In the Summer months of 1692, twenty-four innocent alleged witches and wizards had been hung, pressed to death, or died in jail in Salem, Massachusetts. However, what caused the mass hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials? Puritans based their life strictly on religion and the Bible in which they had no free time, education, and felt pressured just to be alive; the citizens were fearful of their future, causing their religion to overpower scientific and mathematical reasoning. In June 1692, two young Salem girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, accused slave woman Tituba and two other white women of practicing witchcraft after Betty and Abigail began to exhibit strange behavior. Tituba confessed to practicing witchcraft and exclaimed that …show more content…
However, ergot bacteria most likely affected the grains the children ate, explaining why they were acting strangely, not witchcraft. Puritans planted cereal grains as a food supply and ergot is a parasitic fungus which grows on a large surplus of the grains. The swampy, marshy conditions of Massachusetts also was an ideal place for bacteria like ergot to spread. Ergotism or ergot poisoning is a condition for eating the infected rye and is most apparent in children. According to Caporael, who wrote about ergotism in Salem stated, “Ergotism is characterized by a number of symptoms. These include crawling sensations in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, hallucinations, mania, melancholia, psychosis, and delirium.” All these behaviors and symptoms were alluded to Betty, Abigail, and other citizens who thought their symptoms were due to witchcraft. In addition, Salem court records of the alleged witch deaths indicates that all the hangings took place in the Summer months,the same time as the “infected” rye was harvested. The fungus could affect one population of crops and could show up one year and not the next, indicating why the Puritans turned to witchcraft instead of a disease. Ergotism or Ergot poisoning symptoms the children of Salem conceived lead to the accusing and hanging of alleged witches because …show more content…
Puritans believed in predestination, the idea that God elects before birth who will go to heaven or hell. In daily life, they would look for signs to help figure out their destiny. As claimed by Matteson whose purpose of painting was to portray the examination of the witch, depicts that even a skin flap or a witch's tit would be a symbol the Puritans would use to clarify if one's a witch. Samuel Parris, a Puritan father of one of the afflicted girls wrote, “Then she turned up her eyes, and the eyes off the afflicted were turned up.” Parris’s words portrayed how Puritans accusers would find anything that would make the accused witch guilty. To add, Puritans were fundamentalists; they believed that every word in the Bible was the true word of God. For example, they hung witches because they believed that was what God had wanted. Exodus 22:18, King James’s version of the Bible, the scripture Puritans read and lived by, includes the quote, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The quote was interpreted literally by the Puritans leading them to want to hang all alleged witches. Moreover, Puritans also strongly believed in Satan and believed that the devil could unwillingly enter the body of a weak-willed person leading them to become a witch. Cotton Mather, an influential Puritan minister stated to his Puritan
Witches were said to be a form of Satan, and God has his constant worship to undergo annoyance of the evil spirits. In Exodus 22:18 it states how the Puritans have strong point to prosecute witches from what it says in the Bible. Another cause of the prosecution of people for witchcraft is suspicious acts from the adolescent girls. Abigail and Betty wanted to know their fortunes for the future from Tituba.
There was agitation for what was to come for the colony; everything was strained in aspects of the government, and to add to that, witches were perceived, consequently heightening the hysteria. The colonists became to believe that the devil was accountable for all the hardships they faced. [] Tensions within the colony were so severe that in 1692, Salem was basically dry kindling waiting for a spark to ignite it. The spark was the first appearance of witchcraft in the colony, which began “in Salem… in January of 1692 with a group of young girls” (Brooks). The girls went through the typical states of hysteria, “starting with a preliminary phase of anxious self-reflection or worrying about their “sins”, which led to the onset phase, which is characterized by fainting, wailing, and broken speech.
“What caused the Salem Witch Craft Trials of 1692?” This question has been asked for nearly 323 years. Although it is a rather simple question, it does not have a simple answer. The answer is difficult in light of the fact that there are a variety of factors and events that helped create the trials. One aspect of understanding that may have been a factor in the Salem incident, is that the afflicted girls had mental illnesses at the time, causing them to hallucinate and falsely accuse other women of being witches.
They mostly ate food like rye, which was able to grow fungus called ergot. This fungi may have affected the so-called witches. In particular, History Lists states, “If eaten, the fungus can cause hallucinations and convulsions similar to those that were reported to be experienced by the allegedly bewitched girls. And according to Linnda Caporael, professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who introduced the ergot poisoning theory, all the conditions were right for the ergot spread just before the Witch Trials.” The effects of ergot in the rye was similar to the symptoms of the “victims.” of witches.
Mary Warren, John Proctor, and Abigail William are they real? Was the play “The Crucible” really based off the hysteria of the salem witch trial? Back in late 1700s a hysteria of a witch trials broke out in Salem Massachusetts. I believe that the the crucible is based on the real hysteria of the salem witch trials because the puritans tried to live their life as the bible told them so, a special court was called to accuse people, and some people for the book “the crucible were real. Puritans followed, and believed everything the bible said.
“Hysteria is only possible with an audience” (Palahniuk). Without an audience, hysteria is not possible. A fear or rumor is struck into people through a phenomenon, making people feel threatened. With mass hysteria, people pour out information due to the threatening feelings going around. Mass hysteria is like pouring gasoline on a fire, it makes it burn hotter and get out of control.
Salem Witch Trials of 1692 The Salem Witch Trials were a terrible time in the early days of American History. The Puritan villagers were frightened about losing their new home due to starvation, Indians, and illness. Fear allowed the trials to happen. The puritans began to lose control of the strict religious tenant that brought them here to the new land.
The Puritans believed that the Devil would “enter a normal person’s body and turn that person into a witch... [who] could make all kinds of trouble” (Background Essay). Reverend Samuel Parris’s daughter and niece accused Tituba, a slave, of witchcraft. She confessed to practicing witchcraft, so her life was saved. However, this caused the undeniable fear of witches in the town.
Puritans are a people with a very strong belief in both God and the power of God. When people see power, they interpret it in different ways. Some know of power through anger and impulse, while others see power through the goodness the powerful one shows. Although Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are both puritan poets, their writings convey mainly different, though sometimes similar, views on God because they have different perceptions of His will and the use of His power. Anne Bradstreet listens to and accepts anything that God wishes, and that is shown through her poem Upon the Burning of my House.
Therefore, if anyone saw a ghost or spirit in the form of the accused, the person must be a witch. It is believed by the Puritans, “that the Devil only had a short amount of time left in which to turn people against God, and due to the various difficulties in the community,
Many innocent people died in the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. If you were accused of being a witch or one with the devil, you would be sentenced to death or put in prison. The only one to blame for the deaths of the individuals is the Puritan Society. Without their absent minds, none of the deaths would have happened. The Puritan Society is very religious, therefore they believed strongly in going to church and most importantly in God.
Science, April 2, 1976. “The children 's symptoms appeared in December 1691… Two afflicted girls, the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, ( a minister) … Two thirds of Parris’ salary was paid in provisions…” The fungus was found in rye bread and if you ate it you would get ergot poisoning and you would get the symptoms and would be accused of being a witch.
Giles Corey, an innocent man, was crushed by large rocks and killed for refusing a trial and confession. Rebecca Nurse, a highly respected church member, was hung for not supplying a guilty plea. These two people are examples of the many guiltless folks who were hung during the salem witchcraft trials of 1692. This era of time is engraved in american history for its unreasonable assumptions, massive amounts of fear and insane trials based on invisible evidence. The salem witchcraft trials began swiftly and just kept running until people were accusing neighbors and even family members left and right.
I think it is wrong to live with a lie, than die with the truth. The Salem witch trials of 1692 were filled with lies and truths. Because no one wanted to die they lied so they could live and not have a good name, than the ones telling the truth and dying for that truth. I agree with Increase Mather when he said “It would better that ten suspected witches may escape than one innocent person be condemned.” John Proctor said “Because it is my name!
Religion was a very strong influence in the lives of Puritans as they followed a very strict moral code and based their entire lives on their faith. Most Puritans were taught from the Bible that "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Doc. A), which explains why the witch scare was taken so seriously and why the accused were punished so harshly. They believed and feared that "evil spirits were all around" (Doc. C) as noted in Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions by Cotton Mather, who at that time was a reputable expert in the "invisible world. " It seems strange to 21st-century dwellers that people believed that witches could be identified by marks of the devil, as portrayed in an 1853 painting by T.H. Matteson (Doc. D).