Was the Salem Witch Trials a Mass Hysteria?

Question

Was the Salem Witch Trials a Mass Hysteria? If so, list 3 reasons why with sources. If not, list 3 reasons why not, with sources

Basicly, i just need sources =P u dont have to write an essay.

Answer 1

Could have been tripping puritans:

In 1976 Linnda Caporael offered the first evidence that the Salem witch trials followed an outbreak of rye ergot. Ergot is a fungus blight that forms hallucinogenic drugs in bread. Its victims can appear bewitched when they're actually stoned.

Ergot thrives in a cold winter followed by a wet spring. The victims of ergot might suffer paranoia and hallucinations, twitches and spasms, cardiovascular trouble, and stillborn children. Ergot also seriously weakens the immune system.

Now Mary Matossian tells a story about rye ergot that reaches far beyond Salem. She studies seven centuries of demographics, weather, literature, and crop records from Europe and America.

Down through history, Matossian argues, drops in population have followed diets heavy in rye bread and weather that favors ergot. During the huge depopulation in the early years of the Black Death, right after 1347, conditions were ideal for ergot.

Many symptoms of ergot poisoning and the plague are similar. They probably coexisted. The worst plague damage occurred where ergot suppressed the human immune system and made people vulnerable. Records of plague deaths show huge regional variations. The plague probably followed pockets of rye ergot.

And what about witch hunts? The symptoms of bewitchment are consistent, but the way those symptoms were received was not. Crazy behavior was commonplace in the medieval plague years. The mad "Dance of Death" is a theme shot through medieval iconography. The spasms suffered by ergot victims were called St. Vitus Dance. Do you remember Ingmar Bergman's wonderful movie about the plague, The Seventh Seal? It began and ended with the figure of death leading the doomed in an eerie dance across a hilltop.

Then, in the 1500s and 1600s, the symptoms of ergot were blamed on witches -- all over Europe, and finally in Massachusetts. Witch hunts hardly occurred where people didn't eat rye.

In the 1740s, the so called Age of Rationalism, ergot symptoms became a mark of holy, not demonic, possession. Visions, trances, and spasms were read as religious ecstasy. It was a period of religious revival that historians call the Great Awakening.

Answer 2

I have two good books on the Salem Witch Trials. WERE the Salem Witch Trials an example of mass hysteria? No. There are also several good websites you can visit and find your answers. But if you think I will write your essay for you, then you are wrong.

Witchcraft at Salem, Chadwick Hansen, (P)1969, Signet Books

Answer 3

The ergot theory is a good one, as I once accidently ate a little and felt like I was tripping.

You should remember that the Witch histeria in Salem was nothing compared to what it was in Europe, and that continued up until the 19th century I believe. So in a lot of ways, it was just left over from thier European tradition.

Answer 4

The newest theory being put forth now is the rye can cause hallucinations from the ergot of rye. Makes sense if you read all the facts. God Bless You and Our Southern People.

Answer 5

witch trials were religion mass manipulation... vestiges still are settled in society today

Answer 6

I'd call it that.

No sources, but come on. Everyone was just going around screaming "WITCH!!!" and hanging people left and right.