According to several sources, "The Salem Witch Trials" can be described as a series of local court hearings followed by county court hearings that attempted to persecute peoples, of which were most women, for witchcraft. Based on the following information and other facts that I have read, do not believe that witches are real.
The counties that tried to persecute these peoples included Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex, all counties of Massachusetts. Suspicions were rising from June to September of the year 1692 in the state but others had been aroused throughout the country for years prior to the events. After the suspicions took place and people started gossiping, trials began between February and May of that particular year and the year that followed.
The first example was of a girl of age nine, Betty Parris. This girl and her cousin, Abigail, were said to have fits that were described as "beyond the power of epileptical fits".(Douglas Linder) According to mostly family witnesses and the town reverend, the girls were said to have dived under furniture, thrown things about, screamed, and contorted their bodies into odd positions. In addition to the odd behaviors, the girls claimed to have been pricked with pins. After being examined by the town doctor, the girls had no evidence of this. (Douglas Linder)
Just days later, young girls in the area claimed to have similar occurrences. As a result, the first three women in the area were arrested after being accused of afflicting four towns’ children. One of the arrested women was known for begging around town for money and food. Another was married to her servant, which was frowned upon, and rarely attended church meetings or gatherings. The third woman was a Puritan servant and was an obvious accusation of being a witch.
After the previous accusations and arrests, several followed not long after. Some were simply arrested without being further looked into for simply questioning the fairness of the previous women that were interrogated and arrested. The charges put up against some of the women in the Salem area greatly distressed others in the town because of the accused previous backgrounds. Based on their backgrounds, the town’s people soon learned that being a very involved member of the church had nothing to do with ability to being a witch or protection from being accused (Douglas Linder).
The accused peoples in The Salem Witch Trials were done so for a reason. Supposedly, the women and few men that were accused were done so because of certain actions or symptoms. These symptoms include stress, guilt, child abuse, epilepsy, delusional psychosis, asthma, or even boredom. Most of the listed symptoms obviously can not be helped. Paranoid families in the area, after hearing of these few listed, tried as hard as they could to always be the opposite. For example, the stressed always had on a fake smile because they were so fearful that they would be accused of being a witch. Also, the not-so-occupied peoples of the town were always making themselves appear occupied and as if they were enjoying themselves so they would not be accused of being bored (Douglas Linder).
Another factor that many considered a link to witch craft was the war in 1692. Because of the war, some groups or individuals believed that with so much turmoil and hate going on, that the devil was very near and that the world may be coming to an end. People worried that with all of the sudden and violent deaths occurring, that witches may have added to a certain amount of affects that dealt with the war.
In months following the accusations of Betty Parris and her cousin, three girls, Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began similar unusual behavior. The same town doctor, William Griggs, suggested that the girls had ‘supernatural origin(Douglas Linder)’ The three girls, children that were not quite into their teen years, made the idea of witches target children even more life like.
Related to the events, a popular town gentleman, Peter Hoffer, had been observing the girls. Hoffer, who was very familiar with the town and the people in it, had said that several of the accused girls had turned from ‘a circle of friends to a group of juvenile Delinquents (Douglas Linder)’ Also, he had witnessed to hearing the girls complain of biting and itching sensations all over their bodies. The problems with the girls such as these became an obsession around the town and the surrounding areas.
With the obsession going on, the family of a so called witch started to report witches flying through the air and ground attacks. The young aged girls had testified to being attacked by three women. One of the three accused women said that she was approached by satan and after their encounter, she became a witch.
Eventually, some of the women in the area that were accused became so sick of the topic that they began confessing to being witches. After the first several women began confessing, there were larger amounts of women that continued to confess that the court officials never thought it would end. Because of this, they built The Court of Oyer and The Court of Terminer which were jails especially for witch trials. With no idea what else to do, court officials began interrogating and trying the women one by one. Simple things such as moles were considered witch marks and even caused the tried their lives. No matter what the accused said or testified to, the officials most times had their minds already made up and the women and few men were put to death or jailed regardless.
Hundreds of decades later after The Salem Witch Trials took place, a college student, Linnda Caporael, began studying The Salem Witch Trials, and discovered that some of the described behaviors of several accused "witches" resembled symptoms of a disease called Convulsive Ergotism. Caporael, who later became a behavioral psychologist, noticed that the symptoms that may have caused the accused of their lives were linked to the hallucinogens in drugs such as LSD. Ergotism, an infection of ergot which affects rye and grain, is linked to LSD in the fact that LSD is a derivative of ergot. Ergotism infects a person when the person eats foods that contain wheat or rye that is infected with ergot. Now discovered, specialists know that eating ergot can result in hallucinations, spasms, crawling sensations on the skin, etc., which would explain the first women that were accused of being witches.
Although, even if the Convulsive Ergotism disease does explain some of the events, people still question what was really true or false in The Salem Witch Trials. Some other factors that may have led to accusations include politics. For example, if one were to believe something completely and utterly different than most other people in the community, they might have been accused as a witch. Family feuds, economics, fears of people, and religion also may have played a role in the suspicions of witchery.
No matter how much information has been gathered over the years, I still do not agree that witches are real. Even though as stated above, some evidence that may have been proven wrong by a certain disease still does not change the fact that approximately one hundred-fifty individuals were accused, tried, and imprisoned. Of these one hundred-fifty, fourteen women and five men were hanged. Information has continued to be gathered and probably will continue for decades to come, but we will probably never know exactly who was guilty, if anyone. As for me and my beliefs, I do not believe or will ever believe that witches are real.