How to Understand the Salem Witch Trials

In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, experienced what can only be described (in modern terms) as an outbreak of mass hysteria: the prosecution, and execution, of 20 citizens for the crime of practicing witchcraft. Although the Salem Witch Trials weren’t quite as random or widespread as they’ve become in modern myth, they still stand as one of the oddest events in early American history. Here’s a brief explanation.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Salem was in a precarious condition. Early in 1692, a town not far from Salem was massacred by Indians, putting the population on edge. Also, Salem was subject to the daily stress of any frontier farming community: large families, limited resources and uncertain weather. Finally, the citizens’ Puritan heritage predisposed them to looking for “signs” and believing in the active intervention of God and Satan.

2. The daughter and niece of the town’s minister fell ill. One fateful day, 9-year-old Betty Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams experienced epileptic-type fits including screaming and writhing on the floor. They also complained of being pricked with invisible needles. A doctor was summoned. He claimed to find nothing physically wrong with the girls (keep in mind the state of medical knowledge in the 17th century).

3. Three women were accused of “bewitching” Parris and Williams. Since neither Sarah Good nor Sarah Osburne attended church—and weren’t particularly popular to begin with—they naturally attracted suspicion, as did Tituba, the (possibly) Caribbean slave owned by Parris’s father. After these three were interrogated and imprisoned, all hell broke loose: Other Salemites, suffering from (or imitating) the same symptoms, flung accusations far and wide, resulting in the eventual arrest and incarceration of almost 200 people.

4. Sanity was restored a year later. After a series of dramatic trials and executions, mostly by hanging (and not, as popular myth has it, by burning at the stake), the inevitable counterreaction set in, as more level-headed Salemites realized that the accusations of witchcraft had spun out of control. By the start of 1693, most of the remaining prisoners had been released due to insufficient (or nonexistent) evidence.

5. Historians are still trying to figure out what happened. One popular theory, which is by no means accepted by all experts, is that Salem’s grain supply had been infected by ergot, a fungus that causes hallucinations when ingested—while other theories point to an epidemic of encephalitis or even a genetic predisposition to Huntington’s Disease. The most likely explanation for the witch trials, though, is simply mass hysteria, which (as demonstrated by the Satanic sex-abuse day-care trials of the 1980s) is every bit as prevalent today as it was 300 years ago.

[gpcs]

on 1/5/2008 Very well researched, Bob. I'm a MA resident who's always had a HUGE fascination with the Salem witch trials. Did you know that Salem is now a popular destination for Halloween revelers - for the entire month of October? For a lighter side, check out my How to be a "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" fan by George Sommers.
-George