Introduction

 In American history, there are few periods of time that were as horrifying and intriguing as the time of the Salem Witch Hunts.  This was a time when people could be accused, imprisoned, tried, and executed with little or no evidence as to their guilt (to the crime of witch craft) or their innocence.  There are several reasons for the Salem Witch Hunts including the historical aspects (which will be discussed first in this work), and the theoretical aspects (such as environment, psychological, etc) that will be discussed later in this work.
 
Historical Aspects of the Salem Witch Hunts

 The origins of the Salem Witch Hunts come from a game that two young girls devised one day.  This game involved a glass and dropping an egg into it.  Next, the two young girls stared into the glass to see what shapes were made.  This was a crystal ball of sorts and the girls were looking to see who they would marry and from what trade their future husbands would be in.  Something went terribly wrong while playing this game, and one of the girls saw an image of a coffin in the glass.  The two girls that are being discussed are Elizabeth Parris, who was the daughter of Rev. Samuel Parris (the minister of Salem Mass), and Abigail Williams who was Rev Parris’ niece.  The year was 1692.

  On a cold January morning, with the dim light of a warm wood fire keeping at bay the stark whiteness of the snow and the freezing temperatures outside their window, two bored young girls devised a game. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece of Rev. Samuel Parris, pastor of Salem Village, bent their heads over a glass in which they had just dropped the white of an egg. As they peered at their homemade crystal ball they tried to discern the shapes made by the dripping egg. . .  (Anonymous, Online)

 These two young ladies in playing this game, had broken a law of Salem, Ma, and also committed a sin in their faith.  The girls were Puritans, and Salem was a Puritan town.  According to the religion of the Puritans, the practicing of the occult arts is forbidden, and it is a major sin (in the ranks of murder).  Since Salem was a Puritan town, with laws based upon the Puritan faith, it was illegal to practice the occult.  To the Puritans, to practice the occult (black magic and witch craft for example) was to invite the Devil/ Satan into one’s life because they associated these ancient arts with the Devil and evil.
 Soon after playing this game, both Elizabeth and Abigail started to experience what were to be called at the time fits.  The girls would loose body control, claim to go blind and deaf, etc.  It was seen that these young women were under some evil spell.  This game was the event that started the mass hysteria that would follow.  As said, both Elizabeth and Abigail were suffering from supposed fits.  The next person to come into the picture was a West Indian slave named Tituba.  If the starting point of this story is the game played by Elizabeth and Abigail, then the introduction of Tituba brought a catalyst to the story.  The two girls had said that Tituba had taught them some witch craft, and when she was questioned, Tituba made it a point to plead that she was indeed a witch.  For it was Tituba who made concrete the evidence that witch craft was being practiced in the town of Salem.

  It was 300 years ago this year that a panic seized Salem, Mass.  A group of young girls and a West Indian slave named Tituba began acting strangely. They would shake uncontrollably and fits ravaged them.  They began a hysteria that had neighbor pointing at neighbor, God-fearing people incarcerated, and terror ripping through that small New England town.  Before it was all over, 19 people were hanged and one man was pressed to death for the crime of witchcraft. Two dogs were hanged for giving young girls the "evil eye." (Schensul , t01)

One might ask why Tituba had pleaded guilty to the charge of practicing witch-craft.  The answer to that is quite simple; if one pleaded guilty (meaning he or she was a witch), then the Puritans would let that person go because he or she would have the power to inflict revenge upon the townspeople had they executed the said witch.  “The trouble began in late January, 1692. By February, the minister' s Caribbean servant, Tituba, had saved herself from prison by giving an imaginative account of her own witchcraft. (One of the cruelest ironies of the witch trials was that those who confessed went free)” (Seymour, 6).  When Tituba claimed to be a witch, not only did she name herself as a witch, but she also indicated that there were others in Salem like her.  First, after having a confession beat out of her, Tituba claimed that she was taught the ancient arts by her original Mistress in Barbados (Haney, 26).  Not only did Tituba make reference to others like her in Salem, but she named two of them.

  When Tituba was asked if she was a witch, she said, " I am! I go to witch meetings riding upon a stick, with Sarah Good and  (Sarah) Osborne behind me. We ride taking hold of one another." The crowded courtroom was stunned at the confession. (Gormley, 22).

 The above events were all the starting of the Salem Witch hunts.  With Tituba and Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne at trial, one would think the Witch hunts would have ended there, but such is not the case.  In fact, this trial was would not be the last witch trial for Salem during this time period.  Good and Osborne had maintained their innocence throughout the trial.
 Moving right along, other trials would follow.  On March 12th, 1692, Martha Corey is accused of being a witch.  A few days later on March 19th, Rebecca Nurse is named a witch.  Then, on March 28th, Elizabeth Proctor is also named a witch.  The coming of April 3rd saw Rebecca Nurse’ sister, Sarah Cloyce accused of witch-craft.  On July 19th, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe were hung at Gallows Hill in Salem.  All in all there were 19 people hung for practicing witch-craft in Salem.  Another person, a man, was killed during an interrogation.  This man refused to confess, so the powers that were dragged him to the town square and kept piling rocks on him hoping that he would break and confess; this did not happen, and he died after two (2) days.
 Although Tituba had named two (2) other women as being part of a coven of witches in Salem, we can see from the above paragraph that several other people were executed (a total of 20).  This is because some of the other girls in Salem saw the attention that Elizabeth and Abigail were getting, and they wanted attention also.  There were four (4) girls total that stated made accusations against others in the community of witch craft.  One (1) of this group of four girls was Ann Putnum; several years later, Ann Putnum confessed that she was wrong in her accusations.  Ann Putnum and the other girls stated that they were afflicted by a witch, and could see the spectral images of the witches.
 Besides the accusations made by all of the girls, another influencing factor in the witch hunts was the Rev. Parris himself.  He was the first to make broad claims that the devil’s followers were among the villagers at Salem.  It was him who said that the strange fits that his niece and daughter were going through were because there was a specter among them.  This was because a medical doctor could not diagnose what was wrong with the girls.  So, not only are the girls to blame for the witch hunts, but also Rev Parris is to blame.

Theoretical Aspects

 One of the causes of the Salem Witch Hunts could have been the actual environment in which the Puritans at Salem lived in.  First and foremost, Salem was a new town in a new land.  The settlers in Salem were new to the continent, and life was hard.  Salem was a town in the woods.  People at the time were superstitious.  Another force in the environment that helped contribute to the hysteria was the fear of Indian attack.  The Native American Indians themselves were pagans, and the villagers of Salem believed them to be practitioners of the Devil’s religion. In fact, in 1675, during a war with the Indians, one  (1) out of every ten (10) of the villagers in Salem was killed by an Indian (Haney, 26).  Many of the people living in Salem believed that the woods around them were also under the minion of evil.  The woods were a frightening place.
 Another factor that definitely influenced the witch hunts in Salem was cultural.  Salem was composed of people of European decent, and with this, came the customs and beliefs of people from Europe.  Witches and witch hunts are a part of the culture from which the settlers of Salem came from.  In Europe, there was a strong belief in witches, and the evil that they caused.  It has been noted that several hundred years before the Salem Witch Hunt began, the Roman Catholic church had stated that witches were evil and that they should be dealt with.  Also, many other Christian sects believed in similar treatments of suspected witches as the Roman Catholic church.  The belief is that witches should not reside in heaven or on earth, and that when there is a witch in a town, then that town suffers because of that witch.  Witches were part of the popular culture of the time.

  In the seventeenth century, a belief in witches and witchcraft was almost universal. The Church of Rome, more than three hundred years ago, sanctioned punishments for the exercise of witchcraft and after that, thousands of suspected persons were burned alive, drowned or hanged. During the sixteenth century, more than one hundred thousand accused and convicted persons perished in the flames, in Germany alone. In England, enlightened men embraced the belief. The eminent Sir Matthew Hale, who flourished during the civil war, the commonwealth and the period of the restoration of monarchy, repeatedly sentenced persons to death accused of witchcraft. The Puritans brought the belief with them to America. They established laws for the punishment of witches and before 1648, four persons had suffered death for the alleged offense, in the vicinity of Boston. The ministers of the gospel there were shadowed by the delusion; and, because of their powerful social influence, they did more to foster the wild excitement and produce the distressing results of what is known in history as "Salem Witchcraft," than all others. (Lossing, Electronic Version)

 There are several psychological factors that could have contributed to the general mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Hunts.  One interesting factor could have been the use of ergot which is a substance in rye.  The Puritans made bread with rye, and ergot may have been the culprit in causing lots of the strange behavior exhibited by the witnesses and the accusers.  Ergot is a unique substance in that it can cause one to experience symptoms that are similar to the symptoms one experiences while on LSD.  Therefore, it could be possible that ergot was one of the influencing factors in causing the Salem Witch Hunts (Gormley,22).  As we all know, the use of LSD influences the brain, so, it is not too far a stretch that ergot would do the same.
 Another psychological factor that may have contributed to the witch hunts was general distrust and suspicion.  In the time leading up to the witch hunts, Salem was splitting into two distinct areas.  One (1) area of Salem was composed of the farmers and original setters to the town.  These people tended to be of lower status than the people who lived in the other side of Salem, who were newcomers, merchants, and people who were more prosperous.  These two groups did not like each other in general.  The merchants were capitalistic, and this was frowned upon by the other Puritans who wanted to create a society of purity and Christian rule.  This distrust is one of the contributing factors to the witch hunt.

  A number of historians have linked the witch trials to the painful changes that Puritan society was experiencing at the time. Torn between the communal asceticism of their original goals and the commercial individualism fast overtaking them, some Puritans, the historians argue, responded with guilt and fear, seeking scapegoats on whom they could blame their sense of moral loss. (Anonymous 2, Electronic Version)

 Yet another psychological aspect that could have been a cause of the Salem Witch Hunts is the motives of greed and jealousy.  This is to say that the accusers had something to gain by accusing people of being witches.  One thing that could have been gained would be attention.  The four girls, including Miss Putnum could have craved the attention that Elizabeth and Abigail got from their testimonies.  Another part of this could also be that these women for the most part had all lost parents.  This is to say that they were jealous of others who had one or both of their parents.
 Political unrest, a lack of stability, and also the social system of Salem contributed towards the witch hunts.  That is to say there was political unrest in Salem.  On one side there were the deeply religious.  On the other hand, there were the more progressive people in the town who were not as religious.  Also, Salem was not a stable place in terms of the political views of its residents.  As said, there were two factions in Salem, and each wanted power.  The religious side attracted the farmers.  Also, the witch trials created an elite class, and this elite class wanted to stay elite. One way to do so would be to keep the accusations flying, which would pit neighbor against neighbor.  Finally, the social system as a whole promoted the witch hunts.  The people in Salem had laws that were incredibly stringent.  For example, if a child were to curse at his or her parents, then that child could be executed under the law.  This was a land of serious repression and this repression brought out the worst in the residents of this community.
 Finally, another contributing factor that fueled the witch hunts in Salem was the drama of it all.  This was an exciting time for the residents in Salem.  Normally, life would not be as entertaining, but with the witch trials came spectacle.  The hangings of the alleged witches were held publicly, and the accused were taunted as they were led up the hill to the gallows.
 The events of 1692 in Salem, Ma were some of the most interesting in American History.  There were many reasons why the witch trials took place.  The environment, psychological aspects, and other factors also influenced the witch hunts.
 

Anonymous, “A Village Possessed,” Discovery Channel (Online), <http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/witches/witches.html> (20 April 2000).

Anonymous2;  “Salem witch trials,”  The Reader's Companion to American History, 01-01-1991. (Electronic Version)

Gormley, Myra Vanderpool” “The Salem Witch Trials,”  Vol. 23, Colonial Homes, 11-01-1997, pp 22(1).

Haney, Joseph;  “Salem: Bewitching study of hysteria  overwhelming justice,” The Washington Times, 12-25-1995, pp 26.

Lossing, Benson J., LL.D; Our Country: Volume 2: “Chapter XXXII. , U.S. History, 09-01-1990. (Electronic Version)

Schensul, Jill; “New England's Old Witches, Old Riches,” The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 08-30-1992, pp t01.

Seymour, Miranda ; “The Devil at work in the dark woods,”  Independent, 08-03-1996, pp 6.