Alternative Explanations of Witch Behaviors During the Salem Witch Trials By: Chloe Lindner In 1692, a group of girls were accused of performing witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts. After the first accusations were made, more than 200 men, women, and children were convicted. The colonists believed the strange behavior of the accused to be the result of demonic possession and other supernatural forces. However, modern investigation suggests that the abnormal actions of the “witches” were due to factors such as ergot poisoning, boredom, encephalitis or mass psychogenic illness (MSI). Evidence also suggests that neither of these causes acted alone but rather in combination with each other. In January of 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts,
Truth Untold: Unraveling the Salem Witch Hunts through Marc Aronson Marc Aronson uses this his book, Witch-HUNT: Mysteries of the Salem witch trials, to unravel and debunk myths surrounding the events of the Salem witch hunts and replace them with plausible theories based on evidence. Aronson relays that the modern ideas on the events of the witch trials and what may have happened are often wrong and the perpetrators of those pies used them to over stimulate the imaginations of those who were to believe these tales. The Salem Witch Hunts that are referred to by Aronson’s book are the hunts and trials that took place between February 1692 through May of 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. In a time of lawlessness or anarchy in
The Salem Witch Trails of 1692 began in Salem Village, Massachusetts, when the minister's daughter and niece started complaining about strange pinching, prickling sensations, knifelike pains, and the feeling of being strangled. Soon when a lot other kids started showing these symptoms, the doctors concluded that witchcraft is responsible for them. It was proven that witchcraft did exist because the scripture mentions it. When they forced the girls to name the witches, they named three people. These were called the witch trials.
The Salem Witch Trial is a historically located incident stirred by the accusations of an Indian slave woman, named Tituba, who confessed to the practice of witchcraft under the pressure and physical force of colonial slave owners in 1692. She escaped execution, unlike many accused women, because of her ability to acclimate to the culture and society of her oppressors. In Breslaw’s portrait of Tituba’s life starting with her ambiguous Amerindian-Caribbean roots, she shows how Tituba’s first step in acclimating to British-colonial society was to force her mother tongue to take a backseat to the language introduced and enforced by English colonizers who captured “American Indians to sell as slaves in Barbados” for the purpose of providing slave labor to British colonies in
In 1692, A town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village became known for one most documented cases of mass hysteria in history. This saga started with three girls: Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Parris, and Ann Putnam a neighborhood friend. Abigail Williams, the niece of the town’s minister, began to display weird and questionable behavior. The town’s physician,William Greggs, was called to determine the cause of this sporadic behavior. The town’s physician determined that the three girls were under “the Devil’s influence” and they had been bewitched.
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.
Hysteria During the salem Witch Trials in February 1692 and May 1693 there was a serious case of mass Hysteria. It started when a group of young girls were seen dancing in the woods and claimed to be possessed by the devil, and accused several other women in the town of practicing witchcraft (MacGowan, Douglas). At this time in the village many people had uncontrollable emotion because they were scared of the people that were accused of being witches, and of someone accusing them of being a witch. During this time of mass Hysteria if you were accused of being a witch, or practicing witchcraft you were going to be hung.
The Shadow of the Fear of the Unknown In the midst of the Protestant Reformation, families seeking a religious haven emigrated to America with new ideas that would come to shape their communities into prosperous societies. However, they were often afraid of others who they believed would try to ruin their success, creating a fear of the unknown as they accused their neighbors of unprovable claims. The suspicion continued to affect the lives of Americans throughout the development of the American identity, from international events such as the Cold War to smaller-scale court cases. While the conditions at which tendencies to incriminate a member of society have evolved since colonial times, the impulse to incriminate based on a fear of the unknown
The Causes of the Salem Witch Trials Much of modern America’s fear and infamous interest in witches has been derived most likely from the profound Salem Witch Trials. “The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft,” stated History.com authors. However, many historians still deliberate how such events occurred in the first place. Based on several presented documents, some conclusions suggest that there was a prominent cause to the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. All in all, the cause of the Salem Witch Trials was the attempt of Salem citizens to either defend or create family
Nearly anyone from the New England has heard of the famous Salem Witch Trials. A year of persecution, leading to the accusation of nearly 200 citizens of all ages. No one was safe; men, women, children, even pets stood trial and 20 were hung for the supposed crime of witchcraft (Blumberg). 1692 was a year of witch hunting. Most today blame the trials on hysteria, or perhaps a bad case of paranoia.
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.
Since England had their own witch hunts, it was said that the anxiety spread to New England mainly because of a pamphleteer Cotton Mather. It started early 1692 when the daughter and niece of Salem local minister, Samuel Parris had strange violent convulsions and loud outbursts. The only local doctor of the village which only could read but not write, then concluded that the girls were bewitched. There were three primary “suspected” witches, the minister’s slave Tituba, Sarah Good
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
The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.
The Salem Witch Trials The belief of witchcraft can be traced back centuries to as early as the 1300’s. The Salem Witch Trials occurred during 1690’s in which many members of Puritan communities were accused and convicted of witchcraft. These “witch trials” were most famously noted in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Many believe this town to be the starting point for the mass hysteria which spread to many other areas of New England.
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.