The Salem Witch Trials: Were They Real?

Was the hocus-pocus and abracadabra hysteria real in the America of 1692, or was it just bogus?  And the million dollar question: “What really caused the Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692?” Perhaps it was a clash of gender, marital status and age.  Or maybe it was a parasitic fungus in food.  Or could it have maybe been true?  Could witches have really existed in Salem?

One of the largest evidential pieces in the Salem witch trials was the differences in gender, marital status, and age of the accusers and the accused.  The majority of the accused were married women over the age of 40.  The majority of the accusers were single women at the age of 16 and up. (Doc 5) At that time in America, girls around the age of 16 were looking for husbands.  It is possible that some of these women were unable to find a spouse and resorted to jealous rage.  They were jealous of those women who had husbands, and attempted to turn their husbands on their wives.  Thus making the men single.

Another possible explanation of the trials was a fungus called ergot.  Ergot has 10 percent of the activity of LSD.  Children and pregnant women are most likely to be affected.  Symptoms include crawling sensations, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, hallucinations, mania, melancholia, psychosis, and delirium; all were reported in the trial records.  The weather that year also would explain some things.  In the year of 1691, rains and warm weather would allow a higher growth of fungus, while the drought of 1692 would allow a very minimal growth.  This would explain the sudden end of the trials mid-1962. (Doc N)

But how much did the belief in witches, demons, and the like have to do with the trials?  In the Bible it says“thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (KJV Ex 22:181)” (Doc 1) Taken the wrong way, a person in 1692 could take this to mean anyone thought to be a witch should not live.  In 1689, three years prior to the trials, Cotton Mather, a leading minister in  New England, spoke of witches in his sermon.  He said they were “all around” and that “houses of Christians … have undergone the annoyance of Evil Spirits.” (Doc 3)  Due to his role in New England society, along with the fact that these colonists were puritans, many would have taken his words very literally.  Later, when Governor Phips’ wife was accused, the governor put halt on the trials.  Cotton Mather was reported to have said “It were better that ten suspected witches escape than one innocent person should be condemned.” (BE)

So, although we may never know the true cause of the Salem Witch Trials, we can make some very educated guesses and assumptions from documents about them.  Like the gender and age clashes.  Was just a matter of simple prejudice?  Or was it deeper, like hallucinogen?  Perhaps it was a fungus (ergot) in the colonist’s bread.  But did witches exist?  From the evidence, it looks more like a farce that was ended only due to circumstances that involved those high in social status and power.