This has been studies pretty thoroughly, but often opinion enters the interpretation. I would love to hear yours.
2007-06-18 03:25:58 · 7 answers · asked by An S 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I don't have access to books or readers at the moment. If I was in school again, I might, but I'm not. So, all I have at the moment is just the internet.
2007-06-18 03:35:09 · update #1
I think the girls just got caught up in the excitement. I think they knew they were lying. But, if you lie to yourself enough, you can actually convince yoruself that it is not a lie. That might have happened. I think they just made it all up. Puritan young, unmarried girls were the bottom rung of the social ladder, and I think they just discovered that with the accusations, they had power and attention. I think they liked that and milked it for all it was worth.
The other very plausable theory relates to ergotism poisoning. Apparently, when the weather is just right (or wrong) Rye (which the puritains raised and ate) can develop this mold that is a kind of cousin to LSD. Apparently, it can "poison" you, giving you VERY similar symptoms to what the girls in Salem in 1692 exhibited. I think it is fairly possible, but less likely than my first explanation.
If you can find it at your local Blockbuster, "The Crucible" with Wynona Ryder is a GREAT movie about the Salem witch hunts. Has alot of factual names and info in it. The part about a "romance" between Abigail Williams and John Proctor is blatant fiction, but alot of the rest of it is pretty factual. Anyway, it is a GREAT movie, and gives you an idea of what was going on, what the witchhunts were like.
2007-06-18 03:50:33 · answer #1 · answered by Shelly P. Tofu, E.M.T. 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's a pattern you see all over the world and all trough history. Physically or intellectually isolated agrarian communities faced with external crises (in Salem's case a dispute over a new minister, a Native-American attack on York, Maine, and a population increase which led to land disputes) always turn on "outsiders", or the weakest members of society : Jews, gypsies, disabled people, homosexuals, anarchists, "communists", or in Salem women and girls. They need a scapegoat, and if you have willing or cowardly magistrates, it will lead to a witch hunt, until a magistrate or a religious or political leader has the courage to put his/her foot down.
2007-06-18 05:05:54 · answer #2 · answered by Erik Van Thienen 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there became a case of a few youthful women who have been performing surprisingly and to excuse their movements they advised all and sundry that they have got been bewitched. So this sparked a witch hunt and distinctive women who have been spoke of as witches have been positioned to particular tests to be certain in the event that they have been witches or not. in the event that they didnt die in the time of the tests they have been burnned on the stake. there is a lot available on the Salem witch trials. do merely a seek and discover what you're searching for.
2016-10-17 21:42:21 · answer #3 · answered by kelcey 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Will they people were on LSD. The LSD got into the wheat by its spores. SO when the women went to make the bread they would be gettting high on the LSD which made them act dillusional. This is why it only affected the women because the men would only eat the bread after it was cooked which would kill the drug. Pretty Simple
2007-06-18 11:35:53 · answer #4 · answered by eggy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Puritans were very narrow-minded and the only laws they believed in were in their own interpretations of the Bible. They caused a mass-hysteria for nothing.
2007-06-18 04:02:46 · answer #5 · answered by staisil 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read the Reader. Cecil talks about what happened to the accusers. It came out last Friday.
2007-06-18 03:30:04 · answer #6 · answered by redunicorn 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Let's see, religeous zealots made assumptions about people based on flawed profiling, and alot of people died because of it. Sound familiar?
2007-06-18 03:36:37 · answer #7 · answered by markmccloud_1 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋