The Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem By Rosalyn Scanzer

In the book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, Rosalyn Schanzer discusses an outbreak of witch accusations in the little town of Salem, Massachusetts in late 1692. People were accusing friends, enemies, and even family members of being witches and plotting evil schemes with the devil. No one was safe anymore. If a person were to be accused, they were stuck in a stinky, grubby jail where they were pelted with never-ending questions. But it didn’t really matter what they said or did, their fate was sealed. One can conclude that the witch accusations were caused by revenge, boredom, and a pandemic-like spreading of symptoms. First of all, revenge is one of the top reasons for the witch trials. For example, the Nurses and Putnams, two very rich families, had gotten in a malicious legal battle

Betty Parris and Abigail Williams were some of the few people that might have actually been significantly sick. “Mrs. Parris had been worried sick about her daughter Betty’s fits and absolutely refused to keep using the child to find witches (122).” Conceivably, the disease could have spread, causing a convulsion throughout Salem Village. Parris and Williams were most likely suffering from delirium because they were dehydrated. The water supply of Salem, MA in the late 1600s was pretty low, because of the 600 residents and the growing amount of farmers. Mr. and Mrs. Parris were rapt about Betty’s condition, so they “Sent Betty off… to live with Stephen Sewall, Parris’s distant cousin. Most of Betty’s symptoms stopped practically right away, but not all of them (122).” in March 1692. There, she was probably able to get a sustainable amount of water to regain the restitution of her body and mind, Abigail wasn’t as lucky. “She never did fully recover from the fits she had suffered and was no older than 17 when she died