In in the late 1600's, twenty innocent men and women were hanged for practicing witchcraft in the purtian colony of Massachussetts Bay. An old man was pressed to death under heavy rocks for refusing to stand trial. Four others died in jail as they awaited trial. How could a village get caught up in such madness? There are many theories as to what caused this hysteria, all of which come to together to prove that ignorance can be very dangerous.
Strict purtian faith was one cause of the trials.The scare started early in 1692. Several village girls began to behave strangely. They crawled under tables, uttered weird sounds, and screamed that they were being tortured. Puritans believed that any form of peculiar behavior, immoral action, or negativity of any sort was directly associated with Satan. Suspicions of witchcraft soon led to the arrest of three women. More arrests followed.
There is also evidence that the witch trials followed an outbreak of rye ergot. Ergot is a fungus blight that forms hallucinogenic drugs in bread. It thrives in a cold winter followed by a wet spring. The victoms of ergot might suffer paranoia and hallucinations, twitches and spasms, and cardiovascular trouble. This could easily be confused for bewitchment by such an ignorant culture.
Some historians believe a dispute over a local minister, Samuel Parris, led to the witch hunt. Parris received much of his support from the poorer farmers. To them, Parris and the village church represented stability and traditional values. The poorer farmers saw Salem, with its increasingly important merchants, as a threat to their way of life. Parris and his supporters helped lead the witch hunt. Many villagers who opposed Parris or had links with Salem were arrested as witches.
The witchcraft scare lasted about a year. The colony's leading ministers helped stop it. In 1693, the people still in jail on witchcraft charges were freed. This brings me back to the original question.
