How Did Salem Witch Trials Cause Excessive Paranoia
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
“Extraordinary body postures, inexplicable pains, deafness, numbness, and blindness, meaning I was babbling, refusal to eat, destructive and self-destructive behavior…” Witchcraft was common in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts a slave named Tituba was the first “witch” accused. This accusation came about when two younger girls and Tituba, their fathers slave, attempted to see into the future through an egg white. When they looked in the egg white they supposedly saw a coffin and began displaying the symptoms of being possessed, or being overcome by the ‘devil’. When she was accused she confessed she was guilty and also confessed to there being other witches. There are many alleged causes to the Salem Witch Trials such as undiagnosed encephalitis, paranoia, and an unjust class structure because of heightened religious beliefs. Little did she know this would start a mass hysteria of witchcraft and cause excessive paranoia in Salem Massachusetts. …show more content…
Encephalitis is when your brain becomes inflamed because of a infection. More specifically because of bread poisoning. Many scientists think this because the fungus,that is created when bread molds is also in LSD. This claim is most likely the cause of the salem Witch Trials because the crops of grain can easily be affected by a rainy season and stored in improper conditions. But ergot usually only survives on the crop for about a year, and the trials, and those who were convicted, lasted around two centuries. Also encephalitis usually occurs in adults and the first case of witchcraft was of two children. Therefore, it is unlikely that there would have been any other plausible cause of this strange epidemic that swept that small
“Extraordinary body postures, inexplicable pains, deafness, numbness, and blindness, meaning I was babbling, refusal to eat, destructive and self-destructive behavior…” Witchcraft was common in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts a slave named Tituba was the first “witch” accused. This accusation came about when two younger girls and Tituba, their fathers slave, attempted to see into the future through an egg white. When they looked in the egg white they supposedly saw a coffin and began displaying the symptoms of being possessed, or being overcome by the ‘devil’. When she was accused she confessed she was guilty and also confessed to there being other witches. There are many alleged causes to the Salem Witch Trials such as undiagnosed encephalitis, paranoia, and an unjust class structure because of heightened religious beliefs. Little did she know this would start a mass hysteria of witchcraft and cause excessive paranoia in Salem Massachusetts. …show more content…
Encephalitis is when your brain becomes inflamed because of a infection. More specifically because of bread poisoning. Many scientists think this because the fungus,that is created when bread molds is also in LSD. This claim is most likely the cause of the salem Witch Trials because the crops of grain can easily be affected by a rainy season and stored in improper conditions. But ergot usually only survives on the crop for about a year, and the trials, and those who were convicted, lasted around two centuries. Also encephalitis usually occurs in adults and the first case of witchcraft was of two children. Therefore, it is unlikely that there would have been any other plausible cause of this strange epidemic that swept that small