superstition,’ but has never lost its grip on our imagination’ . It’s because of this that over the last three centuries many historians have analysed the remaining records of the trials in order to work out what the causes and events were that led to them.
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Causes of the Salem Witch Trials
2019 Words | 5 Pages
Witchcraft has been present in many other religions, not only the Puritan religion. Witchcraft was also found in Catholic and Protestant parts of Europe. The Salem Witch Trials were smaller in comparison to those in Scotland, France, or Germany (Hall 3). Though the trials in Salem were smaller, people recognize the Salem Witch Trials as one of the worst times in American history (“Witch Madness” 4). The Puritans believed that the Devil was alive in their community (“Witch Madness” 2). The accusations started in February 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts when young Puritan girls were found using magic. The Salem Witch Trials began when Betty Paris, Abigail Williams, and some of their friends began to act strange with odd fits (Hall 1). Because many mental and emotional disorders were not understood, the people of Salem believed it was the work of witchcraft. When sickness or even misfortune came, the most
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Essay On The Salem Witch Trials
1765 Words | 4 Pages
According to Jones, modern estimates suggest perhaps 100,000 trials took place between 1450 and 1750, with an estimated execution total ranging between 40,000 and 50,000. This death toll was so great because capital punishment was the most popular and harshest punishment for being accused of witchcraft. Fear of the unknown was used to justify the Puritans contradictive actions of execution. Witch trials were popular in this time period because of religious influences, manipulation through fear, and the frightening aspects of witchcraft.
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Causes Of The Salem Witch Trials
1230 Words | 3 Pages
Ultimately, the Salem witch trials were the result of ergot poisoning, superstition, and a pre-existing socioeconomic rivalry, which propelled the events of the witch trials into infamy. Ergot poisoning and superstition left the residents of Salem Village in no doubt that witchcraft was at work. Because many already questioned the faith of villagers closest to Salem Town, it was not a large leap to assume that they must be doing the Devil’s work.
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Salem Witch Trials: The Salem Witch Trial
946 Words | 2 Pages
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
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Salem Witch Trials Dbq Analysis
797 Words | 2 Pages
First of all, accusers stating spectral evidence is one example of the unfairness of the trials. Spectral evidence is evidence accusing someone’s apparition while their human body was some other place. For instance, one
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Witchcraft : An Epidemic Of The Conspiracy Of Witchcraft
1009 Words | 3 Pages
As we may already know, the town of Salem was subject to an epidemic of the accusations of witchcraft that lasted over ten months. Witchcraft of this time period was not taken lightly. In England alone over 40,000-60,000 people were killed after being found guilty of witchcraft. Needless to say the people found witchcraft as a virus that infected the town. The first cases started off with the daughters of Samuel Parris, the town minister, accusing his slave, Tituba, of being a witch. She claimed that she and others in the town were witches and there was even a wizard. The town broke out in hysteria in further months. Over 100 people were put in jail because of accusations. The council that were to find these people’s innocence or guilt were corrupted as well because to claim innocence meant you were guilty and if you were to claim guilt you could be redeemed. Many of the items found incriminating were pins and voodoo dolls. Many of these people faced the psychological terror of being pressured into claiming guilt to a crime, you didn’t commit in front of a committee and scared the community to death that they were going to be subjected to. Many of the witnesses to these trials were said to have undergone physical distress or act inhumanly. Many historians say to these records that since their body was put under so much strain and fear of the witchcraft that surrounded them all the time, their bodies going through strange changes such as paralysis or temporary blindness with no real cause rather than stress. But many historians also believe the witnesses were voluntarily acting and committing fraud against the others. But why was this such an enigma to understand why this small town in New England was all of a sudden becoming a cen...
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The Salem Witch Trials
2023 Words | 5 Pages
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.
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Witchcraft in Salem
1396 Words | 3 Pages
In the year 1692, the small farming village of Salem, Massachusetts saw a social phenomenon that would propel the village into the history books: the calamity that was witchcraft. The witch trials were initiated whenever three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam were caught performing fortune telling rituals in the woods, trying to gather information on what type of man would be best for them. Soon thereafter, the girls began experiencing hysterical fits, prompting Betty Parris’s father, Reverend Samuel Parris, to call in the authorities to confirm the cause of the girls’ symptoms. ...
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Ergot Poising: The Salem Witch Trials
474 Words | 1 Pages
The witch trials was a chain of events that spiraled from ergot and then onto other things such as a need for a scapegoat, and personal vengeance. In 1692, the people of Salem had suffered from the poising of ergot that was found in rye bread that they often ate. These people, being under the influence of the drug, had starting experiencing hallucinations, formication, and other symptoms. The children who had made the first claim of witch trials, were most vulnerable to the poisoning. As stated in the article, “When eaten, the fungus can cause symptoms, especially in children” (Sullivan 1). The girls were not in their right minds at the time of the claim and had truly thought that their accusation was best in order to keep their town safe from witches. As the poising of
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Essay On Salem Witch Trial
611 Words | 2 Pages
Numerous hypotheses have been devised to explain the strange behavior that occurred in Salem. One of the most concrete studies blamed the abnormal habits of the accused on the fungus ergot, which can be found in rye, wheat, and other cereal grasses. Toxicologists say that eating ergot-contaminated foods can lead to muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions, and hallucinations (alike to the effects of LSD). Also, the fungus thrives in warm and damp climates, not too unlike the swampy meadows in Salem Village, where rye was the staple grain during the spring and summer
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Salem Witch Trials Essay

Comparing Salem Possessed by Paul Boyer, The Story of the Salem Witch Trials by Bryan Le Beau, and Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol Karlsen

Salem Witches and Ergot of Rye