Zara Gottschalk

The Truth about the Salem Witch Trials?

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts.  This turn of events affected so many people’s lives, and the events were quite significant.  People were brought to trial because certain girls claimed to be ‘afflicted’ by witches.  These witches were hanged and imprisoned.  One questions the reason that people at that time so strongly believed that so many people in this town were actually witches and whether or not the girls actually were truly afflicted or if they were lying.  Were the woman accused really and truly witches?  What factors in this community made it possible for the situation to get so out of hand that even fathers and daughters were calling their wives and mothers witches?  Why did such catastrophic events occur?  Researchers have assessed the events and the evidence of what occurred from all angles, and they have postulated many theories as to what was really happening in Salem to cause such disruptive turn of events.

According to researchers, this turn of events started when two girls, Elizabeth and Abigail Williams, started interacting with Tituba, a slave that belonged to their family.  Apparently, Tituba had been trying to tell the girls their future by means of a crystal ball that was created by “dropping an egg into a bowl of water” (Gragg 54).  According to a clergyman at the time, the girls started acting very strangely after this incident.  He said that the girls declared that they “were bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, necks, and backs turned this way and that way, and returned back again, so as it was impossible for them to do themselves, and beyond the power of any epileptic fits, or natural disease to effect” (Gragg 55).  As a result, the girls started to blame members of the community, especially women, of being witches.

One researcher, Mary K. Matossian speculates that the cause of the symptoms of the girls was convulsive ergotism.  This disease is caused by the consumption of rye that has a fungus, Claviceps purpurea or ergo, growing on it (Matossian 355).  According to Matossian, symptoms of ergo are “a slight giddiness, a feeling of frontal pressure in the head, fatigue, depression, nausea with or without vomiting, and pains in the limbs and lumbar region that make walking difficult.  In more severe cases the symptoms are formication (a feeling that ants are crawling under the skin), coldness of the extremities, muscle twitching, and tonic spasms of the limbs, tongue, and facial muscles” (Matossian 355).  The person can also suffer from epileptiform convulsions as well as increased appetite, paralysis, involuntary movement of the body, and an inability to talk.  Ergo can cause death, and animals can also get it, too (Matossian 355).

According to Matossian, some of the symptoms could have been present in the girls, but not mentioned in court because they would not have been deemed as evidence of witchcraft.  In addition, she notes that three people and many cows passed away (Matossian 356).  Unless those three people and those animals died from natural causes, this is pertinent evidence that something was actually wrong with the children.  Also, Matossian says that the ergo thrives in cold weather; according to diarists, the growing season for the rye in 1690, 1691, and 1692 was much cooler than usual.  Also, the increase in population as well as the lack of other foods that were unable to grow may have contributed to the fact that people were eating a lot more rye.  Pelka confirms this notion by saying that in 1691-1692, Massachusetts “faced another year of harsh weather and poor crops (Pelka 5).

In addition, this fungus grows best on newly cultivated soil, and the farmers at that time had been planting on new land that “was most likely to [be] infected with ergot.  All 22 of the Salem households affected in 1692 were located on or at the edge of soils ideally suited to rye cultivation: moist, acid, sandy, loams” (Matossian 357).  Also, it is significant to note that apparently, after everyone who was suspected of being a witch had been imprisoned, the symptoms shown by the victims did not go away.  Apparently, children started to experience even more symptoms and the number of children who were not well escalated (Gragg 57). 

Pelka suggests that the symptoms portrayed by the girls were a result of “hysteria or conversion reaction” which is due to “the girls’anxiety over being discovered, their guilt at keeping secrets from their elders” (Pelka 6).  Pelka says that Dr. Judith Lewis Herman confirms her theory by describing similar symptoms in her book that portrays children who have been tormented or sexually abused (Pelka 6).  One wonders if, perhaps, Tituba was guilty of this and hurt the girls in this way. 

However, there were rumors in the village that some of the people who claimed to be ‘afflicted’ were not really and truly suffering and were accusing people and exhibiting symptoms for other reasons.  One man, Daniel Elliot said on trial that he had overheard one of the victims say “she did it for sport they must have some sport” (Gragg 59).  Mary Warren stated that “her head was distempered” when she made accusations, and she said, “when she was well again she could not say that she saw any of [the] apparitions at the time aforesaid (Gragg 59).

Also, another researcher, Watson further shows how it is plausible the girls could have been lying.  Apparently, during the trials, “[w]hen the witch shifted her feet, the girls shifted their feet.  When she clenched her fingers, the girls cried that they were pinched.  When she bit her lip, they screamed, bled and showed tooth marks” (Watson 120).  This occurred during Martha Corey’s trial (Watson 120).  This description of what happened really makes it seem like the girls were acting in response to cues and faking their ‘affliction.’ 

According to another researcher who is well respected in his field, Chadwick Hansen, Salem was the home of witches.  He supports his claim with the fact that witchcraft was prevalent in New England in the 17^th century as well as in other countries of the world.  He says the symptoms the girls presented were happening because they were really and truly cursed.  He claims that Sarah Good, one of the very first women to be accused was definitely a witch.  Bridget Bishop had a cellar “filled with pin-stuck puppets,” and “Mammy” Red enjoyed casting a spell where her victims could no longer relieve their bladders (Kauffman 50).  There is no evidence that truly condemns Tituba, but Hansen does suspect she may have been a witch, too (Kauffman 50).  The fact that she was involved with the very first victims to be known to have ‘afflictions’ adds some credibility to these suspicions.  Perhaps, not everyone who was found guilty was really and truly a witch, but perhaps, a select few actually practiced witchcraft.  The fact that a similar incident like the Salem Witch Trials occurred in Europe many years beforehand, also leads one to question whether some of the accusations are legitimate (Kauffman 50).

According to Fred Pelka, Chadwick Hansen also insinuates that the actions of the afflicted were very real and were not faked.  Also, another researcher, Karlsen affirms this perspective; he says that these girls were under harsh enough conditions to push them into this psychological state that caused them to behave so unnaturally.  He says their ‘afflictions’ were “an act of rebellion against the [Puritan] theocracy” (Pelka 8).  Also, it is known that girls in Puritan society were subjected to “near slavery and punished with whipping, banishment, and even death” (Pelka 8).

Salem was undergoing a period where an incident like the Salem Witch Trials was most likely to happen.  According to Pelka, the Puritans felt most threatened because now non-Puritans had a say in government.  They tried to enforce a lifestyle that according to Sally Smith Booth was “closely regulated by church dogma (Pelka 5).  People could not be openly warm and affectionate towards other humans and animals, and they could not engage in “games, dancing, social gatherings, and physical recreation (Pelka 5).  This probably undermined any sense of camaraderie and a feeling of being united in a community and one can see how this could lead people to be so cruel to each other.  During the trials, people were hung, and one person was actually tortured.  The people “ordered Sheriff George Corwin to pile great weights upon” a man named Giles Corey (Gragg 59).  This act off torture is abominable.

According to Watson, the reason the Salem Trials occurred is because of a lack of harmony in Salem had been already happening.  Before the trials, Salem was divided between Salem Town and Salem Village; Salem Village was not doing well because it had no government.  One of the villagers in this village said, “brother is against brother and neighbors [are] against neighbors, all quarreling and smiting one another” (Watson 121).  Salem Town was harmonious because it was regulated by government and so people were more stable there.   Historians Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum affirm agreement with Watson’s perspective because they say, “Salem was an inner city on a hill” (Watson 121).

Pelka claims that “the history of witchhunting is primarily a history of the oppression of woman” (Pelka 7).  She says that Puritans like Europeans who had led witchhunts in the past had the same fears of women, disdain for them, and a desire to use them as scapegoats (Pelka 6).  During the Salem Witch Trials, the colony was filled with woman were poor and widowed which made it even more likely to see them as dispensable and as a threat (Pelka 6).  Not only were woman persecuted but so were the Quakers, people with disabilities and illnesses, and most of the people who were poor (Pelka 6).  In addition, newborns that were deformed were looked at as evil (Pelka 6).  Those who were persecuted that were well off and well respected by the community were only a select few and their trials were infamous because of that.  George Burroughs, Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse are the few who were infamously accused (Gragg 59).  Portraying the Salem Witch Trials in this light makes the events seem akin to what happened during the Holocaust when Hitler tried to ‘purify’ society.  It seems the Puritans were doing the same.  Perhaps, this became a subconscious intention of the entire community.   In addition, Klaits supports these claims by saying those “indicted and tried as ‘for the most part nonconformists, newcomers, or individuals who…exhibited a lack of deference…people of ill repute” (Pelka 9).

The truth about all aspects of the Salem Witch Trials will probably always remain a mystery because there is not enough evidence to make it apparent as to why these events occurred.  It seems probable that there may have really and truly been witches and that some of the girls who were ‘afflicted’ may have been suffering from ergo.  It is also a possibility that prior events in Europe and the state of destitution and lack of harmony in the village may have instigated the events.  The events may have blown out of proportion due to the human nature of the people residing there as well as the unanimity that must have existed before the events occurred.  Hopefully, future generations in America can learn something from these events to prevent such harmful acts from happening to innocent people in the future.  People can learn to look at all perspectives and evidence before drawing conclusions that lack the support of real proof.  Perhaps, one day, people will really and truly know if they live amongst real witches.  Maybe witches are good and bad and can help and hurt people.

Works Cited

Grag, Larry. “Under an Evil Hand.” American History Illustrated 27 (March/April 1992): 55-59.

Kauffman, Bill. “Salem: The Case for the Prosecution.” American Enterprise (Jul/Aug2001): Vol. 12 Issue 5, p50, 1p.

Matossian, Mary K. “Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair: An outbreak of a type of food poisoning known as convulsive ergotism may have led to the 1692 accusations of the witchcraft.” American Scientist (July/August 1982): Vol. 70 Issue 4, p355. 3p.

Pelka, Fred. “The ‘Women’s Holocaust’.” Humanist 52 (September 1992); 5-11.

Watson, B. “Salem’s Dark Hour: Did the Devil Make Them Do It?” Smithsonian (April 1992): Vol. 23 Issue 1, p116, 14p.