Why salem witch trials happened

Conversion disorder is a mental condition in which the sufferer experiences neurological symptoms which may occur due to a psychological conflict.

Conversion disorder is also collectively known as mass hysteria. Medical sociologist Dr. Robert Bartholomew states, in an article on Boston. Professor Emerson W. Baker also suggests conversion disorder as a possibility in his book A Story of Witchcraft:. Baker goes on to explain that many of the afflicted girls, such as Abigail Hobbs, Mercy Lewis, Susannah Sheldon and Sarah Churchwell, were all war refugees who had previously lived in Maine and had been personally affected by the war to the point were some of them may have been experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome.

In , in an article in the scientific journal Science, Linda R. Ergot is a fungus Claviceps purpurea that infects rye and other cereal grains and contains a byproduct known as ergotamine, which is related to LSD. Ergot tends to grow in warm, damp weather and those conditions were present in the growing season. Not everyone agrees with this theory though. Many experts question the very existence of Artic hysteria, which results in such behavior as people stripping off their clothes and running naked across the wild tundra.

The accounts mention no such streaking in Salem, and while the supposed symptoms of witchcraft began in January, more people showed symptoms in the spring and summer…Encephalitis, the result of an infection transmitted by mosquito bite, does not really seem plausible, given that the first symptoms of bewitchment appeared during winter. None of these suggested diseases fit because a close reading of the testimony suggests that the symptoms were intermittent.

The afflicted had stretches when they acted perfectly normal, intersperse with acute fits. Historical records indicate that witch hunts occur more frequently during cold periods. In her paper, Oster explains that as the climate varied from year to year during this cold period, the higher numbers of witchcraft accusations occurred during the coldest temperatures. Strikingly cold winters and dry summers were common in these decades.

The result was not just personal discomfort but increasing crop failures. Starting in the s, many towns that had once produced an agricultural surplus no longer did so.

Mixed farming began to give way to pastures and orchards. Once Massachusetts had exported foodstuffs; by the s it was an importer of corn, wheat, and other cereal crops. Several scholars have noted the high correlation between eras of extreme weather in the Little Ice Age and outbreaks of witchcraft in Europe; Salem continues this pattern. Salem was very divided due to disagreements between the villagers about local politics, religion and economics.

One of the many issues that divided the villagers was who should be the Salem Village minister. Salem Village had gone through three ministers in sixteen years, due to disputes over who was deemed qualified enough to have the position, and at the time of the trials they were arguing about the current minister Samuel Parris.

Rivalries between different families in Salem had also begun to sprout up in the town as did land disputes and other disagreements which was all coupled with the fact that many colonists were also uneasy because the Massachusetts Bay Colony had its charter revoked and then replaced in with a new charter that gave the crown much more control over the colony. In their book Salem Possessed, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum attribute the witch trials to this political, economic, and religious discord in Salem Village:.

Boyer and Nissenbaum go on to provide examples, such as the fact that Daniel Andrew and Philip English were accused shortly after they defeated one of the Putnams in an election for Salem Town selectmen. They also point out that Rebecca Nurse was accused shortly after her husband, Francis, became a member of a village committee that took office in October of that was vehemently against Salem Village minister Samuel Parris, whom the Putnams were supporters of.

Charles Upham suggested this as a major cause and Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum have provided a brilliant analysis of the Salem community to support that argument. Indian warfare and the uncertainties related to the arrival of a new charter and new Governor in the two years before the witchhunt also added to the level of social stress.

But other towns in frontier Massachusetts that experienced the same socio-economic-political difficulties did not spark a similar witchscare. Several communities suffering from less stress did suffer from contact with Salem as the witchscare virus spread. This contagion too was a unique aspect of the episode. Baker suggests though that fraud may have been a bigger problem in the witch trials than we realize:. Not surprisingly, there is no agreement on the answer.

Most historians acknowledge that some fakery took place at Salem. Roach Jul 22, Salem Witch Museum. The Witch House. Witch Dungeon Museum. Witch History Museum. Witch Trials Memorial. Salem Witch Trials of This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.

Cookie Settings Read More Accept. Manage consent. Raids from local Native American tribes who themselves felt under threat from the colonists remained a danger to colonial settlements, the fear of which is hinted at in the court records from the witch trials. It was not only human forces that may have exacerbated stress levels in Salem, but environmental ones too. The witch trials came at the tail end of an especially cold period of the Little Ice Age , characterised by freezing winters and cool wet summers that led to bad harvests.

Some historians have linked the hardships this caused to the explosion of witch trials in Europe. The exposed colonial settings only intensified threats posed by poor weather, and colonists would surely have been aware of other settlements suffering badly from shortages of food and resources.

First established by religious radicals in search of a New Jerusalem, Salem was a settlement founded on strong Puritan ideals. One aspect of its theology that played a role here was its emphasis on biblical literalism.

By the s, they still felt under threat as French Catholics encroached ever closer to Puritan settlements and the religious zeal of the initial settlers had become diluted by generational change. It was a very binary way of thinking. Each church member was expected to pursue an austere lifestyle founded on moral rigour, creating an atmosphere of heightened moral awareness in which the need to monitor and police the behaviours of neighbours increased.

Many of those hauled up before the Court of Oyer and Terminer were already well-versed in the workings of the legal system. Indeed, several of those executed had been involved in previous conflicts and legal proceedings.

Giles Corey — who would end up being pressed to death by stones — had beaten a farmhand to death, while Bridget Bishop, the first to hang, had previously been in court on charges of theft and witchcraft.

The mud clearly stuck. Although Burroughs had not lived in the settlement for nine years by the time that accusations erupted in , 30 people testified at his trial, denouncing him as a wife-murderer who presided over satanic baptisms.

Yet not everyone accused matched the profile of neighbourhood antagonist — some were well-respected members of the community. Magistrates reportedly expressed surprise when the god-fearing Martha Corey was named as a suspect, and several people signed a petition in defence of the elderly Rebecca Nurse, refusing to believe that the matriarch from a prosperous family could possibly be an agent of Satan.

Neither was saved from the gallows. Of the 19 people hanged for witchcraft in Salem, 14 were women. As such, the witch hunt has sometimes been framed as a way for the community to root out difficult women. Some of the accused could be seen to fit into this mould, such as the homeless Sarah Good, who was said to have cursed those who did not help her when she came begging, and Sarah Osborne, who made enemies through legal disputes.