Elexus Smith, Melody Salinas-Zacarias, Lorenzo Valdez Aguilar Mrs.Gann English III Honors April 5, 2023 Ergot Poisoning In 1692, the Salem Witch Trials happened, with eight girls accusing others of witchcraft. The girls acted strange, moving in weird positions, saying they saw things that no one else could, and saying they felt things in their skin. Many theories suggest what could have happened. Some say that they acted or that it was actual witchcraft, but they don’t always seem convincing. There is a fungus called Ergot that could be to blame for this hysteria; both the symptoms that Ergot causes and the girl's experiences are similar. The fungus Ergot mainly grows on and is most likely to grow on opened-pollinated crops because “it allows easy access of the fungus into the flowering head” like rye (“Ergot of Cereals and Grasses | Disease”). If the infected grain is eaten, the most common symptoms are convulsive fits, hallucinations, vomiting, and a prickling sensation under the skin. This was also what the girls did: "They vomited, screamed incomprehensibly, claimed to see things that weren’t …show more content…
The first ones to be affected by witchcraft were Betty, who was 9, and Abigail, who was 11: both showed symptoms of ergot poisoning, and both fit in the age group (Pruitt). It is the same for the other girls; they all have symptoms related to ergot poisoning, and they are all in the same age group. Their guardian Parris was the minister of the town and they took the word of God seriously(Weller 1:05) so they had no reason to fake it because that would go against God, making them sin which was a really bad thing to them. Why would they do something that they knew would go against their faith by choice making it worse, unless it was
In January 1692, Abigail and Betty began to have fits, violent contortions, and screamed. The local doctor believed they were bewitched and soon afterwards, other young girls also began to have similar symptoms. Abigail and Betty accused Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborn for bewitching them. Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn refused to confess meanwhile Tituba confessed and claimed that there were other witches working with the devil. The hysteria began to spread and other young girls began to have fits and accused even the outstanding members of the community such as Rebecca Nurse of being witches.
Salem Witch Trials During the spring of 1692 a group of girls in Salem Village claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several women to be performing witchcraft.(History) Also a young 9 year old Elizabeth and a 11 year old Abigail in January in 1692 started having fits. They took this issue to a local doctor who diagnosed them with bewitchment. (History)
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in Massachusetts are historically known as the tragic event where many people were accused of witchcraft and 19 of those innocent individuals were found guilty and then executed. These individuals were accused by a group of young girls that claimed that they were ‘bewitched"or possessed by the devil. These girls were experiencing symptoms such as hallucinations, convulsions, etc. Doctors then could not diagnose this, so they turned to blame it on witchcraft. In 1976, Linnda Caporael, who is a historian, developed a theory that ergot poisoning was the cause of the Salem Witch Trials.
Part of those reasons being, “the actions of the girls in the courtroom during examinations and trials when the girls fell into their fits based on the movements of the accused which caused them to cry out names” (Howlett.) As well as others turning to the work of Arthur Miller The Crucible for direction of what happened during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. They think as John Proctor states in the play “They‘re pretending!”(Mr.) Even though many theories say differently Ergot is one of the only reasonable explanations for the way that the accused had been acting. There was no other medical reason during that time and even when they were inspected by doctors they found nothing.
The trials took place in 1692 when a small group of girls fell ill, becoming privy to hallucinations and seizures without any medical reason. In the overly religious community of Puritans, such random occurrences were often attributed to acts of the devil or his minions. This uncaused illness spread among countless young girls and furthered fears of witchcraft in the community. Eventually, the afflicted girls in order to escape blame accused the other residents of Salem of consorting with the devil. This
Mystery Mania: Research Essay The Salem Witch trials were known as the largest witch trial in history. At that time, supernatural beings and Satan were considered part of everyday life, so when an epidemic of fits of madness broke out within the nation, mostly targeting young girls, people began to panic and blamed all this on the practice of black magic. A total of about two-dozen people were trialed and executed. But was it really because of witchcraft that people were having fits, and what were the strange sightings around the town of Salem?
Ergot poisoning mostly affected women and children with effects of skin crawling, tingling in the fingers, and mania to name a few. But very similar to what the “witches” were going through. The town of Salem was bored at this time in history. They didn't have any TVs, no government, they read all the books, and there was not much to do in Salem.
Contrary to popular belief, the Salem Witch Trials should not be solely attributed to demonic ‘possession’, but rather a harmful pathogen: Ergot of Rye. There are many questions as to what actually occurred in the Massachusetts colony during this time. History.com identifies one of the main problems by claiming that that girls were
This illness was like no other. It made the girls scream and try to climb under chairs, tables, and even up walls. The girls would hallucinate and feel weird sensations of tingling and things crawling under their skin. After they both were examined witchcraft was determined to be the cause. This was because the doctors in the 1600-1800s were extremely uneducated and when symptoms didn't make sense they would blame it on witchcraft.
Even though the Salem Witch Trials began in Massachusetts in the 1600s, the fear of witches and witchcraft existed long before then. There was a witchcraft craze in Europe, lasting approximately from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s and resulting in the deaths of thousands (Blumberg, 2007). The Salem Witch Trials began in January 1692 when Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter, Elizabeth, and niece, Abigail, began exhibiting strange behavior. Another girl by the name of Ann Putnam Jr. started exhibiting similar behaviors around the same time. The girls would scream, throw things, utter strange noises, and contort themselves into unnatural positions, and the local doctor blamed the girls’ behavior on the supernatural.
The girls soon began to bring in other girls to play with them, curious to see what their social status could be (“The “Afflicted””). The notorious Salem Witch Trials began when Abigail, Betty, and others became ill and Dr William Griggs diagnosed the girls of being under a dark hold (Yost). The girls began to accuse older, more vulnerable, women of intoxicating them with dark magic. Williams herself filed a total of 41 complaints accusing others of witchcraft, testified in seven cases, and was involved in seventeen capital cases (Yost). Abigail moved on from accusing the lowly outcasts of Puritan society to the more influential and respected men and women.
Mental Illness in Salem Witch Trials Introduction Witchcraft is the practice of magic and the use of spells and the invocation of spirits. According to Salem Witch Trials, 2015, the Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts claimed to have been bewitched by several adults in the town. More than 150 people were accused and hung, including men, women, and children (Salem Witch Trials, 2015). There were three girls in particular that sparked the trials: Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and Ann Putnam. Also stated in Salem Witch Trials, their behaviors changed drastically; they began to hallucinate, shout in church, have fits, not eat, not wake up, attempt to fly, and feel as if they
Modern theories suggest epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, mental illness, and a disease from rye, called convulsive ergotism. Most were killed, but it wasn 't just girls. Men were accused too, just not as much. If someone had so much
The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.
Galen Baker History of Witchcraft Professor Amanda Frantz-Mamani April 24, 2023 The Witch [film]: Hysteria Hysteria played a vital role in the tragedies seen during the events of the Salem Witch Trials, and such acts were a sure thing that led to the events in the movie The Witch [film]. Especially coupled with the extreme ostracization and isolation the family endured, the movie shows the ease with which events like the one seen in the movie may have played out. What began as an innocent rouse with the eldest daughter, Thomason, and the youngest daughter, Mercy, ended with accusations and murder. The Witch [film] exemplifies how explainable events, isolation, and ignorance may persist and manifest into hysteria, which was often seen during