Brief Summary Of 'The Salem Witch Trials'

The Salem Witch Trials "When the lines between reality and delusion become so blurred, you can no longer know what's real and what is not." This is a quote by A.B. Shepherd. This can be a direct example of those women accused of being witches in the Salem witch trials. For these women, most of their lives during the year of the trials could have felt a little like this. You are standing in a room when suddenly, an unexplainable feeling over takes you. Every bit of sanity that you have is lost as the feeling of bugs crawling in your skin overtakes you. There is no way to remove this unbearable senstion. "What is that smell?" you think. Suddenly the smell becomes a wretched taste in your mouth. Each second, the awful feeling is heightened as
you hear strange things seemingly being whispered into your ear in different voices. Now, you are seeing creepy things crawling on you. How can you make it stop? You wish more than anything that this immense discomfort would come to an end. In the Salem witch trials, many people went through hallucinations such as this. The Salem witch trials were terrible times in our history. You may not be quite sure as to what these witch trials were, so we will proceed to discuss this sinister era. To explain this time, we will go to 1692 when this all began. This occured roughly 70 years after the first successful colony was founded in America. (Mark Canada) Salem was a colony of Puritains who were very dedicated to their faith as most Puritans were. That being the case, they did not accept change in others very well. Consequently, when women began to speak of being possessed by the devil, people began thinking these women were partaking in witchcraft. To the Puritans, this was alarming, for they feared the devil greatly. This was just because of all the things that they had heard of and seen from others. They were frightened and did not have much explanation as to why these women were doing this. As time went by, there was nothing else the people could think of but to persecute those having these strange visions, and spasms. They began to hang these so called witches, and to also put them in jail. According to History Channel's Thaddeus Russell, there were twenty-four women hanged. As you can see this was a very strange time. So, what caused all of these strange occurances? It is hard exactly to say, but there are many theories that ring with veracity. Many facts point out that this was all heightened due to the taxing times at which these people were living. There was also much to the Puritans religion. They required you to live to such a high level, thus causing people to go through the state in which these "witches" were put in. One other thing that could have greatly contributed to the women going through these things was something in their food. This may sound strange, but after it is explained to you, it may change your whole outlook on this situation. First of all, these people were going through a strenuous time.
Imagine how it would feel to have just made a new colony, after going through so many other things previously. It would be like taking on an on weighty project at work after your house has just burnt down. The Puritans who built this colony had previously gone through a malicious war, an epidemic of smallpox, and were facing attacks from Native American Tribes. And on top of all of that, there were now women claiming to have been possessed by the devil. Basically, they had gone through a rough couple of years, and they were at their ends wits. Could these happenening possibly have been due to so much stress? As we all know, women get pretty up tight when going through so many situations. In our day, many people go through hallucinations. The things that these women went through can be compared with hallucinations had by many daily. A thirty year old woman named Jennifer reported just this last year of how she would hear many different voices in her head, and feel a strange sensation of bugs crawling on her skin. There are thousands of reports just like Jennier's of people going through such strange things. So, maybe that is just what these people were going through during the Salem witch trials, but they just didn't have a way of explaining, causing them to assume that it was of the
devil. To follow this up, Puritans lived a very strict life. There were so many things that they could and could not do, and they had so many beliefs. One belief that can directly show my point is the fact of how fearful these people were of the devil. To tell the truth, some could have been considered paranoid of this dreadful spirit. Honestly, I think it could explain why they stuck so strongly to their religion. They feared so much this devil that they would do anything to stay away from him. Anyhow, the people of Salem's fear of the devil could have caused them to believe that these fits where sent from him. It would be easy to believe since they were not as educated on things as we are now. There are now explanations as to why people hallucinate as they do. This leads me into the next point. During the witch trials, they did not have much food to chose from. One particular crop they grew was ergot. It was used to make bread. As found by Miss Cellania, this crop could infected with a fungus. When it had this fungus and was eaten, it could cause convulsions, delusions, creepy-crawly sensations of the skin, vomiting, and hallucinations. All of these symptoms were felt by the people accused of witchcraft. Further, the area in which this crop was thought to have gotten the fungus was were about the entire percentage of "witches" were living. Interesting, isn't it? Now that you have seen all of these things about the Salem witch trials, what do you think? Where these women really possessed by the devil, or is there a more reasonable explanation. With all of the things that these people had gone through, they could easily have snapped. With the theory of ergot fungus in mind, you can see how this may have been caused by that along with all of the stress that these people were faced with. As you have read this article, you can see that there is much more to this situation than some crazy people who have been overtaken by the devil. There are so many reasonable explantions. The people were going through such hard times. They had a religion that feared the devil, and with these hallucinations, how else could they have explained it at that time? This occurance in which people turned on their own can easily happen again if we are uneducated on situations. It is hard to judge when something like this could happen, but there is no doubt that it will with the way humans are.